Posted on 02/15/2006 12:53:18 AM PST by jennyp
COLUMBUS - The Ohio school board voted Tuesday to eliminate a passage in the state's science standards that critics said opened the door to the teaching of intelligent design.
The Ohio Board of Education decided 11-4 to delete material encouraging students to seek evidence for and against evolution.
The 2002 science standards say students should be able to ``describe how scientists continue to investigate and critically analyze aspects of evolutionary theory.'' It includes a disclaimer that the standards do not require the teaching of intelligent design.
The vote is the latest setback for the intelligent design movement, which holds that life is so complex, it must have been created by a higher authority.
In December, a federal judge barred the school system in Dover, Pa., from teaching intelligent design alongside evolution in high school biology classes. The judge said that intelligent design is religion masquerading as science and that teaching it alongside evolution violates the separation of church and state.
On Tuesday, the Ohio Board of Education directed a committee to study whether a replacement lesson is needed for the deleted material.
The vote was a reversal of a 9-8 decision a month ago to keep the lesson plan. But three board members who voted in January to keep the plan were absent Tuesday. Supporters of the plan pledged to force a new vote to return the material soon.
``We'll do this forever, I guess,'' said board member Michael Cochran, a Columbus lawyer and supporter of the lesson plan.
Board member Martha Wise, who pushed to eliminate the material, said the board took the correct action to avoid problems, including a possible lawsuit.
``It is deeply unfair to the children of this state to mislead them about science,'' said Wise, an elected board member representing northern Ohio.
In approving Wise's motion, the board rejected a competing plan to request a legal opinion from the attorney general on the constitutionality of the science standards.
The state's science lesson plan, approved in 2004, is optional for schools to use in teaching the state's science standards, which are the basis for Ohio's graduation test. Although schools are not required to teach the standards, districts that do not follow the standards put students at risk of not passing that part of the Ohio graduation test.
The Pennsylvania court decision against teaching intelligent design does not apply in Ohio, but critics of state standards say it invites a similar challenge.
Wise said other events since the ruling made removing the standards even more important. Earlier this month, for example, Gov. Bob Taft recommended a legal review of the standards.
In addition, members of a committee that advised state education officials on Ohio's science curriculum said the standards improperly single out the theory of evolution and could lead to the teaching of religion.
Board member Deborah Owens Fink, who voted against eliminating the lesson plan, said it is unfair to deny students the chance to use logic to question a scientific theory. She said scientists who oppose the material are worried that their views won't be supported.
``We respect diversity of opinion in every other arena,'' said Owens Fink, an elected board member from Akron.
These groups aren't the only people opposed to ID. Pretending like they are, or at least that by association all others on that side of the argument are just like them, is nothing more than an ad hominem attack on the character of your opponents. You are really just making insinuations about the people on this board that support evolution and telling us that we're against ID just because we're scared.
I think that kind of desperate tactic comes from knowing deep down how naked and at risk your lame, failed ideas are.
Congratulations. Glad they turned out well for you.
There is no question that there are crazies out there who use the idea of home-schooling to abuse their kids in various ways, from poor education to hidden physical abuse. Home schooling advocates need to address that.
I've encountered quite a few of these. The parents are often in an offshoot religion or cult...with survivalist, apocalyptic, and government conspiracies thrown into the mix. Anyone who doesn't buy into their particular beliefs is in league with the devil.
"Then why shouldn't we follow the Iranians' lead & teach the controversy surrounding the Holocaust in high school history classes? A small but growing number of historians (with real PhD's, even!) are skeptical of the mainstream view. You wouldn't want to restrict free thought, would you?"
Very nice reply, jenny. But doing the above will get you thrown in jail!
I contunually hear how more and more Africans want share their millions with me
"If they want to send their children to a school that teaches that they are related to rats and skunks, fine."
Agreed, but is that worse than being taught that we were made from dirt and that women were merely created for male companionship?
LOL. Check out
Quatloos! Brad Christensen Exhibit
Over the years, Brad Christensen has been deluged with every type of "URGENT" offer imaginable from Nigerian scam artists. Finally, he decided to fight back by conning the con men. With humor and imagination as his weapons, Christensen preyed on the scammers' abundant supply of greed and ignorance, taking our 419 friends for quite a ride, and always at their own expense. What follows are some of Christensen's more creative exchanges
The issue of forced attendance at government schools affects all topics and, thus, does not distinguish ID from others. The issue of ID not being taught in science class is about excluding a concept fraudulently posing as science. Otherwise, ID can be discussed and even taught in the proper forum such as philosophy or comparative religion courses.
Holy War and all that.
Wasn't intending to brag, just to counter the idea that home-schooling produces mostly ignorant misfits.
I have read somewhere that Harvard, at leat, among the Ivies, looks favorably on home-schooled applicants.
I'll try to find a link, but work needs are calling, not sure when it'll happen.
The Mission and Faith of Christopher Columbus
It was early in the morning on this day in 1492 that Columbus stepped from his command post on the Santa Maria into a tiny boat. A few yards from the shore, he plunged into the shallow water and went ashore on a tiny island of the Bahamian archipelago and wept tears of joy. He lifted his head toward Heaven and cried out in thanksgiving to God in the words of the traditional dawn-watch canticle: "Blessed be the light of day, and the Holy Cross we say; and the Lord of Verity, and the Holy Trinity. Blessed be the light of day, and He who sends the dark away."
Columbus was one of the greatest seamen in the history of the world. Any competent sailor could have reached America by sailing west long enough, but it's unlikely that any others could have found their way back to Spain or could have returned to the same island on later voyages.
Columbus had great moral and physical courage. Again and again he faced mutinous sailors, armed rebels, frightful storms, and fighting Indians.
Christopher Columbus had a mystic belief that God intended him to sail the Atlantic Ocean in order to spread Christianity. He said his prayers several times daily. Columbus wrote what he called a Book of Prophecies, which is a compilation of passages Columbus selected from the Bible which he believed were pertinent to his mission of discovery. What a person believes is what determines his interpretation of life and history and inspires his vision and purpose in life. Columbus's own writings prove that he believed that God revealed His plan for the world in the Bible, the infallible Word of God. Columbus believed that he was obeying the mission God staked out for his life when he set sail west across the Atlantic Ocean.
Columbus's voyage to America ranks among history's most important events. It led to lasting contacts between Europe and America, and it opened new windows. To few men in modern history does the world as we know it owe so great a debt as to Christopher Columbus.
The Myth about Christopher Columbus
One of the famous lines written by the songwriter Ira Gershwin is "They all laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the world was round." You can call that poetic license for a musical comedy, but it's important to know that that line is a lie, and it's unfortunate that it appears in many school textbooks. Christopher Columbus and his contemporaries knew very well that the earth was round. Medieval science had been built on the precise studies of Greek scholars, and every educated person of Columbus's time knew that the earth is round. Not only had the ancient Greeks discovered that the earth is round, but the philosopher Eratostenes accurately calculated the earth's circumference in the third century before Christ. Medieval scholars debated such details as the earth's size and how big are the oceans, but no serious scholar believed the earth to be flat. The great medieval religious scholars, such as the Venerable Bede, Roger Bacon and Thomas Aquinas, added to the Greeks' knowledge with their own calculations.
The myth that people of the 15th century believed that the earth was flat was popularized by 19th century atheists in order to use science in their war against religion. What better way to discredit religion than to attribute an obviously false idea to religious people! This myth can be traced directly to two very influential 19th century books: History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science by John William Draper (a physician) published in 1874 and History of the Warfare of Science With Theology in Christendom by Andrew Dickson White (the first president of Cornell University) published in 1896. Both men used the flat-earth myth to help spread their arguments against religion. These books started the false and dangerous ideology that there is a war between science and religion, and that science is the only source of truth. The flat-earth myth did not appear in schoolbooks before 1870, but nearly all textbooks included it after 1880.
The attempt to make Columbus into a hero of the battle between science and religion is particularly ridiculous. Columbus was a deeply committed Christian whose own writings prove that his desire to carry the message of Jesus Christ to faraway lands was the primary motivation of his historic voyage to the New World.
Taken from the Eagle Forum
http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/columbus/columbus.shtml
Onward Christian Jihadist
Marching as to war....
Just wait until they meet the Islamo Jihadists. Oh well.
Islam dictates creationism and forbids the teaching of evolution.
The point is not what can be legally said, but what should be taught in science class. If creationists want their beliefs subjected to the kind of scrutiny employed by science, then bring it on.
The evolutionists on FR are rather polite and well mannered compared to the way scientists treat each other.
Uhhh, sure Beavis.
More simply.
The Christian Jihadists are trying to kill Science - something they will never be able to do since one cannot kill reality. The Islamo Jihadists are trying to kill people who do not believe as they do. They have proven to be quite good at it.
But the Creationists will be happy as Muslims. All they have to do is change God or Jesus or Jehovah to Allah and the rest is no problem.
It was Aristotle who provided the reasoning. SHAPE & SIZE OF THE EARTH.
No, you're a total moron. I've sent two kids through public schools, and the third in high school. The oldest in now in a Ph.D. program in the hard sciences at an Ivy League U.
But I'd like to mention another clue to the non-flat nature of the earth that came up recently -- polarization of light under the blue sky. It changes based on latitude and may have been used by the Vikings for long distance navigation. See The Viking Sunstone
I'd also propose a simple metric to gauge how much folk carried one way or the other about the flatness or non-flatness of the earth. That is the sum of the angles in degrees of a equisided triangle that fits just outside of the circle whose radius is the longest distance one might travel in a day. Or maybe that sum over 180. What do you thnk?
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