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Evolution Debate Led to Ouster, Official Says
Associated Press ^ | November 30, 2007 | The Associated Press

Posted on 12/01/2007 12:39:07 PM PST by Alter Kaker

AUSTIN, Tex., Nov. 29 (AP) — The state’s director of science curriculum said she resigned this month under pressure from officials who said she had given the appearance of criticizing the teaching of intelligent design.

The Texas Education Agency put the director, Chris Comer, on 30 days’ paid administrative leave in late October, resulting in what Ms. Comer called a forced resignation.

The move came shortly after she forwarded an e-mail message announcing a presentation by Barbara Forrest, an author of “Creationism’s Trojan Horse.” The book argues that creationist politics are behind the movement to get intelligent design theory taught in public schools. Ms. Comer sent the message to several people and a few online communities.

Ms. Comer, who held her position for nine years, said she believed evolution politics were behind her ousting. “None of the other reasons they gave are, in and of themselves, firing offenses,” she said.

Education agency officials declined to comment Wednesday on the matter. But they explained their recommendation to fire Ms. Comer in documents obtained by The Austin American-Statesman through the Texas Public Information Act.

“Ms. Comer’s e-mail implies endorsement of the speaker and implies that T.E.A. endorses the speaker’s position on a subject on which the agency must remain neutral,” the officials said.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: creationism; evolution; id; scienceeducation
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To: Virginia-American
"No matter how far back you trace vertbrates and our ancestors, you’ll never find a cnidarian." - Virginia-American

If true, that presents an even larger, more insurmountable problem for Evolutionary Theory in that in such a case as you describe Evolution doesn't even have an explanation for how coral's immune functionality made it into humans.

241 posted on 12/04/2007 1:36:45 PM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: js1138
"In order to post his image, southhack had to ignore a link to a real diagram clearly labeled." - js1138

No, that image was just handy. By all means post your own image showing each step that coral's immune system took to get to humans.

242 posted on 12/04/2007 1:38:13 PM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Southack
By all means post your own image showing each step that coral's immune system took to get to humans.

That would be difficult, since neither coral nor modern fish are ancestors of humans.

243 posted on 12/04/2007 1:43:27 PM PST by js1138
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To: Ha Ha Thats Very Logical
"Your diagram in #223 has an obvious flaw which..." - Ha Ha Thats Very Logical

It's not *my* diagram, ergo it's not my flaw...and I'm fine with using any tree of life diagram posted by any reputable Evolutionary Theory organization. So by all means post any such *relevant* (i.e. shows coral, humans, and all meaningful intermediary steps) tree of life diagram.

It’s trying to chart how different forms diverged, but it’s also drawn in such a way as to imply the passage of time." - Ha Ha Thats Very Logical

Oh, heaven forbid! The passage of time! Does time not pass in your world?!

"In doing so, it locates fish only in the past—the flaw is that there’s no place in it for modern fish. If you add a fish up next to the bird to represent today’s fish, you need to also add another line extending from the original fish to today’s fish. And a lot of evolution can happen along that line—including the loss of some aspects of the immune system." - Ha Ha Thats Very Logical

Modern fish. Ancient fish. Doesn't matter.

All Fish qualify. One could *pretend* that ancient Fish have different immune functionality than modern Fish, but there's no evidence for such red herrings.

Furthermore, losing a trait isn't the issue. Heck, even every Fish losing a trait isn't the issue.

The issue is that coral have a trait that humans have, but that trait doesn't appear in intermediary species (like Fish).

That's *not* evolution. That's genetic code skipping.

That's what human programmers do when they borrow an ancient coding subroutine for a next generation piece of software that a previous version didn't have.

Welcome to the world of Information Theory, where Evolution is easily disproved trillions of times per millisecond.

244 posted on 12/04/2007 1:47:42 PM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: js1138
"That would be difficult, since neither coral nor modern fish are ancestors of humans." - js1138

That's too bad for Evolutionary Theory, then. See post #241.

245 posted on 12/04/2007 1:49:47 PM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Southack

Let’s have a freeper show of hands. How many of you lurkers out there agree with southhack that modern fish are ancestors of humans?

How about modern corals?


246 posted on 12/04/2007 1:50:42 PM PST by js1138
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To: js1138

See post #245.


247 posted on 12/04/2007 1:52:14 PM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Southack

You know, the site has been pretty boring since we had someone willing to argue to the death that a circle is not an ellipse, or that 1^720 is a really big number. And geocentrists are boring right from the git-go.

But you have really cheered me up by arguing that modern fish are ancestors to humans.


248 posted on 12/04/2007 2:17:40 PM PST by js1138
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To: Southack
Oh, heaven forbid! The passage of time! Does time not pass in your world?!

What a dumb thing to say! The point isn't that there's anything wrong with showing the passage of time. The point is that the diagram is trying to do two things at once and as a result has misrepresented one of them.

One could *pretend* that ancient Fish have different immune functionality than modern Fish, but there's no evidence for such red herrings.

You're relying on the assumption that the immune functionality didn't change--that's the only way "Modern fish. Ancient fish. Doesn't matter." could make sense. It's up to you to demonstrate that it didn't change, since you're the one basing your argument on that being the case.

Nice fish pun, though.
249 posted on 12/04/2007 2:18:19 PM PST by Ha Ha Thats Very Logical
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To: Alter Kaker
The book argues that creationist politics are behind the movement to get intelligent design theory taught in public schools.

Could be. It could also be that politics is behind the efforts of those who insist that only evolution should be taught in schools.

250 posted on 12/04/2007 2:19:56 PM PST by MEGoody (Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.)
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To: Southack

Don’t know where you got your “tree” but it’s out of dat and just plain wrong in its implications.


251 posted on 12/04/2007 2:39:35 PM PST by From many - one.
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To: Southack

I gave you a link that seemingly you didn’t have time to read, but which have clarified the mistake you are making.

Somehow you’ve had time to continuye digging the hole you are already in, though.


252 posted on 12/04/2007 2:45:48 PM PST by From many - one.
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To: js1138

:-)
In many of my classes, when discussing evolution I ask “What is the most highly evolved species you can think of?”

Sometimes, with a more challenging group, I’ll add “aside from humans”
in order to mislead them (it’s friendly and they laugh)

The discussions that follow are great.


253 posted on 12/04/2007 2:49:40 PM PST by From many - one.
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To: From many - one.

see post #241


254 posted on 12/04/2007 2:54:36 PM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Ha Ha Thats Very Logical

It cod be worse, though. Some really strange arguments come down the pike on occasion. Whaling away at them can be tiring.


255 posted on 12/04/2007 2:55:43 PM PST by From many - one.
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To: Southack

I saw it.

Unfortunately, it’s irrelevant.

Have you read my link yet?


256 posted on 12/04/2007 2:58:54 PM PST by From many - one.
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To: Ha Ha Thats Very Logical
"You're relying on the assumption that the immune functionality didn't change--that's the only way "Modern fish. Ancient fish. Doesn't matter." could make sense. It's up to you to demonstrate that it didn't change, since you're the one basing your argument on that being the case." - Ha Ha Thats Very Logical

Nope. I'm basing my argument on the evidence in hand.

Which is to say, there is no evidence in hand that supports an Evolutionary path for coral immune traits to make it to humans.

Thus, evolution is not supported by scientific evidence. We've got DNA code skipping going on, not evolution.

The evidence on hand supports code skipping (which implies Intelligence), after all.

257 posted on 12/04/2007 3:00:28 PM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: From many - one.
It cod be worse, though. Some really strange arguments come down the pike on occasion. Whaling away at them can be tiring.

Hooked on those puns, eh? That can get reel tiring after a while. But you're not gonna lure me into this mess!

258 posted on 12/04/2007 3:00:59 PM PST by Coyoteman (Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.)
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To: From many - one.
"Unfortunately, it’s irrelevant." - From many - one.

Sad. You must not have understood it (insert clearly contrary pleas and cries of "yes I did" here).

259 posted on 12/04/2007 3:02:47 PM PST by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Coyoteman

I was perching on the shore when anemone of mine showed up but I was backed up by my friend Ab.

You never want to catch abalone, eel shock you silly.


260 posted on 12/04/2007 3:16:34 PM PST by From many - one.
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