Posted on 10/07/2002 12:44:39 PM PDT by wallcrawlr
A suburban school board declares that evolution is just another theory
NEWT GINGRICH, while he was a Georgia congressman and then as speaker of the House, was known for his interest in scientific research. Some Georgians prefer a different approach. On September 26th the school board of Cobb County, in the north-western Atlanta suburbs, voted to amend existing policy to allow discussion of “disputed views of academic subjects”, specifically the idea that God created the universe in six days—Charles Darwin, Stephen Jay Gould and the rest of them be damned.
The vote came after a month of deliberation, at a meeting crowded with concerned parents. Some 2,000 of the county's residents signed a petition last spring to have the board put stickers on biology textbooks telling students that evolution is a theory, not a fact. “What they're trying to do is appease the religious right,” says Michael Manely, the lawyer representing a local parent who wanted the stickers removed.
The war between creationists and evolutionists had recently fallen quiet. In 1999, the Kansas state board of education dropped evolution from state examinations; but by 2001 the three most prominent anti-evolutionists had been voted out of office, and the decision quietly reversed. Of late, the Christian right has focused on other topics. But the anti-evolutionists' victory in Cobb County may stimulate similar-minded people elsewhere. In Ohio, the state board of education is under pressure to include “intelligent design”—the idea that the complexity of the universe proves the existence of the divine—when it issues a new science curriculum.
Cobb County's new policy argues that providing information on “disputed views” is “necessary for a balanced education” and will help to promote “acceptance of diversity of opinion”. A poll commissioned in 2000 by People for the American Way, a liberal-minded group, shows that many Americans think this way. Nearly half of the respondents believed that the theory of evolution had not yet been proved. And of those who believe in evolution—only a fifth wanted evolution taught alone—three-quarters liberally agreed that students should be presented with “all points of view” and “make up their own minds”. In this post-modern reasoning, evolution and the Book of Genesis are equally valid.
The losers have already begun worrying aloud that this will hurt Cobb County's reputation as a place where children can get a good education. Cobb's schools consistently rank above the state average, which is not saying much. But what happens if superior schools insist that previously accepted facts have become mere theory? No comment from Mr Gingrich, who now lives in Virginia.
As I see it, evolution is an ideological doctrine. If it were only a "scientific theory", it would have died a natural death 50 - 70 years ago; the evidence against it is too overwhelming and has been all along. The people defending it are doing so because they do not like the alternatives to an atheistic basis for science and do not like the logical implications of abandoning their atheistic paradigm and, in conducting themselves that way, they have achieved a degree of immunity to what most people call logic.
488 posted on 7/29/02 5:18 AM Pacific by medved
Main Entry: log·ic
Pronunciation: 'lä-jik Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English logik, from Middle French logique, from Latin logica, from Greek logikE, from feminine of logikos of reason, from logos reason -- more at LEGEND
Date: 12th century
1 a
(1) : a science that deals with the principles and criteria of validity of inference and demonstration : the science of the formal principles of reasoning
(2) : a branch or variety of logic
(3) : a branch of semiotic; especially : SYNTACTICS
(4) : the formal principles of a branch of knowledge
b (1) : a particular mode of reasoning viewed as valid or faulty
(2) : RELEVANCE, PROPRIETY
c : interrelation or sequence of facts or events when seen as inevitable or predictable
d : the arrangement of circuit elements (as in a computer) needed for computation; also : the circuits themselves
2 : something that forces a decision apart from or in opposition to reason < the logic of war >
- lo·gi·cian /lO-'ji-sh&n/ noun
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oops...
Isn't freelibertarian redundant...think you're missing a 'k' in there!
spell check!
Believe it or not, there are some Young Earth Creationists (YECs) on these threads even now. Evolutionists don't make this stuff up.
Big time. Once you train yourself to ignore facts and to deny irrational conclusions, it's possible to believe the most amazing things. The bliss which comes with the abandonment of reason surpasses all understanding.
"Happiness is a no-brainer."
Yup, once you make up your mind that man arose from pond scum it is easy to believe any moronic thing such as that you can create by destroying (natural selection) and that through some sort of abracadabra shazam you can get a new species. Hey, the charlatan Darwin said so, so it must be true.
This is the first really cogent thing you've written. I don't agree with it, but I'll have to study it.
That would appear to be the case. G3k is much funnier, though, when he/she/it challenges us to "refute" f.Christian's posts.
I don't think you'll end up spending much time finding the problems with it. Like all explications of the supposed statistical "impossibility" of evolution, it falls apart once you get past the mental hurdle of thinking that evolution is somehow teleological, and realize instead that it's completely open-ended...
Try this:
Schizophrenia is a severe, chronic, and often disabling brain disease. While the term schizophrenia literally means, "split mind," it should not be confused with a "split," or multiple, personality. It is more accurately described as a psychosis -- a type of illness that causes severe mental disturbances that disrupt normal thought, speech, and behavior.
A schizophrenic person may think and communicate incoherently, jumping from one idea to another, using vague or repetitive words, or mixing a "word salad" of new words or jumbled phrases. It is common for schizophrenics to be suspicious and resentful.
I have a schizophrenic nephew. Please do not accuse me of being ignorant of the symptoms.
I do not know for a fact that f. is schizophrenic. I do know that his posts are incoherent, repetitive, and jumbled.
I hope this helps clear up any lingering confusion on your part. I hope I do not have to post this 1720 times before it sinks in.
Is that your criterion for convincing evidence?
LOL
Have patience. We will eventually give up on you.
This sounds "wildly elliptical"...... or, dare I say it, even "circular" ......
;-)
Just as any randomly chosen G3K statement and "irrefutable argument" are one and the same.
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