Turkana boy, species Homo erectus, intermediate between Homo habilis and Homo sapiens.
Of course, practically every fossil is of an intermediate form.
Posted on 12/11/2002 6:28:08 AM PST by A2J
By WILL SENTELL
wsentell@theadvocate.com
Capitol news bureau
High school biology textbooks would include a disclaimer that evolution is only a theory under a change approved Tuesday by a committee of the state's top school board.
If the disclaimer wins final approval, it would apparently make Louisiana just the second state in the nation with such a provision. The other is Alabama, which is the model for the disclaimer backers want in Louisiana.
Alabama approved its policy six or seven years ago after extensive controversy that included questions over the religious overtones of the issue.
The change approved Tuesday requires Louisiana education officials to check on details for getting publishers to add the disclaimer to biology textbooks.
It won approval in the board's Student and School Standards/ Instruction Committee after a sometimes contentious session.
"I don't believe I evolved from some primate," said Jim Stafford, a board member from Monroe. Stafford said evolution should be offered as a theory, not fact.
Whether the proposal will win approval by the full state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on Thursday is unclear.
Paul Pastorek of New Orleans, president of the board, said he will oppose the addition.
"I am not prepared to go back to the Dark Ages," Pastorek said.
"I don't think state boards should dictate editorial content of school textbooks," he said. "We shouldn't be involved with that."
Donna Contois of Metairie, chairwoman of the committee that approved the change, said afterward she could not say whether it will win approval by the full board.
The disclaimer under consideration says the theory of evolution "still leaves many unanswered questions about the origin of life.
"Study hard and keep an open mind," it says. "Someday you may contribute to the theories of how living things appeared on earth."
Backers say the addition would be inserted in the front of biology textbooks used by students in grades 9-12, possibly next fall.
The issue surfaced when a committee of the board prepared to approve dozens of textbooks used by both public and nonpublic schools. The list was recommended by a separate panel that reviews textbooks every seven years.
A handful of citizens, one armed with a copy of Charles Darwin's "Origin of the Species," complained that biology textbooks used now are one-sided in promoting evolution uncritically and are riddled with factual errors.
"If we give them all the facts to make up their mind, we have educated them," Darrell White of Baton Rouge said of students. "Otherwise we have indoctrinated them."
Darwin wrote that individuals with certain characteristics enjoy an edge over their peers and life forms developed gradually millions of years ago.
Backers bristled at suggestions that they favor the teaching of creationism, which says that life began about 6,000 years ago in a process described in the Bible's Book of Genesis.
White said he is the father of seven children, including a 10th-grader at a public high school in Baton Rouge.
He said he reviewed 21 science textbooks for use by middle and high school students. White called Darwin's book "racist and sexist" and said students are entitled to know more about controversy that swirls around the theory.
"If nothing else, put a disclaimer in the front of the textbooks," White said.
John Oller Jr., a professor at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, also criticized the accuracy of science textbooks under review. Oller said he was appearing on behalf of the Louisiana Family Forum, a Christian lobbying group.
Oller said the state should force publishers to offer alternatives, correct mistakes in textbooks and fill in gaps in science teachings. "We are talking about major falsehoods that should be addressed," he said.
Linda Johnson of Plaquemine, a member of the board, said she supports the change. Johnson said the new message of evolution "will encourage students to go after the facts."
There is a vast difference, which you seem unable to fathom, between not being able to prove something, and not knowing something. Conditional knowledge is not a disease, it is the natural human condition.
Aaah, always with the semantics. Well many things have been scientifically proven beyond doubt. One is gravity which we have been discussing. Gravity is a fact of life, an indubitable fact of life beyond denial. Numerous experiments prove it, just living a single day proves it. To deny that gravity is a fact is to deny reality. Evolution however is not a fact. It does not even deserve the name of Theory since it has never been observed and science is about observations. It is for this reason that evolutionists retreat into skepticism when challenged - they cannot give scientific evidence for their so-called 'theory' so they feel forced to deny the validity of all science.
NOBODY denies that gravity is a fact. We just don't know how or why it works. We can observe it, we just can't explain it.
That is exactly why science represents a more complete and justified claim on representing the truth than religion ever can.
How do you figure, ALL the earliest scientits were Christians. It didn't stop them from evaluating God's creation. It made them want to learn about His Creation.
Woah, there, bucko, stop taking the Flaming Dork's name in vain. I won't stand for it.
Occam's Razor must be a twin blade, for under the circumstances you have chosen the simpler of two explanations while bringing intelligent design into the picture. (But shame on us if we dare allow this possibility into our schoolbooks.)
Oh please! All you know is how to insult opponents! You call that open minded? You cannot discuss any subject without throwing in a bunch of ad hominems. You cannot even discuss the answers given to you and instead just attack those who disagree with you and are even too cowardly to direct the attacks to them but go around addressing them to 'All' or to one of your friends. In fact, here's an example - IN YOUR OWN WORDS - of your close mindedness -
[This ping list for the evolution -- not creationism -- side of evolution threads,
62 posted on 12/29/2002 1:40 PM PST by PatrickHenry
From: Here .
Some opne-minded person, you only like to hear your side of the story and try to exclude others from the discussion.
I can just picture you "sliding right into" believing Creationism when it is presented to you in a way that it will be irrefutable by the Creator of the Universe Himself.
I have the uncanny suspicion that there is a lounge in the Castro district of SF with the same name.....
Well said, and largely correct...so why do you let it stop you? (E.g., Creation never changes. "God created the Heavens & the Earth." He created all life, "Each after it's own kind." etc.)
That's not quite what I had in mind.
Great story, here's a similar one which I like very much:
A Moment in History...
That a maker is required for anything that is made is a lesson Sir Isaac Newton was able to teach forcefully to an atheist-scientist friend of his. Sir Isaac had an accomplished artisan fashion for him a small scale model of our solar system which was to be put in a room in Newton?s home when completed. The assignment was finished and installed on a large table. The workman had done a very commendable job, simulating not only the various sizes of the planets and their relative proximities, but also so constructing the model that everything rotated and orbited when a crank was turned. It was an interesting, even fascinating work, as you can image, particularly to anyone schooled in the sciences.
Newton's atheist-scientist friend came by for a visit. Seeing the model, he was naturally intrigued, and proceeded to examine it with undisguised admiration for the high quality of the workmanship. "My! What an exquisite thing this is!? he exclaimed. "Who made it?? Paying little attention to him, Sir Isaac answered, "Nobody."
Stopping his inspection, the visitor turned and said: "Evidently you did not understand my question. I asked who made this. Newton, enjoying himself immensely no doubt, replied in a still more serious tone. "Nobody. What you see just happened to assume the form it now has." "You must think I am a fool!? the visitor retorted heatedly, "Of course somebody made it, and he is a genius, and I would like to know who he is."
Newton then spoke to his friend in a polite yet firm way: "This thing is but a puny imitation of a much grander system whose laws you know, and I am not able to convince you that this mere toy is without a designer and maker; yet you profess to believe that the great original from which the design is taken has come into being without either designer or maker! Now tell me by what sort of reasoning do you reach such an incongruous conclusion?"
From: Sir Isaac Newton Solar System Story, "The Truth: God or evolution?" by Marshall and Sandra Hall
The more mankind knows, the more mankind knows how much we know nothing, nothing at all because they are discovering how complex everything is, even the position and tilt of the Earth to the Sun, moon to the Earth, and billions of other facts. They will come to realize, IF they truly seek the truth, that it could not have happened by chance...That an all intelligent Being, whom we call God Almighty, created the Univerise and everything in it.
Interesting how many totally different kinds of eyes there are is it not? Yet clearly such a thing is totally against the principle on which evolution is based - that homologous functions, features, DNA are proof of descent. If there was descent related to these numerous eye forms then one would expect them not to be so varied and so unconnected with each other. What you are showing really is not proof, but proof against evolution.
What, exactly, is a "kind"? Are spiders a kind? Or are tarantulas and orb weavers two different kinds? Are lions and tigers two kinds, or just one? How about horses and zebras? Or gators and crocs?
Well, then show me one missing link skeleton between any species. There's got to be billions of them since it took millions of years for an animal to evolve from species to another. WHAT? you can't find one. And you have the gaul to tell us we are not scientific? YOU MAKE ME LAUGH! ROTFLOL!!!!!
Turkana boy, species Homo erectus, intermediate between Homo habilis and Homo sapiens.
Of course, practically every fossil is of an intermediate form.
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