"The Primate of the Galapagos Islands"
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."
Prime
(Why didn't I think of it?)
No, please continue. Fantastic stuff; I'm bookmarking it to use whenever somebody refers to conservatives as ignorant anti-science troglodytes.
had to spread your seed pretty far and wide to be sure of nailing that one, didn't you?
My understanding is that the theoretical solutions that are publicly known require unreasonable amounts of computing resources, growing exponentially with complexity so Moore's Law doesn't help. There are efforts underway to create good approximations that can run on today's hardware.
Another approach is to simulate the human brain directly, and the hardware will be available for that within a few decades unless Moore's Law hits a wall. Estimates of the brain's computational power are around 10^16 operations per second. Blue Gene does 300 teraflops (3*10^14) today.
Anything our neurons do can in principle be done in silicon or software.
It's really not that the hardware is different. It's that we really don't know what we are emulating.
Premature priming placemark
Including a variable rate of failure?
This harkens back to the concept that evolution is so successful in the way it works because it is an imperfect replicator. The brain is an imperfect computer.
I agree.
True, but when will another 7,000 come along? I hold the prime of all primes!
"The Primate of the Galapagos Islands"
Almost. Actually, PH is suffering premature prime-exclamation
Probably explains why he's always grinning at inappropriate times ...
Lotta "prime envy" around here. 7,000 was a once-in-a-millennium opportunity; and it's mine. Deal with it.
"Poopy-head Uses Brute Force Attack to Capture Large Prime on FreeRepublic.com.
Women, Children, Minorities considered most at risk. Composite numbers in open revolt; Iran responds with military maneuvers. Film report at 11...."
Give me $5 or I'll dedicate my life to becoming an Admin Mod so I can delete all your "prime" posts at an unspecified future date.
I mean it.*
*(Sort of. Until I find something more interesting to do. Hey, a dust bunny - cool!)
As Floyd Landis prematurely announced.
Gentlemen, I have to tell you, this unseemly and utterly unsportsman-like tactic from Mr. Henry reminds of nothing so much as watching my 7-year-old daughter playing Chess against herself:
She hasn't the foggiest notion about the rules of the game, lacks an opponent, yet nonetheless always wins.
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