Battle over evolution heating up

News 8 Austin ^ | 8/20/2003 | Antonio Castelan

[PatrickHenry]

You must be kidding!!

No. Check out some of these items: The General Anti-Creationism FAQ .

[SedVictaCatoni]

Why should a religious story be taught outside of a religious studies class at all? Further, Genesis is not the only "creation" story out there.

Shrug, no kidding. But I figured it would be a good compromise to let kids listen to an hour of highly allegorical Jewish mythology, and then settle in to the alternate explanation of evolution.

Nobody seems much interested in compromises, though.

[SedVictaCatoni]

Right, but it doesn't stop there. In the 2nd chapter there is a different version of the story. And then later there is John, and that is a whole different tradition. It gets very deep, or we can compartmentalize.

Er... then doesn't that mean that it's incoherent and rather unuseful as a practical attempt to explain the origin of the various creatures?

[new cruelty]

I'm all for teaching both.

[usastandsunited]

For your information: many of the regulars on the science threads here on Free Republic have joined in the AGREEMENT OF THE WILLING to

Respectfully sir, I would like to engage you in this topic. However, your link to the agreement is nonfunctional.

[Dimensio]

I don't like the idea of teaching a non-scientific explanation as science. I'd rather keep the religious myths outside of the science classroom, except as for presenting historical context.

[PatrickHenry]

Try this:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/960260/posts

[TheAngryClam]

It's a book entitled "The Angry Clam"

[thulldud]

I saw that. Just couldn't load the "sample pages." So I don't know what it's about.

Do they get each other in the end?

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Board member Gail Lowe said then she was disappointed that many of the people who testified for or against certain textbooks hadn't actually read them.

"Textbooks! We don't need no stinkeen' textbooks!"

[TheAngryClam]

I'm not spoiling the ending- it's too good.

[Heartlander]

Why should a religious story be taught outside of a religious studies class at all? Further, Genesis is not the only "creation" story out there.

Why don’t they just teach Intelligent Design vs. stupid design?

You have obviously picked your “creation” story…

[Doctor Stochastic]

And at least an hour of Navajo mythology, an hour of Hopi mythology, an hour of Tewa mythology, an hour of Zuni mythology, an hour of Apache mythology, etc. Then we can move out of New Mexico and into Utah for an hour of Ute mythology....

It would be a good way of being multicultural and anti-science at the same time; thus satisfying both Liberal and Conservative viewpoints.

[Dimensio]

What does ID predict, and how can it be falsified?

[MattAMiller]

According to many people, evolution is the most intelligent force in the universe.

Well those people aren't scientists, and aren't particularly well informed about science. Evolution is not a force, and it's not sentient. And it only works with biological organisms, so no cars or power plants.

[MattAMiller]

Even Darwin came back later in life and said that people "took the ramblings of a fool and made them into a religion" (paraphrased).

That's a myth. Not that it would matter. Science is about ideas, not the people who propose them.

I suppose you believe in the big bang theory too!! If that is the case, then let's blow up a printing company and see if a book is produced in the rubble!!

That's not a particluarly good analogy. But at least you recognise that evolution and the Big Bang are two different things.

[Soliv123]

Why not teach them both?! I feel that the Book of Genesis is an alegorical teaching of how children and adults may understand how individuals in life are able to deal with each other. A usefull mythology for the study of how human beings interact. Evolution is a scientific fact for me in the world of science. Creationism and the Book of Genesis is a fact of Religion as concerns the various universal truths of Man's understanding of how Religion works. The entire book of Genesis should be taught in Chistian Sunday School on a regular basis such as to explain how human beings are able to build constructive relationships and unions with each other.

[general_re]

Ya know, I've often wondered why more high schools don't offer an elective course in comparative religion, or something similar. Not in science class, obviously, but as a course on its own.

This should really be off-topic for this thread - strangely, it probably isn't...

[Stultis]

Socialism. Evolution. Global warming. And the list of liberal scams goes on and on

Yep, and creationists are right there with the lefties, demanding "alternative views" be taught in the interest of "balance," "fairness" or "diversity," rather than standing for high and hard-nosed academic standards, like they should (and as the same individuals generally do wrt to history, mathematics, and any other subject). It does not represent "fairness" or "balance" to teach a doctrine which has failed to earn standing in professional scholarship as on a par with one that has. It represents intellectual affirmative action.