Re: In the News: The argument over origins


Jason Spaceman wrote:
> From the article:
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> By Jackie Burrell and Betsy Mason
> CONTRA COSTA TIMES
>
> The question of whether life evolved over millions of years or whether
> a superior being created it has generated classroom controversy across
> the nation -- even in California, where evolution is imbedded in
> public school curriculum standards and textbooks.
>
> Nearly every state contemplating a new science curriculum or textbooks
> faces the debate between evolution and "intelligent design." In the
> last five years, 24 states have seen that skirmish escalate into their
> state legislatures and the courts.
>
> In California:
>
> · Parent Larry Caldwell sued the Roseville school district after
> leaders there refused to place instructional materials that challenged
> evolution in biology classrooms.

Caldwell seems to have just done this to make waves. He probaby had no
intention of following through. Isn't this the guy that dropped the
suit, but forgot to inform the guys that he was suing?

>
> · The University of California is under legal attack for its refusal
> to give freshman applicants credit for Christian high school biology
> courses whose primary textbooks deny evolution occurred.

This is probably true about the biology textbook that they tried to
use, but my take is that the class was deemed not to meet the standards
to qualify as a class that met the science requirements. This would
probably be a no brainer to anyone that compared the class syllabus and
textbook to a standard biology class. The "textbook" was supposed to
be less than 200 pages long for a year course. Not that length is a
good meter, but it falls so short that you have to wonder even if you
never saw the textbook. What kind of "science" education did the kids
get?

The bottom line is that the schools had the obligation to make sure
that their courses met the standards before they subjected the kids to
the substandard education. The kid's families should be suing the
school, and not the university. It is the school that should have the
obligation to defend its class.

>
> · Pro-evolution parents filed a lawsuit against a Central Valley
> public high school that offered a "creation science" elective taught
> by a pastor's wife. Last week, the school agreed not to repeat the
> course.

This class was so badly dishonest and stupid that even the Discovery
Institute came out against it.

>
> Nearly a third of the teachers nationwide who responded to a National
> Science Teachers Association survey in March reported feeling pressure
> from parents and students to include nonscientific material in biology
> class.

But the Discovery Institute claims....

>
> "There are definitely teachers who are avoiding teaching evolution,"
> said Judy Scotchmoor, assistant director of the UC Berkeley Museum of
> Paleontology and a former biology teacher whose evolution Web site for
> teachers is under legal attack too.

It is sad. If there was some alternative worth teaching it would be
included in the class. That is a no brainer, considering the pressure
to teach some alternative. Dover should tell any fence sitter just how
bogus the supposed "alternatives" are. If they can't be considered to
be decent science, why teach the alternatives in science class.

My take is that ID would make a good subject in social science class as
an example of a dishonest political scam that is very effective. They
can use Ohio, Kansas and Dover as real time examples.

>
> "There's another big issue about not using the 'E' word because it
> seems to be inflammatory in some way," said Scotchmoor. "I think it's
> a shame. I'm just really sorry there is such emotion attached to this
> word when it wasn't even used by Darwin."

The thing that you get from the creationists that post at TO is that
they don't know what evolution is. They have some weird ideas based on
what they have been told, but they are basically fruitcakes about the
subject. There isn't a rational oppoisition to the concept. If there
were the creationists would be able to produce their evidence for their
option that is equivalent or better than the evidence for what they
don't like. Only the ignorant try to do this. Look at guys like Sean
Pitman and just about anyone at the Discovery Insitute. They don't
even try to support their notion with evidence because they don't have
any. The ignorant don't know this, but the guys that have had their
faces rubbed in the fact for years know it too well. They would just
rather lie about it and pretend that obfuscation is a valid argument.
Why didn't all the wonderful evidence show up in Dover?

Ron Okimoto

> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Read it at
> http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/nation/13741452.htm
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> J. Spaceman


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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Global Flood
    ... my school kicked me out for being open about my atheism. ... _Abusing Science_ manages to be readable, ... but they're concerned much more with history than science. ... but once you do you'll get to see evolution ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: History of Intelligent Design
    ... The ID conspiracy to wedge religion into our schools is well ... she has no practical knowledge of science. ... of evolution was unconstitutional because the motivation was based on ... A California judge ruled that teaching evolution in public school ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Global Flood
    ... my school kicked me out for being open about my atheism. ... _Abusing Science_ manages to be readable, ... but they're concerned much more with history than science. ... There are a lot of /good/ popular books on evolution out there, ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: OT - Reason Prevails
    ... biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district, a federal judge said Tuesday, ruling in one of the biggest courtroom clashes on evolution since the 1925 Scopes trial. ... District Judge John E. Jones III said. ... Darwin's Theory of Evolution and eventually to take a standardized test of which evolution is a part. ... "After a searching review of the record and applicable case law, we find that while ID arguments may be true, a proposition on which the court takes no position, ID is not science. ...
    (rec.outdoors.rv-travel)
  • Re: In the News: The argument over origins
    ... The University of California is under legal attack for its refusal ... > to qualify as a class that met the science requirements. ... > textbook to a standard biology class. ... > school, and not the university. ...
    (talk.origins)
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