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 DNKYD
Turtle!
Registered: 09/23/04
Posts: 12,326
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 South Carolina senator pushes bill to teach evolution as "controversial" 
#4750578 - 10/03/05 05:37 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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Evolution bill criticized as regressive
Group says state one of 10 areas marooned on 'Island of Ignorance'
By Ron Barnett
STAFF WRITER
A new national group working to neutralize the political influence of the religious right released a report Thursday calling South Carolina one of 10 "Islands of Ignorance" because of legislative efforts to change the way evolution is taught in public schools.
The report, by the Campaign to Defend the Constitution, cites state Sen. Mike Fair's bill that would require schools to teach that evolution is controversial.
The group, led by the executive director of the National Center for Science Education, the former executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union and other nationally known scientific and religious figures, says there is no legitimate scientific controversy over evolution.
"We can do better when we let science do its job and then ask religion to do its job," said Dr. James Forbes, senior minister of Riverside Church in New York City and one of the spokesmen for the group.
Fair, R-Greenville, said the intent of the bill he introduced for consideration when the General Assembly reconvenes in January is to end what he sees as a bias in favor of evolution in the curriculum.
"We'd like to see neutrality," he said. "We'd like to see science speak for itself and not have advocates for a theory of a single cell becoming man, for which there is no evidence."
Physicist Lawrence Krauss, director of Case Western Research University's Center for Education and Research and another spokesman for the new group, said scientists almost universally agree there's abundant evidence for evolution.
"Evolution is the basis of modern biology," he told reporters in a teleconference.
The group's action came as a case is being tried in federal district court in Harrisburg, Penn., challenging a school district that required teachers to read a statement that Darwin's theory is "not a fact" and has inexplicable "gaps."
The statement also referred students to a textbook on intelligent design, which holds that natural selection and genetic mutation alone can't account for the complexity of life.
It doesn't attempt to say who or what the intelligent designer may be.
"You don't have to say that because there's apparently a designer that we have to get into Genesis 1," Fair said, referring to the biblical creation story.
If the Pennsylvania case eventually makes it to the Supreme Court, it could have national implications, said Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education.
Along with South Carolina and the Dover School District in Pennsylvania, the report cites Cobb County, Ga., Blount County, Tenn., Gransburg, Wis., and the states of Ohio, Kansas, Alabama, Utah and Florida on its list of 10 "Islands of Ignorance."
The Campaign to Defend the Constitution said it mailed letters to all 50 governors Thursday asking them to keep watch that religion doesn't creep into science classrooms. The letter was signed by "100 prominent clergy members and 100 prominent scientists," including six Nobel laureates, the group said.
"We hope to have your commitment to ensure that our schools teach science, not ignorance, to our children as they prepare the next generation for the challenges of a new century," the letter concludes.
Several hundred scientists have signed a statement that they are skeptical of Darwin's theories -- although they represent a tiny minority of the scientific community.
The Campaign to Defend the Constitution says it doesn't oppose teaching that controversy over evolution exists -- only that the controversy has scientific merit.
"No good education curriculum would exclude those kind of discussions about origins and theology, but they can't take place as science," said Ira Glasser, former executive director of the ACLU. "And they can't take place as competing scientific theories because they are not, and to do so corrupts both realms."
Fair, who in the past has tried to get disclaimers put in science textbooks, said he is working with the state Department of Education on finding ways to broaden the science standards to include questions about Darwinism.
"Teach all of evolution in the classroom and science will be fostered, the debates will be invigorated, and these people like the ACLU don't need to be afraid," he said. "I don't know what they're afraid of, but they don't need to be afraid of me. I'm certainly not afraid of them."
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And now for my favorite little tid-bit from this article:
Quote:
"We'd like to see neutrality," he said. "We'd like to see science speak for itself and not have advocates for a theory of a single cell becoming man, for which there is no evidence."
As opposed to religious fairy tale claiming a rib bone became man AND woman?
When will all these fundies let us teach science in school without having to throw their 2 cents worth of unfounded fairy tale bullshit in the mix?
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 Ekstaza
stranger than most
Registered: 04/10/03
Posts: 4,324
Loc: Around the corner
Last seen: 1 year, 16 days
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Re: South Carolina senator pushes bill to teach evolution as "controversial" [Re: DNKYD]
#4751464 - 10/03/05 08:32 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
DNKYD said:
When will all these fundies let us teach science in school without having to throw their 2 cents worth of unfounded fairy tale bullshit in the mix?
They can never do that as long as they hold onto their belief in creationism. It is fundamental to their very being that without every part of the story being true, nothing is. They project this same ideology onto science where it is not valid. In science, there can be mistakes, in faith there can not.
The fairy tale has to be true or else all of their beliefs are invalid.
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YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH ANY GIVEN DRUG ISN'T THE DEFINITIVE MEASURE OF THE DRUGS EFFECTS.
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Silversoul
Rhizome
Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 23,576
Loc: The Barricades
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Re: South Carolina senator pushes bill to teach evolution as "controversial" [Re: DNKYD]
#4751550 - 10/03/05 08:55 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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Evolution is controversial. Just not among scientists.
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Ekstaza
stranger than most
Registered: 04/10/03
Posts: 4,324
Loc: Around the corner
Last seen: 1 year, 16 days
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Re: South Carolina senator pushes bill to teach evolution as "controversial" [Re: Silversoul]
#4752995 - 10/04/05 04:50 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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Evolution is controversial in religious context only. It endangers the premise behind many peoples beliefs(possibly because even they can see that it's the truth), and therefore threatens their hold of power over others of their faith.
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YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH ANY GIVEN DRUG ISN'T THE DEFINITIVE MEASURE OF THE DRUGS EFFECTS.
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The14thWarrior
The Shootist
Registered: 09/28/05
Posts: 491
Last seen: 18 years, 5 months
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Re: South Carolina senator pushes bill to teach evolution as "controversial" [Re: DNKYD]
#4753016 - 10/04/05 05:23 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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South carolina is also at the bottom of the nation for literacy. What a sur-freaking-prise.
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Baby_Hitler
Errorist
Registered: 03/06/02
Posts: 27,652
Loc: To the limit!
Last seen: 23 minutes, 33 seconds
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Re: South Carolina senator pushes bill to teach evolution as "controversial" [Re: The14thWarrior]
#4753081 - 10/04/05 06:55 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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Yea, verily I say unto thee. That though the tongues of man speaketh not well ye New English in the Carolina of the south, speaketh they well ye Olde Englishe.
I went to church this Sunday with my parents for the first time in about 10 years. One thing I noticed was that most of them say their prayers in ye Olde Englishe.
They also use the word "eat" in any tense.
I will eat my sandwich
I done eat my sandwich.
That was a good sandwich I eat this morning.
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This space for rent
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Baby_Hitler
Errorist
Registered: 03/06/02
Posts: 27,652
Loc: To the limit!
Last seen: 23 minutes, 33 seconds
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Re: South Carolina senator pushes bill to teach evolution as "controversial" [Re: Ekstaza]
#4753092 - 10/04/05 07:01 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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My beliefs are based on the fact that there is no gravity.
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This space for rent
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The14thWarrior
The Shootist
Registered: 09/28/05
Posts: 491
Last seen: 18 years, 5 months
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Re: South Carolina senator pushes bill to teach evolution as "controversial" [Re: Baby_Hitler]
#4753112 - 10/04/05 07:17 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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Ignorant yaakoos. The past tense of "eat" is "et", like "I done et dinner".
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Silversoul
Rhizome
Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 23,576
Loc: The Barricades
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Re: South Carolina senator pushes bill to teach evolution as "controversial" [Re: Baby_Hitler]
#4753399 - 10/04/05 09:26 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Baby_Hitler said:
My beliefs are based on the fact that there is no gravity.
Ya, gravity's just a conspiracy by the Jews to get people to drop change.
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Adden
Registered: 06/04/03
Posts: 39,201
Loc: 
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Re: South Carolina senator pushes bill to teach evolution as "controversial" [Re: DNKYD]
#4754102 - 10/04/05 12:18 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
"We'd like to see neutrality," he said. "We'd like to see science speak for itself and not have advocates for a theory of a single cell becoming man, for which there is no evidence."
...because a book written centuries after the death of Christ is sufficient evidence for Creationism.
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Anisotropic
Stranger
Registered: 07/28/04
Posts: 538
Last seen: 7 years, 11 months
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Re: South Carolina senator pushes bill to teach evolution as "controversial" [Re: DNKYD]
#4754643 - 10/04/05 02:08 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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"We'd like to see neutrality," he said. "We'd like to see science speak for itself and not have advocates for a theory of a single cell becoming man, for which there is no evidence."
Um yes there is... It has happened once for every person on the fucking planet. First you have a Single Cell, and then it starts to divide in the womb, eventually forming a person. There is tuns of evidence for this, look around the room.
What the dumb bitch means is that SHE THINKS there is no evidence for man having an ANCESTOR that was only one cell.
FUCKING ignorance. I heard dumb cunts like this all though high school say shit like
"If men evolved out of monkeys, why don't monkeys have human babes now?"
It's like Um, the have a common ancestor, but like not 30 years ago or something, fucking millions of years ago dumb ass...
"The earth has only been around for 5 thousand years"
Um, no... how was the grand Cannon made then?
"Duh, in the Flood of Noah"
I used to live in one of these islands of ignorance, I know exactly what they are talking about. It's really dumb, they use a book, to justify a book.
Like really, if you ask how they know the bible is correct, and the 'Word of God' they show you the front of the book, where it tells you so.
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http://us.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/01/30/striking.evolution.ap/index.html
ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- The state's school superintendent has proposed striking the word evolution from Georgia's science curriculum and replacing it with the phrase "biological changes over time."
The change is included in more than 800 pages of draft revisions to Georgia's curriculum that have been posted by the Department of Education on its Web site. The middle and high school standards are expected to be voted on by the state Board of Education in May, after public feedback.
Superintendent Kathy Cox said the concept of evolution would still be taught under the proposal, but the word would not be used. The proposal would not require schools to buy new textbooks omitting the word evolution and would not prevent teachers from using it.
Cox repeatedly referred to evolution as a "buzzword" Thursday and said the ban was proposed, in part, to alleviate pressure on teachers in socially conservative areas where parents object to its teaching.
"If teachers across this state, parents across this state say, 'This is not what we want,' then we'll change it," said Cox, a Republican elected in 2002.
Educators and legislators criticized the proposal, saying science teachers understand the theories behind evolution and how to teach them.
"Here we are, saying we have to improve standards and improve education, and we're just throwing a bone to the conservatives with total disregard to what scientists say," said state Rep. Bob Holmes, a Democrat.
Social conservatives who prefer religious creation to be taught instead of evolution criticized the proposal as well.
"If you're teaching the concept without the word, what's the point?" said Rep. Bobby Franklin, a Republican. "It's stupid. It's like teaching gravity without using the word gravity."
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