Posted on 01/03/2006 12:12:37 PM PST by PatrickHenry
Also today, Dover's board might revoke the controversial intelligent design decision.
Now that the issue of teaching "intelligent design" in Dover schools appears to be played out, the doings of the Dover Area School Board might hold little interest for the rest of the world.
But the people who happen to live in that district find them to be of great consequence. Or so board member James Cashman is finding in his final days of campaigning before Tuesday's special election, during which he will try to retain his seat on the board.
Even though the issue that put the Dover Area School District in the international spotlight is off the table, Cashman found that most of the people who are eligible to vote in the election still intend to vote. And it pleases him to see that they're interested enough in their community to do so, he said.
"People want some finality to this," Cashman said.
Cashman will be running against challenger Bryan Rehm, who originally appeared to have won on Nov. 8. But a judge subsequently ruled that a malfunctioning election machine in one location obliges the school district to do the election over in that particular voting precinct.
Only people who voted at the Friendship Community Church in Dover Township in November are eligible to vote there today.
Rehm didn't return phone calls for comment.
But Bernadette Reinking, the new school board president, said she did some campaigning with Rehm recently. The people who voted originally told her that they intend to do so again, she said. And they don't seem to be interested in talking about issues, she said. Reinking said it's because they already voted once, already know where the candidates stand and already have their minds made up.
Like Cashman, she said she was pleased to see how serious they are about civic participation.
Another event significant to the district is likely to take place today, Reinking said. Although she hadn't yet seen a copy of the school board meeting's agenda, she said that she and her fellow members might officially vote to remove the mention of intelligent design from the school district's science curriculum.
Intelligent design is the idea that life is too complex for random evolution and must have a creator. Supporters of the idea, such as the Discovery Institute in Seattle, insist that it's a legitimate scientific theory.
Opponents argue that it's a pseudo-science designed solely to get around a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that biblical creationism can't be taught in public schools.
In October 2004, the Dover Area School District became the first in the country to include intelligent design in science class. Board members voted to require ninth-grade biology students to hear a four-paragraph statement about intelligent design.
That decision led 11 district parents to file a lawsuit trying to get the mention of intelligent design removed from the science classroom. U.S. Middle District Court Judge John E. Jones III issued a ruling earlier this month siding with the plaintiffs. [Kitzmiller et al. v Dover Area School District et al..]
While the district was awaiting Jones' decision, the school board election took place at the beginning of November, pitting eight incumbents against a group of eight candidates opposed to the mention of intelligent design in science class.
At first, every challenger appeared to have won. But Cashman filed a complaint about a voting machine that tallied between 96 to 121 votes for all of the other candidates but registered only one vote for him.
If he does end up winning, Cashman said, he's looking forward to doing what he had in mind when he originally ran for school board - looking out for students. And though they might be of no interest to news consumers in other states and countries, Cashman said, the district has plenty of other issues to face besides intelligent design. Among them are scholastic scores and improving the curriculum for younger grades.
And though he would share the duties with former opponents, he said, he is certain they would be able to work together.
"I believe deep down inside, we all have the interest and goal to benefit the kids," he said.
Regardless of the turnout of today's election, Reinking said, new board members have their work cut out for them. It's unusual for a board to have so many new members starting at the same time, she said.
"We can get to all those things that school boards usually do," she said.
That jar on earth is full of air or ordinary matter which comprises 5% of the critical density of the universe. If you removed the air, it would be a vacuum which occupies the space defined by the coordinates of the jar itself.
If you were to fill that jar in the middle of the Milky Way galaxy, it would be full of dark matter (25% of the critical density). If you removed the dark matter, it would be a vacuum which occupies the space defined by the coordinates of the jar itself.
Likewise, if you were to fill that jar in the darkness of space, it would be full of dark energy, the remaining 70% of critical density. But it would not be a vacuum until you removed the dark energy.
Hint: Not all Jews are Jews and not all Christians are Christians.. just as, not all Americans are Americans, some/many are Traitors.. I have a suspicion that not all Freepers are Freepers.. Ugh!.. its a spiritual thing..
Dark matter?,,,, Dark energy?,,,,
(shining fingernails)
You're really OUT THERE girl.. I mean, waay out there..
And some think that I'M a bit loopy..
You're so far out there you make me seem normal.. I LIKE THAT...
Is dark matter and dark energy real or are they just mental constructs.?.. to answer unanswered questions.?.. or to complete some quantifying algorithm in physics.?.
Also, there's a new Sunday program on my local Christian station that I found interesting and so looked up their Web site. You may find you like what they have to say, too: Plain Truth Ministries
Scripture readings and teachings at Shady Rill today were from Zechariah 14:1-10 and Micah 4:1-8!!!
This matter has been batted about at length by theologians. My take from a layman's point of view: The form God took in order to redeem all of creation, coupled with numerous biblical texts denoting God as having anthropological features, leads me to understand that corporeal and incorporeal realities are not separate but coterminous, just like science and theology. One reason among many the Christ was rejected is His claim: "Before Abraham was, I AM." All that science has to explore is a corporeal manifestation of God and/or His handiwork.
Much has been written as to whether the Christ's human nature was assumed only at the point of incarnation, or whether to some degree His human nature was present in the pre-incarnate Christ, who is often understood to be the Rock from which the Israelites drank in the desert; the Angel of the Lord; the one with whom Jacob wrestled. The Apostle Paul bluntly writes of Christ by the Spirit: "Who is the image of the invisible God." Even more pointed the words of Christ: "He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me."
From this it is keenly apparent that the designer of the universe takes an intimate interest in humankind. Those instances where the essence of God is most clearly revealed are those where He divests Himself of all that separates humankind from Himself, and accommodates Himself out of pure goodness and mercy.
If the scientific world were totally separate from the theological world and was intended to be as such from the beginning, then the chasm would be inapproachable. As it stands, God is as scientific and theological as it gets, with the distinction between the two being a humanly developed means of forcing a separation - for whatever personal reasons a particular observer, or group of observers, might harbor.
One can hardly be so biased as to state and assume from the outset that God is beyond the purview of science. Such a bias may prove helpful for short term gains in knowledge, but the bigger picture - the longer lasting and more reasonable picture - is one with a single creator bringing about a universe that demonstrates organized matter behaving according to laws, and a universe in which He is willing and able to intervene much as humans are able intervene on a smaller scale in matters where they, too, have "created" things.
Lots of amens to that post! Thanks for including me in the ping to it.
Imagine adhering to a philosophy that attributes all organized matter and laws to "natural," i.e. "unguided" or "unpurposeful" events, and then trying to have such a point of view established by law as the only one permissible in public schools, all in a country whose Constitution strictly prohibits the establishment of a particular religious belief system. It's one thing to think organized matter can be explained by waving the hand and saying it isn't really organized. It is quite another to use force of law to make such a point of view the only one acceptable in a scientific setting.
Be that as it may, public schools are inherently secular. As such, atheistic philosophy and its implications should be just as welcome as any other religious belief and its implications. Both can be reconciled in a generic form without becoming impractical. As it stands, however, dogmatic adherents of atheistic science are apparently not about to yield to any suggestion that their belief system be challenged in the public forum.
"If the parents don't like it, they always have the option of private school."
Spoken like a true liberal: government takes your money, educates your kids any way they want, then - when it goes against the values you are trying to instill in your children - expects you to come up with the extra thousands to put them into a private school. The fallacy of your argument is that probably most parents - due to financial reasons - do not "have the option of private school."
Actually, I suppose, but the point is, the power that religion has over people.. Like a drug.. Many will and do sacrifice their lives for drugs.. Religion is a strong drug, even stonger than Heroin.. or Crack.. that IS the point..
You can be extremely religious and miss God completely.. and probably have missed him because you ARE religious, whatever religion.. Religion is a club, but you are born again into a family, not a club.. Many clubs only one family..
I strongly agree with your and Gamaliel's conclusion!
Some believers - especially new believers - may be more comfortable receiving the interpretation of Scripture from someone they trust. And some need the approval of others.
Jesus warns us this way:
AFAIK, neither dark matter nor dark energy can be observed under laboratory conditions. They are identified by inference of the physics and mathematics - as are many such things in quantum physics and geometric physics.
Ordinary matter in fact has never yet been observed or made despite repeated efforts by Fermilab and CERN (the Higgs field/boson in the Standard Model). CERN is about to get better equipment so it may yet be found. But if it is not, then the Standard Model must change.
Of a truth, what we call ordinary matter in space/time may actually be a shadow of momentum components of particle(s) in a fifth time-like dimension. For more: Mysteries of Mass
And that darkness matters in the dark energy flowing from it..
A vacuous form of religion.. taking up space between anything that matters..
Nullifiying spiritual reality..
IMHO, people tend to be anthropomorphic in their reasoning – even scientists who have dismissed the profoundly improbable fine tuning of the universe with the moniker of the “anthropic principle”. It is their way of saying “Nature did it” to foreclose inquiry. Strangely they complain when religionists do the same by declaring “God did it”.
But the tendency of any theologian to anthropomorphize God grates against the Spirit who indwells me. Man was created, he is in no way the Creator. It is not a chicken/egg thing; there was a beginning of "all that there is" and man could not have spiritually or physically existed in the void.
God is Spirit (John 4:24). He chose to give the physical body of man two eyes; if we are made physically in His image, He might have given us seven eyes (Revelation 5:6) The biomechanisms we have to hear or see or speak are completely beside the point. (Luke 19:40) His will is the point, the purpose of both this heaven and earth and the next (Genesis to Revelation).
I obviously do not see the physical and spiritual as coterminous. Following is the understanding which rings True in the Spirit who indwells me:
Excellent quote! Thank you, .30Carbine!
If I may speak according to the "old metaphors," I feel pretty sure that a very special place in Hell is reserved for such as you describe here. People who abuse legitimate authority, who abuse the trust of the faithful whom they claim to serve, are scandal in the sight of God. And likewise ought to be so considered, in the sight of man. [Or so it seems to me.]
The faithless shepherd has a whole lot to answer for, in due course. [ditto]
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