School boards heeding lessons from Dover ruling [on Intelligent Design]

York Daily Record [Penna] ^ | 19 February 2006 | LAURI LEBO

[A. Goodwin]

Well, thank you! I've come to the opinion that there are very few topics that can't be adequately summed up with a properly chosen movie quote... :-)

[durasell]

There are slightly different version floating around, but that's the most popular.

My opinion on this thing is that the debate will continue as long as there are pols willing to pander. Unfortunately, they haven't thought through the educational or economic consequences of their actions...

[Junior]

Nope. The board is a public entity and represents everyone, not just a small group of luddite parents. The school distric takes tax money, so it cannot promote one religious view over others, and face it, ID is a religious view regardless of what its proponents say.

[Junior]

Evolution and creation are equally untestable.

Wrong. Evolution is tested every time a genome is mapped or a new fossil is found. There are numerous falsifications for evolution, including finding an organism with no genetic relation to any other, or finding the proverbial pre-Cambrian rabbit fossil.

Of course, you've been told this before, so you're either obfuscating or are unable to retain information. As you are a man of God, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and allow that you may not be able to process and retain new information.

[PatrickHenry]

The board is a public entity and represents everyone ...

As they learned to their sorrow, when all the ID maniacs were voted out of office: Dover boots board.

[Junior]

Science is not democratic.

[Junior]

Airplane

[longshadow]

"Kitzmiller is ID's Waterloo" placemarker

[PatrickHenry]

Links to post-Dover threads. Politicians understand that creationism (and ID) is political death. "Creationism ambushed by reality":

Intelligent design loses vote [Ohio].
Taft adds to evolution debate [Ohio' Republican governor gets it].
Intelligent Design belittles God, Vatican director says.
Calif. School Scraps 'Intelligent Design' [El Tejon litigation].
INTELLIGENT DESIGN: Teaching children the truth [Cal Thomas gets it].
[Jeb] Bush: Science comes before intelligent design [Jeb gets the message].
Santorum now critical of Dover case. (Big about-face.)

[shuckmaster]

It may be a good or bad decision but it's their decision not some judge's.

Read the article and you'll see that you are wrong!

[shuckmaster]

Evolution has NEVER been reproduced,

What a crock. Living individuals reproduce every day and living populations are in a constant state of evolution.

[shuckmaster]

"Creationism ambushed by reality":

You don't get thanked enough for all the great work you do here!

[PatrickHenry]

What a crock.

He's moving the goalposts quite a ways. He wants us to start out in a lab with an amoeba, and then reproduce an exact copy of the entire ecosystem of the planet. And if we do, he'll say it's evidence of ID. He'll also tell us to get our own dirt (big creationist punchline). If you let these people decide what science is and how it should be done we'll be back in the caves in no time.

[PatrickHenry]

It is sufficient that the Grand Master smiles upon me.

[LiteKeeper]

:-) Nice try - but that is NOT what is generally referred to when talking about evolution. Even variation within a species is not what is referred to as evolution...even creationists believe in Natural Selection - it is integral to speciation (variation within a species, but not the evolution of new species).

The debate about evolution refers to the rise of new species due to mutations...it refers to the rise of species all from a common ancestor. And that has never been demonstrated in the Lab, nor in Nature.

[CarolinaGuitarman]

"even creationists believe in Natural Selection - it is integral to speciation (variation within a species, but not the evolution of new species)."

Speciation is by definition the production of a new species.

"And that has never been demonstrated in the Lab, nor in Nature."

Sure it has. The problem is creationists are stuck on the term *kind* (which has no taxonomic meaning). They want a new species to be something completely different from the original species, with completely new organs and structures like wings sprouting or new eyes. The definition of species accepted by science is not perfect, but it does represent a real biological population.

[longshadow]

If you let these people decide what science is and how it should be done we'll be back in the caves in no time.

"Letting Anti-Evo activists decide what science is and how it should be done is like letting Islamic Jihadists decide what Free Speech is and who get's to use it."

[longshadow]

ignore superfluous apostrophe in previous post

[js1138]

The debate about evolution refers to the rise of new species due to mutations...it refers to the rise of species all from a common ancestor. And that has never been demonstrated in the Lab, nor in Nature.

How would you recognize the rise of a new species? Be specific.

[Doctor Stochastic]

The FOIA documents showed, among other things, that board members ignored the recommendations of the Department of Education's own science experts, who said the lesson plan was inaccurate and misleading.

So that's why FOIA inquiry was required.