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Neanderthal man walks among us, Poland's far-right says
AFP via Yahoo! News ^ | Mon Oct 23, 2006 | Jean-Luc Testault

Posted on 10/24/2006 10:55:25 AM PDT by lizol

Neanderthal man walks among us, Poland's far-right says by Jean-Luc Testault

Mon Oct 23, 11:22 AM ET

WARSAW (AFP) - Poland's far-right League of Polish Families (LPR), which is part of the coalition government, claims Darwin's theory of evolution is all wrong, that humans lived alongside dinosaurs and that Neanderthal man is still among us.

Last week, Poland's deputy education minister Miroslaw Orzechowski, a member of the LPR, bluntly rejected British naturalist Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection and his postulate that man is descended from apes.

"The theory of evolution is a lie, a mistake that we have legalised as a common truth," said Orzechowski.

"We must not teach lies, just as we must not teach evil in the place of good and ugliness in the place of beauty."

This weekend, Orzechowski was given some high-level support when European lawmaker for the far-right party, Maciej Giertych -- the father of LPR leader Roman Giertych -- told a seminar that Neanderthal man still roams the planet, notably in the United States where examples can be spotted in a boxing ring.

"A scientist showed me a picture of an American boxer. He had all the traits of Neanderthal man. These people are among us. They are part of the human race, probably more prevalent once upon a time, but who still exist," Giertych, who has a doctorate in biology, told the seminar.

Taking up the mantra of creationists -- who have a strong following among Christian fundamentalists in the United States, but whose theory that God created all living creatures at the same time has not won a huge following in Europe -- Giertych also propounded that man and dinosaurs roamed the earth together.

"Research shows that dinosaurs and man were contemporaries. In every culture, there are indications that we remember (dinosaurs). The Scots have Loch Ness, we Poles have Wawel dragon (in Krakow), Marco Polo spoke of an imperial carriage in China which was pulled by a dragon," Giertych said.

Giertych's son Roman, currently Poland's education ministry, insisted, however, that such anti-Darwinist outlooks would not impact on the school curriculum.

"The status of the theory of evolution will not change in Polish schools," he said Monday in a radio interview.

But he held back from condemning those who have criticised Darwin.

Meanwhile, teachers appear to fear there could be a backlash, with only those who toe the creationist line making it through the selection process in Poland's education system.

Centre-left daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported last week that a high school in the central city of Lodz had removed posters showing the evolution of man from the australopithec to homo sapiens.

Teachers' fears are understandable as LPR has been trying, since it joined the three-way coalition government in May, to stamp its ideology on Poland's education system.

In June, the head of a teacher training school in Poland was fired for publishing the Polish language version of a Council of Europe brochure that the education ministry said encourages contact between pupils and gay groups.

Under Giertych, the education ministry has also tried to take the works of Polish 20th century writer Witold Gombrowicz off the curriculum in Polish high schools, arguing that he was not patriotic enough.

To counter the LPR's anti-Darwin message, Poles have turned to the late pope John Paul II, who in a speech to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1996 said: "Truth cannot contradict truth."

"Today, almost half a century after the publication of the Humani Generis encyclical (in 1950 by Pius XII), new knowledge has led to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis," John Paul II said.

"It is remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory," the pope said.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: evolution; giertych; poland
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1 posted on 10/24/2006 10:55:26 AM PDT by lizol
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To: lizol

So where's the pic of Michael Moore?


2 posted on 10/24/2006 10:56:40 AM PDT by Darkwolf377 (Republican, atheist, pro-life)
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To: Lukasz; Grzegorz 246; Kozik
Neanderthal man walks among us

Oh, definitely! These two are the living proof, that such a statement is right. Far-right :-)))


3 posted on 10/24/2006 10:58:08 AM PDT by lizol (Liberal - a man with his mind open ... at both ends)
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To: lizol

Well, there are quite a few Neanderthals I have personally met and know; a few even float around on FR. So where's the novelty element?


4 posted on 10/24/2006 10:59:29 AM PDT by GSlob
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To: lizol

Oh, this is going to be a fun thread...


5 posted on 10/24/2006 10:59:32 AM PDT by Thrusher (“There’s nothing like the B-2 when it comes to giving peace a chance.")
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To: MelonFarmerJ; Jan Hus; Little Bill; floridavoter2; PoParma; goarmy; G8 Diplomat; mick; PaulJ; ...
Eastern European ping list


FRmail me to be added or removed from this Eastern European ping list

6 posted on 10/24/2006 10:59:44 AM PDT by lizol (Liberal - a man with his mind open ... at both ends)
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To: lizol

Yea, it so easy a caveman could do it.


7 posted on 10/24/2006 11:01:07 AM PDT by 2001convSVT ("People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence")
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To: Darkwolf377
very funny,


8 posted on 10/24/2006 11:01:27 AM PDT by Dick Vomer (liberals suck......... but it depends on what your definition of the word "suck" is.)
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To: lizol

Time for lunch. Roast duck/w mango salsa.


9 posted on 10/24/2006 11:03:21 AM PDT by Rb ver. 2.0
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To: lizol
Neanderthal man walks among us

So THAT explains all the smelly hippies.

10 posted on 10/24/2006 11:03:40 AM PDT by Disambiguator (If the Democrats were a stock, I would short them.)
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To: lizol

I'll have the roast duck with the mango salsa...


11 posted on 10/24/2006 11:03:40 AM PDT by null and void (Age and experience -- It makes no sense to get one without the other. - Sundog)
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To: Rb ver. 2.0

Darn you!


12 posted on 10/24/2006 11:04:01 AM PDT by null and void (Age and experience -- It makes no sense to get one without the other. - Sundog)
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To: lizol

They came to this conclusion after a Neil Young tour.

13 posted on 10/24/2006 11:04:20 AM PDT by Hacksaw (Don't pick your nose at red lights..)
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To: null and void

I'm not really hungry, thank-you.


14 posted on 10/24/2006 11:07:03 AM PDT by Rb ver. 2.0
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To: 2001convSVT; Dick Vomer

That's soooo condescending.


15 posted on 10/24/2006 11:07:42 AM PDT by ichabod1 (Face it, every empire comes to an end, and ours is on the down hill slope.)
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To: lizol
Neanderthal fossil skulls have bigger brains than modern humans and could be dressed up to look like a corporate executive today instead of the brute we see described by darwinists, either way its a human.
16 posted on 10/24/2006 11:09:08 AM PDT by razzle
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To: lizol

Of course they do, how else can you explain offensive linemen.


17 posted on 10/24/2006 11:10:56 AM PDT by Hydroshock ( (Proverbs 22:7). The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.)
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To: lizol
"A scientist showed me a picture of an American boxer. He had all the traits of Neanderthal man. These people are among us."

Not only is Giertych wrong, not only is he an idiot, but he also appears to be a racist.

The European "far-right" bears no resemblance to the American right. These people are ultra-nationalists, anti-Semites and racists, with decidedly fascist leanings. They don't believe in individual rights or small government or any of the values normally associated with the American right.

18 posted on 10/24/2006 11:11:04 AM PDT by Alter Kaker ("Whatever tears one sheds, in the end one always blows one's nose." - Heine)
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To: Dick Vomer

19 posted on 10/24/2006 11:11:46 AM PDT by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
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To: theDentist
LOL!

Now I have that music to that commercial in my head.

What do they call it? An EARWORM?

20 posted on 10/24/2006 11:13:27 AM PDT by DCPatriot ("It aint what you don't know that kills you. It's what you know that aint so" Theodore Sturgeon)
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