Darwinists Trick Themselves in Texas

Discovery Institute ^ | March 29, 2009 | Bruce Chapman

[GodGunsGuts]

Darwinists Trick Themselves in Texas

The New York Times got the preview story wrong, and the Washington Post editorial writer probably was too rushed to question the charges of "creationism" coming from the National Center for Science Education, the Darwin-only lobby. So this week's important decisions by the Texas Board of Education (TBOE) on how to teach evolution were predicated in the media by the big question of whether teachers should provide both "strengths and weaknesses" of Darwin's theory. Those words might sound benign, readers were told, but they really are "code words" (take the press' word for it) for creationism and religion.

To the media left, any questioning of Darwin is reserved for denizens of Dogpatch.

So, what did the TBOE do? Well, it turns out that they are fairly adroit politicians. They did remove language providing for "strengths and weaknesses" and then added new language--quite a lot of it--providing that students will learn, for example, to "analyze, evaluate and critique scientific explanations…including examining all sides of scientific evidence… so as to encourage critical thinking by the student." Perfect! A policy distinction without a difference! In fact, the new standards are just fine, an improvement, in fact. Now teachers can tell the kids about the scientific evidence in a variety of fields that seems to contradict the Darwinian account as well as the supposed evidence in support.

Once again the NCSE was too-smart-by-half. It ran blogs making fun of religion, while organizing public speakers who gave fulsome testimony to their Christian faith and how compatible it is with "evolution" (meaning Darwinian evolution). To the purists like Richard Dawkins and P.Z. Myers it probably makes them look like toadies.

In the end, the rhetoric meant to evoke fundamentalist cranks was mixed with pious statements doing the very kind of religious posturing the Darwinists project onto their foes, and reminding me of the church scenes from Blazing Saddles. It all backfired.

By demonizing specific words--and making the elimination of them the test of "science"--the NCSE and its state distributor, the Orwellian-named Texas Freedom Network, simply allowed the Board to do the obvious word shuffle. Okay, no "strengths and weakness, " but instead, we'll pass similar ideas in different words, and everyone will be happy. Except, of course, the NCSE and the TFN.

Don't expect the media to figure this out from the NCSE Talking Points memo, but the insiders get the picture. Dawkins must be enjoying a caustic chuckle at the expense of the NCSE.

[GodGunsGuts]

==...radical Islam is creationist to the core.

That seems to be atlaw’s agenda. As far as I can tell his thesis is as follows.

Harun Yahya = Creationist = Islamic Terrorism = Biblical Creation

[GodGunsGuts]

Trust me, I’m not holding my breath!

[GodGunsGuts]

==Now to conflate Christianity and creationists with islam and use it to accuse creationists of being islamic terrorists because the muslims took the same creation account as the Jews, is intellectual dishonesty of the highest degree.

Notice, Mr. Lawyer refuses to defend his twisted “logic.” He’s only here for one reason, and one reason only...to slime creationists.

[allmendream]

I'm waiting for the tinfoil hat needed to tune in the secret transmission that says that Osama Bin Lauden is really motivated by Darwin not Mohammad; that he quotes from “the Origin of Species” not the “Quran”; that the organization known as “Islamic Jihad” is neither Islamic nor jihadist.

Now a Quiz for anybody interested in breaking the link between Islam and terrorism.....

In 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by: (a) A salesman from Utah (b) An construction worker (c) A college student on Spring Break (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 1972, 11 Israeli athletes were killed at the Munich Olympics by: (a) Your grandmother (b) A Midwest auto-parts dealer (c) A mom and her 6-year-old son visiting from Indiana (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 1979, the U.S. embassy in Iran was taken over by: (a) A bluegrass band (b) Dallas Cowboy fans (c) A tour group of 80-year-old women (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

During the 1980’s numerous Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by: (a) A family on their way to Disney World (b) Jesse Ventura (c) A Boy Scout Troop (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 1983, the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by: (a) A pizza delivery boy (b) The UPS guy (c) Geraldo Rivera making up for a slow news day (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked, and a 70-year-old disabled American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard by: (a) A girls’ choir (b) A hardware store owner (c) A secretary (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a U.S. Navy diver was murdered by: (a) A Marine officer with two weeks leave (b) A plumber going to visit his mom (c) A Catholic nun (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by: (a) A college-bound freshman (b) A cardiac surgeon on his way to Houston (c) A waitress (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 1993, the World Trade Center was bombed by: (a) A starving actress (b) A mom with a newborn (c) Twin six-year-old boys (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 1995, a plot to blow up U.S.-bound international flights over the Pacific was attempted by (a) Hawaiian school kids (b) An decorated Vietnam Veteran (c) Twin sisters on their way to Paducah (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 1998, the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by: (a) A local TV weatherman (b) A dad and his two sons on a ski trip (c) A widower going to visit his grandchildren (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 2000, 17 sailors died in an attack on the USS Cole (DDG 67) in Yemen by: (a) A child in a stroller (b) A high school class on their way to visit Washington, DC (c) Newlyweds on their way to Miami (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked — two flown into the World Trade Centers, one into the Pentagon and one into the ground in rural Pennsylvania. They were hijacked by: (a) A retired police officer on a mission trip to Haiti (b) A
firefighter going to Maryland for training (c) An paramedic on his way to vacation in Hawaii (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 2002 the United States liberated Afghanistan from: (a) USAID relief workers (b) Jewish Pilgrims (c) Christian missionaries (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl and other Westerners were kidnapped and beheaded by: (a) The Peace Corp (b) Scottish clansmen (c) Cuban refugees (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 2002, more than 330 hostages n Beslan and 130 hostages in Moscow were murdered in sieges by: (a) Russian exchange students (b) The Red Guard (c) Church planters (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 2003 the United States liberated Iraq from “The Butcher of Baghdad,” but most American military personnel were killed by: (a) Iraqi school-girls (b) Street vegetable venders (c) Women without burkas (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 2004, more than 200 Spanish civilians were murdered on trains by bombs in Madrid, detonated by: (a) Morning commuters (b) A three-year-old Chinese girl (c) Flamenco dancers (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 2005 more than 50 UK citizens were killed by bombs on trains in London, detonated by: (a) Rail workers (b) Those unable to hail taxis (c) Wheelchair-bound grandmothers (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 2005, there were hundreds of casualties, men, women and children, killed by bombs in Jerusalem, Riyadh and Amman. These innocent civilians were murdered by: (a) Construction workers (b) Farmers (c) Christian missionaries (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 2005, the city of Paris, and other European cities experienced an extended period of riots and destruction. The unrest was led by: (a) “Youth” (b) Soccer fans (c) Catholic nuns (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

Since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, more than 2,500 Americans have been murdered by terrorists. 35,000 Iraqi men, women and children have also been murdered by terrorists. Most of the combat and civilians casualties were the result of bombs
detonated in civilian population centers by: (a) Fruit vendors in Baghdad (b) Disgruntled transit union workers (c) Iraqi schoolteachers (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 2006, hundreds of Israeli civilians have been killed by rockets launched by: (a) the Salvation Army (b) remnants of the ‘Jackson Five’ (c) the cast of ‘Friends’ (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 2006, a plot to blow up 10 U.S.-bound planes from the U.K. was attempted by (a) members of the royal family (b) Japanese tourists (c) groupies of the band ‘Cream’ (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

Since 2001, the FBI reports that there are major terrorist cells still in U.S. urban centers. Several of these cells have been uncovered and cell members arrested. In every case, the terrorists cell members were: (a) Southern Baptists Conventioneers (b) Lutheran Youth Groups (c) Presbyterian Elders (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

[GodGunsGuts]

Who said anything about breaking the link between Islam and Terrorism? My main point is that the Communists infiltrated Islam to spread world revolution, in much the same way as they attempted to infiltrate that Christian church via Liberation Theology to spread the same. My contention is that radical, political Islam is a hybrid of revolutionary materialism and Islam. That’s why you see Hezbollah flags lining the streets in Lebanon, not with their founders picture, but instead adorned with pictures of Che Guevara. That’s why studies have found that the majority Hezbollah suicide bombers come from secular socialist and communist parties. That is why Bin Laden’s number two man is a known KGB agent...because the commies (read: revolutionary materialists) have infiltrated Islam.

Like I said, put up or shut up. Are you up to starting a separate debate thread on this subject or not?

[allmendream]

I am not going to shut up. If you want to present your argument, such as it is, post the thread, invite me and anybody else you want to it, and I will engage your argument.

And you are the one trying to break the link between Islam and Terrorism. You are trying to claim that terrorists are not motivated by Islam to blow themselves and others sky high; but are “Temple of Darwin Fanatics” to use your phrasing.

This is revisionist history, and abject blindness to the motivations, rhetoric, and propaganda of our enemies.

[allmendream]

Care to answer the quiz questions GGG?

Who was responsible for all those terrorist acts?

[GodGunsGuts]

==Care to answer the quiz questions GGG? Who was responsible for all those terrorist acts?

Quiz question #1: In 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by: (a) A salesman from Utah (b) An construction worker (c) A college student on Spring Break (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

“Sirhan was born in Jerusalem to a Palestinian Christian family and immigrated as a child to the United States with his family. In his adult life, however, he made several religious conversions, joining Baptist and Seventh-day Adventist churches, and dabbled in the occult.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirhan_Sirhan

He (Sirhan) told Weidner, “There is no God. Look at what God has done for the Arabs! And for the Palestinians! How can we believe in God?”

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=3114ABEF-4F87-4987-A263-E71D81ABD9AD

The only Arab leader he really admired was Nasser (secular socialist) and he thought Nasser’s policies were right. The Arabs had to build themselves up and fight Israel, that was the only way. The only outside friend the Arabs had was Russia, but, according to Sirhan, Russia had not proved a good enough friend during last June’s fighting (Six Day War).”

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=3114ABEF-4F87-4987-A263-E71D81ABD9AD

[GodGunsGuts]

==In 1972, 11 Israeli athletes were killed at the Munich Olympics by: (a) Your grandmother (b) A Midwest auto-parts dealer (c) A mom and her 6-year-old son visiting from Indiana (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

“Probably the second largest organization and certainly the key to the story of the Black September hijackings was the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Unlike Fatah, it was highly ideological, calling not only for the liberation of Palestine but also for the creation of a Marxist-Leninist Arab society. Formed in January 1968 by 41-year-old Dr. George Habash and his second in command, 43-year-old Dr. Wadia Haddad, the PFLP was fiercely independent although it did receive extensive funding from Iraq and had close ties with Red China. The group was militant and radical. “If [it] is the only way to destroy Israel, Zionism, and Arab reaction,” Habash asserted in a 1970 interview, “then we want World War III to come.” In another he warned, “America is our enemy,” and the PFLP was about to “teach the United States a lesson.”

http://www.meforum.org/1768/terror-in-black-september-an-eyewitness-account

[GodGunsGuts]

==In 1979, the U.S. embassy in Iran was taken over by: (a) A bluegrass band (b) Dallas Cowboy fans (c) A tour group of 80-year-old women (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

“Among the closest associates of Khomeini, there were many Communists who had conveniently grown beards. Mustafa Ali Chamran had studied in California and Egypt before he founded a Red Shi’ite secret society. His pupils included later foreign minister Ibrahim Yazdi, oil minister Mohammed Gharazi, and a Lebanese fellow student in Berkeley University, Hussein Shaikh al-Islam, who led the occupation of the US Embassy in Tehran. This occupation, shortly before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, focused Iranian radicalism into anti-Americanism. (Taheri, p. 78 and 139-140) Mohammed Beheshti, whose death at a bombing on June 28th, 1981, remained a mystery, had resided in East Germany. Khomeini’s early companion and foreign minister, Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, was a link to Syria. Most left-wing radicals were repressed only after summer 1981, by which time many former Communists had successfully accommodated with the new regime. Both Ghotbzadeh and Chamran had received Palestinian terrorist training. As a student in the USA, Ghotbzadeh had been recruited by the GRU. (Livingston & Halevy, p. 153-154; Kuzichkin, p. 302)”

http://users.jyu.fi/~aphamala/pe/issue5/roots.htm

[valkyry1]

Looks like atlaw and allmendream are attempting to hijack and derail your thread here. As pretty much always, this is their intent of course.

[GodGunsGuts]

That’s enough for now. Starting to see a pattern yet, Allmendream? Any comments, atlaw?

Are you two now prepared to participate, from start to finish, in the proposed debate thread?

[GodGunsGuts]

That’s why I am trying to get them to agree to participate in the proposed debate thread (from start to finish) so that we can get this topic moved to the appropriate place...at which point the lame arguments of both of them (i.e. trying to distance revolutionary materialism from Islamist terrorism) will be completely eviscerated.

[GodGunsGuts]

==In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked, and a 70-year-old disabled American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard by: (a) A girls’ choir (b) A hardware store owner (c) A secretary (d) Middle Eastern Islamist males between the ages of 17 and 40.

This was carried out by the Palestine Liberation Front:

Description: Under a five-pointed red star, from left to right, is a green map of Israel and the territories, an AK-47 rifle and a crescent. At bottom, in a semi-circle, are the words "Palestinian Liberation Front."

Explanation: The star symbolizes the group's Marxist-Leninist beginnings. The green map of Israel denotes the aim of eliminating what the group believes to be wrongful rule of Israel. The rifle symbolizes and affirms a commitment to armed struggle. The combination of red, green and black echoes the Palestinian flag and evokes Palestinian nationalism.

[GodGunsGuts]

Link to last:

http://www.adl.org/terrorism/symbols/palestinian_liberation_front.asp

Starting to see a pattern yet, gentlemen. Should I go on. Are you ready to commit to starting a separate debate thread on the subject (in which you both agree to participate from START TO FINISH)?

[GodGunsGuts]

And what of the founder of modern terrorism, Yasser Arafat and the PLO??? (Liberty1970...see above for more)"

Link at the bottom:

This is not surprising either, given the fact that both the PLO and the Ba’athist movement were originally creations of the Soviet Union–the PLO is a Soviet inspired Communist movement.

 

This is evidenced in the Charter’s frequent use of familiar terms like “Imperialist and Imperialism” which are KGB coined invectives for the United States, and others like “Vanguard, and Progressive” which are familiar Soviet terms applied to communists and communist movements.

 

But you need not decipher words in the charter to reach that conclusion.  Former CIA Deputy Director Ray Cline provided ample proof in his book Terrorism, The Soviet Connection.[8] 

 

And there’s more. Ion Pacepa, acting chief of Romanian foreign intelligence, was the highest-ranking intelligence officer to ever defect from the Soviet Bloc.  His group was tasked with training PLO leaders.  In a recent interview with FrontPageMagazine.com, he stated:

 

The PLO was dreamt up by the KGB, which had a penchant for ‘liberation’ organizations. In 1964 the first PLO council, consisting of 422 Palestinian representatives handpicked by the KGB, approved the Palestinian National Charter-–a document that had been drafted in Moscow.[9]

 

The most damning evidence against Arafat’s claimed aspirations for Palestinian statehood however, is his own words. In his FrontPage interview, Pacepa describes an exchange Arafat had with late Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1978.  Ceausescu had just informed him that Moscow wanted him to pretend that the PLO was willing to renounce terrorism in hopes of becoming a Palestinian state.  Breznev thought that then President Carter would buy it:

 

            “But we are a revolution,” Arafat exploded...”We were born as a revolution and we should remain an unfettered revolution.”  Arafat expostulated that the Palestinians lacked the tradition, unity and discipline to become a formal state [emph. mine]...and he was not willing to put any laws or other obstacles in the way of the Palestinian struggle to eradicate the state of Israel.[10]

 

But Ceausescu prevailed on Arafat:

 

            Ceausescu...told [Arafat] that, if he would transform the PLO into a government-in-exile and would pretend to break with terrorism, the West would shower him with money and glory. ‘But you have to keep on pretending, over and over’...in the shadow of your government-in-exile you can keep as many terrorist groups as you want, as long as they are not publicly connected with your name.[11]

 

Arafat was granted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for renouncing terrorism and promising to change the PLO charter’s goal of eliminating Israel.  None of these promises have been kept, despite Arafat’s solemn oaths, made “over and over” as Ceausescu suggested.

 

On September 13, 1993, the same day Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin signed the “Declaration of Principles” embodying those ideals for which he would later get the Nobel Prize, he explained his motives on Lebanese TV:

            Since we cannot defeat Israel in war, we do this in stages. We take any and every territory that we can of Palestine, and establish sovereignty there, and we use it as a springboard to take more. When the time comes, we can get the Arab nations to join us for the final blow against Israel.[12]

 

As I mentioned earlier, a Palestinian state is not the PLO’s goal, never has been. Once you accept this, it is easy to understand why he rebuffed former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s extremely generous offer of statehood for Palestine.

 

Yasser Arafat was not a Moslem. 

 

He was fully indoctrinated in the culture and ideology of radical communist revolutionaries and enjoyed the support and full backing of the Soviet Bloc.  He was a Communist. 

 

Pacepa flatly stated Arafat was a “devoted Marxist-Leninist.”[13]  This is not really news, any movement dreamt up by the KGB would, by definition, have to be communist at its core.  Arafat’s professed belief in Islam, right down to TV shots of him bowing on a prayer mat in traditional Moslem fashion, is pure political theater, nothing more.  So Arafat’s al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, while professing allegiance to Allah, are simply stooges carrying out the terrorist policies of the atheistic PLO. 

 

Link:

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=20481815-E639-4201-A4FE-BE3C4F3C2A58

[Liberty1970]

GGG, The data you cite lacks a clear 'smoking gun' admission or statement from folks like Arafat denying belief in the Koran, or affirming atheistic communism specifically. It shows that they have been influenced by Marxist thought and beliefs, and they tend to express their struggle within that context. But that does not contradict their basic allegiance to the Koran. Indeed, their firm struggle against Israel and Jews is based on their Islamic beliefs, not any Communist ones. Plenty of Jews have been communists, after all, and Israel has always had a socialist tilt.

My suspicion is that they tend to express themselves in socialistic/Marxist terminology of class warfare and oppression to the western world (which is attuned to secular socialism), and in Islamic jihadist terminology to the Muslim world.

[CottShop]

[[which is attuned to secular socialism]]

Seems to be the sentiment of Secularists in this country who beleive we, America, are nothign but a bunch of oppressive thugs who must forever apologize and atone for our ‘sins’ of wanting democracy- Now we’ve got a president who is traveling hte globe ‘apologizing’ to terorist nations, and trying to appeaze and coddle them. Socialism is an insidious form of self-loathing, nation loathing that cedes power to those who hate us and wish us dead.

[GodGunsGuts]

==GGG, The data you cite lacks a clear ‘smoking gun’ admission or statement from folks like Arafat denying belief in the Koran, or affirming atheistic communism specifically.

I have TONS AND TONS more. As Gen. Ion Pacepa flatly stated, Arafat was no Muslim. He was a hardcore Marxist-Lenist devoted to spreading revolutionary materialism. I would love to pick up this topic on a dedicated thread.

==It shows that they have been influenced by Marxist thought and beliefs, and they tend to express their struggle within that context. But that does not contradict their basic allegiance to the Koran.

He was an out-and-out atheistic communist. But I will grant you this, they used the language of the Qur’an to adapt their communist revolution to the particular circumstances in the Middle East. Just as they did in the Russia, just as they did in China, Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, etc, etc.

[GodGunsGuts]

Should have read: But I will grant you this, they used the language of the Qur’an to adapt their communist revolution to the particular circumstances in the Middle East. Just as they adopted their communist revolution to the particular circumstances in Russia, just as they did in China, Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, etc, etc.