Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Alabama antievolution bills die
National Center for Science Education ^ | 10 May 2006 | Staff

Posted on 05/10/2006 5:25:06 PM PDT by PatrickHenry

When the Alabama legislature adjourned on April 18, 2006, House Bill 106 and Senate Bill 45 died. These identical bills purported to protect the right of teachers to "present scientific information pertaining to the full range of scientific views in any curricula or course of learning" and the right of students not to be "penalized in any way because he or she may subscribe to a particular position on any views." In language reminiscent of the Santorum language removed from the No Child Left Behind Act, they specified that "[t]he rights and privileges contained in this act apply when topics are taught that may generate controversy, such as biological or chemical origins." HB 106 and SB 45 closely resembled previous antievolution bills in Alabama -- three bills introduced in 2005 (HB 352, SB 240, and HB 716) and two bills introduced in 2004 (HB 391 and SB 336) -- all of which failed.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Philosophy; US: Alabama
KEYWORDS: crevolist; pavlovian
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 121-140141-160161-180 ... 241-246 next last
To: Havoc
Havoc you may as well be talking to a 3 bit computer(metaphorically) it only has a very limited pallet of answers (and variations of those answers) to draw upon and return.

Wolf
141 posted on 05/11/2006 12:13:06 AM PDT by RunningWolf (Vet US Army Air Cav 1975)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 136 | View Replies]

To: puroresu
I fail to see why so much time and effort is spent trying to protect a scientific theory from being challenged.

There is no such time or effort being made. Really, this is just ridiculous, and it makes me question your honestly.

There is nothing stopping IDers from actually doing science and challenging standard biology in the arena of science. What IDers are attempting to do, instead, is wage the war in middle schools and high schools instead.

Sorry, it doesn't work that way. Real science goes from the top-down. First an idea will make the rounds in peer-reviewed journals, then, after gaining some acceptance among the relevant scientists, it will make its way with varying certainty into college textbooks, and only once it has been overwhelmingly accepted in a field is it introduced to pre-college curriculum.

For you to state that there is a legislative attempt to prevent "challenges to evolution" betrays either dishonesty or a grave misunderstanding of how science, and science curricula, work. I say again: No one is stopping IDers from actually doing a little science, and getting their ideas accepted by those trained in the relevant fields, if indeed their ideas have merit.
142 posted on 05/11/2006 12:55:04 AM PDT by aNYCguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 89 | View Replies]

To: puroresu; Dimensio

I would agree. At the same time, argumentation isn't about the person, it is about the logic of the argument and the truth of it. No matter the language skill in stating the argument, if it fails on logic/truth, it fails. I guess my bottom line here is that for as obviously intelligent as he is, his argumentation differs from the dumbest amongst his group only in vocabulary, not substance. That should tell you to look at the mindset and argument rather than credentials and personality.


143 posted on 05/11/2006 1:57:50 AM PDT by Havoc (Evolutionists and Democrats: "We aren't getting our message out" (coincidence?))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 140 | View Replies]

To: PatrickHenry

Some have said, prior/after, as to C. Darwin- that the likely hood of any convergience of specie is only in the well funded postere' of a simple mind. Thank you for the revisionist chalk marks. You are standing tall.


144 posted on 05/11/2006 2:09:49 AM PDT by Treader (Human convenience is always on the edge of a breakthrough, or a sellout)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

Why is there air placemarker


145 posted on 05/11/2006 2:50:14 AM PDT by js1138
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 144 | View Replies]

To: PatrickHenry

I live in a region of Alabama that has more Ph.Ds per capita than any other place in the country, except certain regions of California. One would think that being the case neither of these bills should have even been proposed in this state. However, nearly all those doctorates are in engineering of one stripe or another, and knowing the mindset of engineers, and the fact there are more fundamentalist Protestant churches per square kilometer here than just about any place else, it appears that even one of the most educated regions of the country can fall prey to ludditeness from time to time.


146 posted on 05/11/2006 4:21:59 AM PDT by Junior (Identical fecal matter, alternate diurnal period)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Junior
Yepp, it seems Salem's hypothesis is being confirmed in the Huntsville area.
147 posted on 05/11/2006 4:36:02 AM PDT by BMCDA (If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it,we would be so simple that we couldn't)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 146 | View Replies]

To: aNYCguy

I'm sorry you found it necessary to question someone's honesty over a simple disagreement. I don't have time today to engage in debate, so I'll just note that there are specific cases where evolutionists have gone to court to precisely protect evolution from being challenged. The Cobb County sticker case comes to mind, where stickers that accurately described the theory of evolution and encouraged students to study it with an open mind were ordered removed by a federal judge. Supporters of evolution couldn't bear the thought of their theory being presented in a manner short of outright acquiescence.


148 posted on 05/11/2006 4:47:57 AM PDT by puroresu (Conservatism is an observation; Liberalism is an ideology)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 142 | View Replies]

To: Havoc; Dimensio

Thanks for your response. Of course we're in disagreement with Dimensio. We wouldn't be here debating otherwise. But I do respect him and the others here on both sides who are willing to debate without too much rancor (we all get a little edgy sometimes)!


149 posted on 05/11/2006 4:58:13 AM PDT by puroresu (Conservatism is an observation; Liberalism is an ideology)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 143 | View Replies]

To: freedumb2003
I like that term ... anti-science folks. That is a good way to look at their behaviour.
150 posted on 05/11/2006 5:02:45 AM PDT by hawkaw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Havoc

"Who among the most base idiots on this forum would go out and buy something based on what it's advertised to do and not return it when it fails to live up to it's claims."

YEC's.


151 posted on 05/11/2006 5:26:11 AM PDT by CarolinaGuitarman ("There is grandeur in this view of life....")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 130 | View Replies]

To: PatrickHenry

The National Center for Science Education has a penchant for Orwellian language. What is titled as an "Academic Freedom Act" suddenly becomes an "antievolution bill." There is nothing in the language of that legislation that seeks to replace the philosophy evolution with other philosophies, only language that allows free discussion of any principles that might apply in a public, academic, scientific context. Of course such a bill is redundant because the First Amendment already protects us from tyrannical groupthink.


152 posted on 05/11/2006 5:40:39 AM PDT by Fester Chugabrew
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Havoc

I point out that Creationism and ID are mythology and that TToE is science.

I challenge CRIDers like yourself to defend such statements as you make that TToE is flawed.

I have yet to be taken up on that challenge.


153 posted on 05/11/2006 6:25:46 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (Any guest worker program that does not require application from the home country is Amnesty)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 115 | View Replies]

To: PatrickHenry
"penalized in any way because he or she may subscribe to a particular position on any views."

Should students demand the right to not be penalized in any way because they subscribe to the position that math sucks? That history is boring?

Generally speaking, students in a school *should* be penalized for not learning their lessons. If students are *not* penalized for failing to master the material, then school is a farce and should be called something else entirely such as "day care."

For opposing feel-good legislation such as this we're cultists and homos?

154 posted on 05/11/2006 6:30:30 AM PDT by Liberal Classic (No better friend, no worse enemy. Semper Fi.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Havoc
Popular support went because people got exposed to the truth. Live with it. Popular support doesn't equal truth. And I've never argued that. I tend, rather, to point out this fact when you guys claim that 'all' or 'most' scientists agree on evolution. Who cares. It isn't about their opinions.

You're right. It isn't about the opinions of scientists either: What scientists "believe" or assert. It is, however, entirely about what scientists DO: What ideas they fruitfully use or implicate in ongoing, original research.

It is about the truth.

Which is why what scientists DO is important, rather than what they (or lay commentators) say. It's in actually doing science that you force your theories to bump up against reality -- the ultimate arbiter of truth -- and succeed or fail in the process.

155 posted on 05/11/2006 6:32:38 AM PDT by Stultis (I don't worry about the war turning into "Vietnam" in Iraq; I worry about it doing so in Congress.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 107 | View Replies]

To: DaveLoneRanger
I'd simply love to see both sides play fairly.

Being called a homo, a nazi, a terrorist, a cultist, a communist, and an idolator makes me want to take my ball and go home.

156 posted on 05/11/2006 6:34:18 AM PDT by Liberal Classic (No better friend, no worse enemy. Semper Fi.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: BMCDA
Yepp, it seems Salem's hypothesis is being confirmed in the Huntsville area.

That's good! Why have I never heard of the Salem hypothesis before? I would propose a further possibility -- that it also applies to those with degrees in computer science.

157 posted on 05/11/2006 7:12:54 AM PDT by PatrickHenry (Unresponsive to trolls, lunatics, fanatics, retards, scolds, & incurable ignoramuses.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 147 | View Replies]

To: Havoc
This is why you hide behind science - because you think begging nonsense over proofs will insulate you from the fact that you have none. It doesn't. People see clearly through it.. to your dismay.

Your posts are getting pretty silly.

Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war

After reading a lot of your posts from last evening, and analyzing their scientific content, I found a picture of your "dogs of war" and the "havoc" they are capable of. ; - )


158 posted on 05/11/2006 7:15:26 AM PDT by Coyoteman (Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death--Heinlein)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 130 | View Replies]

To: Coyoteman
...Rather, theories are the end points of science. They are understandings that develop from extensive observation, experimentation, and creative reflection.

OK, we know that no one has conducted extensive observation of macro-evolution in that no one has lived for gazillions of years... Experimentation...uh, not aware of any reproducible experiments of macro-evolution...creative reflection...uh, THAT MUST BE THE REASON for the dogmatic certainty of the evolutionists.

...They incorporate a large body of scientific facts, laws, tested hypotheses, and logical inferences. In this sense, evolution is one of the strongest and most useful scientific theories we have.

Well, from your post we know that ..."A scientific fact is an observation that has been confirmed over and over. However, observations are gathered by our senses, which can never be trusted entirely. Observations also can change with better technologies or with better ways of looking at data..."

Think: "70 million year old fossil bone" with soft tissues...

...laws, which "...can be very useful in supporting hypotheses and theories, but like all elements of science they can be altered with new information and observations..."

Question: which scientific laws support macro-evolution?

...tested hypotheses...

...How has macro-evolution been tested?

...logical inferences.

O WOW ... logical inferences - I think I found the OTHER REASON for the dogmatic certainty of the evolutionists.

So, I come up with - creative reflection and logical inferences as the pillars of evolution. That's frightening!

159 posted on 05/11/2006 7:18:01 AM PDT by KMJames
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: puroresu
Supporters of evolution couldn't bear the thought of their theory being presented in a manner short of outright acquiescence.

The theory of evolution was being singled out, from all the rest of science, in a manner designed to cast doubt on it.

Do you think the advancement of science was the reason for the stickers? Or, perhaps, was there a more fundamental reason?

160 posted on 05/11/2006 7:20:49 AM PDT by Coyoteman (Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death--Heinlein)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 148 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 121-140141-160161-180 ... 241-246 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson