Posted on 08/24/2008 2:16:12 PM PDT by GodGunsGuts
...In February, the Florida Department of Education modified its standards to explicitly require, for the first time, the state’s public schools to teach evolution, calling it “the organizing principle of life science.” Spurred in part by legal rulings against school districts seeking to favor religious versions of natural history, over a dozen other states have also given more emphasis in recent years to what has long been the scientific consensus: that all of the diverse life forms on Earth descended from a common ancestor, through a process of mutation and natural selection, over billions of years.
But in a nation where evangelical Protestantism and other religious traditions stress a literal reading of the biblical description of God’s individually creating each species, students often arrive at school fearing that evolution, and perhaps science itself, is hostile to their faith.
Some come armed with “Ten questions to ask your biology teacher about evolution,” a document circulated on the Internet that highlights supposed weaknesses in evolutionary theory. Others scrawl their opposition on homework assignments. Many just tune out.
(Click link for full article)
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Well, too bad! I have a sister-in-law that believes your child will be marked if you play cards when you are pregnant. I sort of believe her faith is misguided.
It’s really very simple. If a student signs up to take a course in biology, that student is there to learn what biologists think.
Any dispruptive behavior is cheating the other students of what they came for. Tuning out means only cheating oneself of learning the basics, even if only to better oppose it later when educated and knowledgable.
I don’t know about you guys, but I’m tired of laying down for this stuff. I think it’s time we get in the face of the Evos, and not to back down until they are completely crushed politically. We have enough people on our side to squish these losers like a political bug. If they want to FORCE this crap down our childrens throats, then I say we stop arguing with them and give them a taste of their own medicine!
What about all the biologists who maintain the only other possibility, Creation/Intelligent Design? Why aren’t they being covered? Either get the government schools out of the origins business, or allow both sides to be represented. If the evos insist on using force to brainwash our children, then that leaves the our side no choice but to wage an all out political war against them. None of this namby-pambi stuff we’ve seen so far...I mean an unrelenting, in-your-face political battle to crush the jackbooted evos and their Commie-ACLU minions once and for all.
Uh huh.
Any dispruptive behavior is cheating the other students of what they came for. Tuning out means only cheating oneself of learning the basics, even if only to better oppose it later when educated and knowledgable.
Exactly. From the article:
“Faith is not based on science,” Mr. Campbell said. “And science is not based on faith. I don’t expect you to ‘believe’ the scientific explanation of evolution that we’re going to talk about over the next few weeks.”“But I do,” he added, “expect you to understand it.”
another reason to homeschool
We don’t expect them to ‘believe’ the Creation/ID argument either. Present both sides of the debate, or present none at all.
....play cards when you are pregnant...”
is that Scriptural????
==another reason to homeschool
Very true. But even there they use force, because if you elect to homeschool you have to pay TWICE. That is, you have to pay for the private/homeschool —AND— you still have to pay for the government schools (read: Temple of Darwin indoctrination centers).
Evolution is not based on science. It is an unfalsifiable conjecture, like astrology. Que sera, sera.
Wrong. A beginning biology course is to teach what biologists think.
Once students learn that, they may go on to oppose it if they so choose.
You want them to learn what biologists don’t think, which is silly.
It’s really very simple. If a student signs up to take a course in biology, that student is there to learn what biologists think.”
Any science course that does not explore all possibilities on any of the topics is doing a disservice to the student and to science. That’s what good science is all about.
Are you saying that there aren’t biologists who challenge Darwin’s ToE? Tell me, should students learn both sides of the global warming debate? After all, climate scientists believe it’s caused by humans.
Are you saying that there aren’t biologists who challenge Darwin’s ToE? Tell me, should students learn both sides of the global warming debate? After all, “real” climate scientists believe it’s caused by humans.
It’s me not Amelia you’re quoting.
As for your talking point...
“Any science course that does not explore all possibilities on any of the topics is doing a disservice to the student and to science. That’s what good science is all about.”
...it is beyond absurd. There are literally thousands of possibilities that the students cannot begin to understand until they are taught the basics of what scientists in the field are working from.
ORIGIN OF LIFE. Why do textbooks claim that the 1953 Miller-Urey experiment shows how life's building blocks may have formed on the early Earth — when conditions on the early Earth were probably nothing like those used in the experiment, and the origin of life remains a mystery?
DARWIN'S TREE OF LIFE. Why don't textbooks discuss the "Cambrian explosion," in which all major animal groups appear together in the fossil record fully formed instead of branching from a common ancestor — thus contradicting the evolutionary tree of life?
HOMOLOGY. Why do textbooks define homology as similarity due to common ancestry, then claim that it is evidence for common ancestry — a circular argument masquerading as scientific evidence?
VERTEBRATE EMBRYOS. Why do textbooks use drawings of similarities in vertebrate embryos as evidence for their common ancestry — even though biologists have known for over a century that vertebrate embryos are not most similar in their early stages, and the drawings are faked?
ARCHAEOPTERYX. Why do textbooks portray this fossil as the missing link between dinosaurs and modern birds — even though modern birds are probably not descended from it, and its supposed ancestors do not appear until millions of years after it?
PEPPERED MOTHS. Why do textbooks use pictures of peppered moths camouflaged on tree trunks as evidence for natural selection — when biologists have known since the 1980s that the moths don't normally rest on tree trunks, and all the pictures have been staged?
DARWIN'S FINCHES. Why do textbooks claim that beak changes in Galapagos finches during a severe drought can explain the origin of species by natural selection — even though the changes were reversed after the drought ended, and no net evolution occurred?
MUTANT FRUIT FLIES. Why do textbooks use fruit flies with an extra pair of wings as evidence that DNA mutations can supply raw materials for evolution — even though the extra wings have no muscles and these disabled mutants cannot survive outside the laboratory?
HUMAN ORIGINS. Why are artists' drawings of ape-like humans used to justify materialistic claims that we are just animals and our existence is a mere accident — when fossil experts cannot even agree on who our supposed ancestors were or what they looked like?
EVOLUTION A FACT? Why are we told that Darwin's theory of evolution is a scientific fact — even though many of its claims are based on misrepresentations of the facts?
Any Evols want to answer these questions?
well, if most Christians took their kids out of the public schools, the secular leftists wouldn’t have any power over education. That has to be the focus.
I’m Jewish and we have established private schools despite the problem of dual tuition. Even if some secular belief is mandated, the teachers and rabbis can explain why it is not a valid argument without recrimination from the state.
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.