School board OKs challenges to evolution

[Nagual]

School board OKs challenges to evolution
Controversial step taken in rural Pennsylvania district

DOVER, Pa. - When talk at the high school here turns to evolution, biology teachers have to make time for Charles Darwin as well as his detractors.

With a vote last month, the school board in rural south-central Pennsylvania community is believed to have become the first in the nation to mandate the teaching of "intelligent design," which holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by an unspecified higher power.

etc.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6470259/

[You]

Intelligent Design = Boo.

[slernman]

I have real problem with intelligent design. It's pretty simple that it makes no sense. If the world needed a creator that made this complex world then how could this creator be created. Wouldn't there have to be a even more complex creator that would create this creator. This is an ever ending cycle of intelligent design there can be no end so it would be false.

[Logic]

Creationism is just the easy answer to an unanswerable question.

[jereome]

You know you people that spend all your time insulting Christians for being close minded should actually look at yourselves for a change and see that your exactly the same way.

Be open minded people to the point that you are willing to admit that a person that believes intelligent design is the correct path might actually be right instead of blindly following the teachings of the prophets of darwin.

[coral1]

Here`s a radical suggestion. Let`s teach evolution in school, and creationism in church.!

Happy Trails

[Kris]

i was right... there is a higher power... and they thought i was insane...

[no_leaf_clover]

Here`s a radical suggestion. Let`s teach evolution in school, and creationism in church.!

LOL

Yeah, I don't think the diehard Christians see it that way because Christianity for them is so infused into their society that it's one and the same.

[You]

You know you people that spend all your time insulting Christians for being close minded should actually look at yourselves for a change and see that your exactly the same way.

Be open minded people to the point that you are willing to admit that a person that believes intelligent design is the correct path might actually be right instead of blindly following the teachings of the prophets of darwin.

A lot of people believe a lot of stuff. People can be very stupid, in fact... MOST PEOPLE ARE STUPID. Someone believing something means nothing. The only thing that confuses me are intelligent scientists who are christians, a true tragedy of what brainwashing kids can do.

I am openminded. I listen to theories on creationism and the bible. That means I am openminded. I also judge though, and I judge it to be wrong. Being openminded means you consider everything, not that you accept everything.

[MrBurgo]

Not all Christians are closed minded...
I actually believe in the seeding of this planet & DNA manipulation to create this worlds creatures......Humans arnt as high up as we think...
If Humans are the most intelligent species in the universe then we are in trouble.....
Lord Jesus Christ is my Master but stuff the church of bricks & Mortar....My body is my temple.....& I don't believe the bible is the word of God as it was interpreted by man....OMG

All that & I'm a Christian by name & faith

Love & Light

Christian

[Nostic]

I have real problem with intelligent design. It's pretty simple that it makes no sense. If the world needed a creator that made this complex world then how could this creator be created. Wouldn't there have to be a even more complex creator that would create this creator. This is an ever ending cycle of intelligent design there can be no end so it would be false.

The Creator only needs a creator if He is bound by the laws of space and time.

I don't see why this "Intelligent Design" theory is even controversial. It's just something else to consider. Why is it that our system likes to keep everyone in a safe little box? Well, I'm glad to see that at least some changes are being made.

[no_leaf_clover]

I don't see why this "Intelligent Design" theory is even controversial. It's just something else to consider. Why is it that our system likes to keep everyone in a safe little box? Well, I'm glad to see that at least some changes are being made.

On its own I don't suppose it's that big of a deal, but I haven't read the textbook.

If it sticks closely to 'some think the universe seems to have been intelligently designed', it wouldn't be that big of a deal on its own, but given the history of this sort of thing it's a little different. Every since Darwin's theory of evolution became popular, the Bible-thumpers have wanted the Bible's words side-by-side if not completely replacing what science has gathered on its own in our school's textbooks. Schoolbooks based on the Bible are honestly not going to raise a very intellectual society, not to mention the violations of separation of church and state.

The group that caused this event, as the article mentions, were these type of people. Their intentions aren't merely to offer alternate ideas, but to get God back into schools.

I think Coral had it right on with 'evolution in schools, creationism in church'. If they want to teach intelligent design, let them at least offer the scientific evidence, of which there is some, believe it or not, and it does not come from the Bible!

[You]

Mr. Burgo, if you don't believe the bible is divinely inspired, what exactly is it that leads you to believe Jesus is fully god as well as fully man, assuming he existed?

[Ryu-Kanjin]

Why?

Why look for something we can find?

Lol, there are thousands of religions, most of them have different gods all together and different views on the afterlife. Not all of them can be right now can they?

lol evolution is scientific fact, not a faith. If a theory comes around with better proof then evolution ( i doubt it lol ), then let them  

I don't think the human race should even try to explain how the universe was created or what happens after we die, its pointless, we will never find out.

The one group of people i do not like (i don't hate them, they just get on my nerves) are the creationists. They take a 2,000 year old book, that was written back when they didn't understand anything around them, as fact.

School is there to teach children what they need to know, science, math, history, etc. The way the world really is, not to put a sheet in front of there eyes and say *your only purpose in life is to worship God and get into heaven*, not allowing them to learn what they need to function in toddy's world.

Besides, there is more religions in the US then just the ones that follow the bible, should we teach all there teachings in public schools as well?

[Beth]

The Bible is fiction created to account for those things that the ancient writers could not explain otherwise.  Few people were educated and so for the common masses of uneducated people, these myths were created to entertain and to inform on a very simple-minded level.

I think it is a travesty in today's world, where so many people are highly educated in comparison to the ancient world, that these religions can still carry the power to influence our education system in this way.  

Don't get me wrong, I actually believe the bible should be taught in our school systems, for we cannot deny this book's importance to the development of western civilization, BUT..................the bible should be taught as literature -- not as history or as science.   To do so is totally ridiculous....

Peace,
Beth

[Ryu-Kanjin]

Very good point Beth  

[mrjoshua]

Maybe you are being antagonists to ideas without even knowing it. Maybe you laughed those evangelizing geeks in college, maybe your parents are religious and you agree with them or want to rebel(ah hormones). You, my fellow seeker, are immediately a suspect in the crime of inherent antagonism. Psychology/experience has more to do with this argument than you may or may not realize. Science is supposed to be a completely objective path to getting closer to the truth through theories. Humans, as hard as we may try, will never, I repeat never, be completely objective in our thinking. Even if you think you are, you aren't. And neither am I, so respect each others' opinions because yours is just as feeble.

Cheers, read on if you are interested in some random Internet post representing the opinion of a complete stranger.

I have no religion, I study science, I have one semester to go in my degree. In most of my biology, ecology courses, there is a great deal of drumming-in of evolutionary principles, mostly idolizing a few great thinkers including Darwin. Some lecturers are scarily and unknowingly emotive, and are unfit for teaching science subjects. Palaeobiology was one of these courses, and is the study of fossils, minerals and rocks and how these real things fit into the theory of how the world came about. For natural selection, the evidence (short term mind you) is undeniable. The theory that everything as we see it came about as a result of natural selection along with a whole bunch of chance mutations, e.g the formation of the first protein-like molecule from naturally occurring inorganic molecules and water and all the correct conditions is not even close to concrete. There are also many "missing links" in the fossil records, albeit replaced by very beautiful artistic impressions of them. Until someone artificially synthesizes my penis from inorganic molecules or comes up with a concrete theory that shows me how I can, I will not be satisfied (hopefully this will be done in a white lab coat, which I have worn once out of high school). So, I am open to whatever other theories are out there, including creation. Maybe this creative force(s) isn't actually an old (wo)man(s) with a white beard(s). Blind antagonism is very immature.
Cheers.
Thanks for wasting our economically important time reading this post.
Josh.

[mrjoshua]

What I was trying to say is this, teach nothing as fact. There are no facts, just whatever are the most popular theories at the time. In a thousand year's time, our descendants will laugh at our myths just as we do. So, I think therefore I am?

[no_leaf_clover]

Yeah, I agree that nothing should be taught as 100% absolute truth, because nothing really is, but fact will continue to be taught as a bit of info that is widely accepted by humanity (or, more accurately, widely accepted by most textbook monkey scientists). I guess that the Earth was flat was fact for a bit, but times change. I doubt schools will change, as scholars and scientists are mostly a bit arrogant today.

[Gandalf]

the problem is, the creationists say evolutionism is 'just a theory' and why not teach creationism as 'another theory' to compliment it.

Sounds very reasonable, except that they mis-interpret what a 'theory' actually means in scientific terminology.

In scientific terminology a 'theory' is not just a hypothetical. It is an explanation, the *most likely explanation given the available evidence*.. this is impiricism.

The creationists' 'theory' is the common usage meaning of the phrase. Their theory is a hypothetical, based on no evidence but what's written in a book written 1500 years ago and as scientifically credible as Penthouse monthly; figure it out!

Doug