Kansas School Board OKs Evolution Language

[SubtleRedFlag]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051109/...olution_debate

Alright so its sounds like maybe good news if you haven't followed very closely but these new "science standards" actually undercut Darwinism and introduce the need for further explanation (creationism).

I find one comment extremely absurd, by a board member who voted for the new standards: "It gets rid of a lot of dogma that's being taught in the classroom today," said board member John Bacon.

Dear Mr. Bacon, here is the definition of dogma:

A doctrine or a corpus of doctrines relating to matters such as morality and faith, set forth in an authoritative manner by a church.

America is slowly going down the drain

[Master_Shake]

FLIPPIN' AYY!!
I live in Kansas, so I have to say that, while I am not surprised, this still blows. I wholeheartedly agree with one of the board members who said "This is a sad day. We're becoming a laughingstock of not only the nation, but of the world, and I hate that." As if people didn't already have a poor enough view of Kansas.

[pandion]

And yet, just days after the Dover, PA trial about the introduction of ID into public schools as science has concluded, every single one of the incumbents on the Dover school board has been defeated in today's election. As chance would have it, all of them voted in favor of replacing science with the fable of IDcreationism in public schools.

Kansas did it before, and now Dover, PA has done it. But still, the US District Court will give a decision that can be used as a precedent by the people of Kansas as they undergo their second attack by creationists against science.

[trebor]

Originally Posted by pandion

And yet, just days after the Dover, PA trial about the introduction of ID into public schools as science has concluded, every single one of the incumbents on the Dover school board has been defeated in today's election. As chance would have it, all of them voted in favor of replacing science with the fable of IDcreationism in public schools.

Kansas did it before, and now Dover, PA has done it. But still, the US District Court will give a decision that can be used as a precedent by the people of Kansas as they undergo their second attack by creationists against science.

I am sure the publiicity of the trial and the exposed motivations of the board members who voted to teach ID was an important part of the process. Even if they agree with ID, I am sure they thought that the board members did the Dover School District no favor in trying to push it.

[georged]

Originally Posted by Master_Shake

FLIPPIN' AYY!!
I live in Kansas, so I have to say that, while I am not surprised, this still blows. I wholeheartedly agree with one of the board members who said "This is a sad day. We're becoming a laughingstock of not only the nation, but of the world, and I hate that." As if people didn't already have a poor enough view of Kansas.

Makes George Carlin's plan to use the state of Kansas as a prison even more appealing.

I especially liked the board member dogma statement.

[sinjin]

One small step for man. One giant leap for fundamentalism.

[Howard Beale]

Originally Posted by georged

Makes George Carlin's plan to use the state of Kansas as a prison even more appealing.

I especially liked the board member dogma statement.

Yes, kind of reminds me of Abraham Lincoln's thought: "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."

[prschuster]

Here's an excerpt from the article:
The new standards say high school students must understand major evolutionary concepts. But they also declare that the basic Darwinian theory that all life had a common origin and that natural chemical processes created the building blocks of life have been challenged in recent years by fossil evidence and molecular biology.




Walking-fish:
The falsity of this statement about the challenge to Darwinism is subtle, and might go under some people's radar. It is true that there is scant evidence for a single common ancestor for all living organisms, but there are many well documented instances of common ancestry for certain taxons (cynodonts for mammals / theropod dinosaurs for birds / Choanoflagellates for sponges). However, the fossil evidence does not challenge common ancestry in any way; it is merely incomplete - an important distinction. Also, molecular biology, by the same token does not challenge abiogenesis; it only brings to light some unsolved problems. The big obfuscation here is to misrepresent the incompleteness of data in the fields of paleontology & molecular biology, by characterizing this as a "challenge" to the theory. That's like saying the controversy over whether Crispus Attucks was really the first person to die in the Boston Massacre poses a "challenge" to the existence this historical event.

[daewoo]

You guys are going WAY overboard on this. The changes to the board of education standards will NOT materially change the way evolution is taught in Kansas, nor does it allow the teaching of creationism or intelligent design in our classrooms.

Our districts scientific advisory board says the changes to the curriculum make it "more factually accurate", and even the folks who drafted the original curriculum could find no factual fault with the new draft.

The chicken littles out there need to get a grip.

[trebor]

Originally Posted by daewoo

You guys are going WAY overboard on this. The changes to the board of education standards will NOT materially change the way evolution is taught in Kansas, nor does it allow the teaching of creationism or intelligent design in our classrooms.

Our districts scientific advisory board says the changes to the curriculum make it "more factually accurate", and even the folks who drafted the original curriculum could find no factual fault with the new draft.

The chicken littles out there need to get a grip.

Right.. uh huh. That is why the changed the definition of what science is.

From the article

In addition, the board rewrote the definition of science, so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena.

[Howard Beale]

Originally Posted by daewoo

You guys are going WAY overboard on this. The changes to the board of education standards will NOT materially change the way evolution is taught in Kansas, nor does it allow the teaching of creationism or intelligent design in our classrooms.

Our districts scientific advisory board says the changes to the curriculum make it "more factually accurate", and even the folks who drafted the original curriculum could find no factual fault with the new draft.

The chicken littles out there need to get a grip.

I can't tell the future. I can tell what is accurate and what is inaccurate. I think we should do our best to have schools teach our kids what is accurate science in science class.

[OccamsRazor]

Originally Posted by SubtleRedFlag

I find one comment extremely absurd, by a board member who voted for the new standards: "It gets rid of a lot of dogma that's being taught in the classroom today," said board member John Bacon.

Dear Mr. Bacon, here is the definition of dogma:

A doctrine or a corpus of doctrines relating to matters such as morality and faith, set forth in an authoritative manner by a church.

America is slowly going down the drain

Yes, Creationist doublespeak at its "best".

Once again creeping Creationism seeks to undermine science in little steps. If this latest inroad is not stopped more will follow, rest assured.