Wednesday, November 09, 2005

IDiot Defenders Answer To Voters

I suppose this should go in the 'win some - lose some' column. The supporters of Intelligent Design on the Dover, PA school board were replaced by Democrats who do not support the teaching of religion in the science class. But in Kansas, the state school board voted 6-4 to include criticism of Evolution in its statewide curriculum. Of course, a win in Pennsylvania has a lot more weight than a loss in Kansas. I am sure the Kansas school board members are going to pay their price come election time. The full story is below.

Pennsylvania Voters Oust School Board

By MARTHA RAFFAELE, Associated Press WriterWed Nov 9, 2:39 AM ET

Voters came down hard Tuesday on school board members who backed a statement on intelligent design being read in biology class, ousting eight Republicans and replacing them with Democrats who want the concept stripped from the science curriculum.

The election unfolded amid a landmark federal trial involving the Dover public schools and the question of whether intelligent design promotes the Bible's view of creation. Eight Dover families sued, saying it violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

Dover's school board adopted a policy in October 2004 that requires ninth-graders to hear a prepared statement about intelligent design before learning about evolution in biology class.

Eight of the nine school board members were up for election Tuesday. They were challenged by a slate of Democrats who argued that science class was not the appropriate forum for teaching intelligent design.

"My kids believe in God. I believe in God. But I don't think it belongs in the science curriculum the way the school district is presenting it," said Jill Reiter, 41, a bank teller who joined a group of high school students waving signs supporting the challengers Tuesday.

A spokesman for the winning slate of candidates has said they wouldn't act hastily and would consider the outcome of the court case. The judge expects to rule by January; the new school board members will be sworn in Dec. 5.

8 Comments:

At 11/09/2005 10:38 AM, BEAST said...: Praise The Invincible Beastmaster.

The Great One has spoken: Intelligent Design is dung.

Regards
The Beast
High Priest of The Temple of The Invincible Beastmaster
At 11/09/2005 3:32 PM, Anonymous said...: hey alan, thanks for the response, i a have a few questions i will ask back on that page to clear a few things up.

About intelligent design, teaching it in science class is not something i am really an advocate of. I had enough to worry about memorizing that dang periodical on the wall.

Maybe if you attend a private religious school i think that the approach could be enlightening and challenging. Teaching creation by God, even though I have very strong feelings on the subject, is a religious belief. Some of my more fundie counterparts would argue that not teaching it is a belief also. I would disagree, if you approach science and creation as it is you can come to the same conclusions how the universe works either way as we have discovered in the last posts. What is amazing is how many of the advocates for intelligent design do not know that they dont necessarily teach the 7 day creation story. evolution is included but it is as a theory.

However, i do think that you should teach evolution as a theory. because, that is what it is.-a theory. A good theory, even a great theory, but it is not law. And most know the reasons for its status as theory. Relativity, on the other hand is a law, no longer a theory. If indeed most scientists do not believe in God as my friend delta has implied, then it seems that the atheistic mind would lean only in the direction of teaching evolution as law rather than pointing out inconsistencies and still calling it as it is, a theory.

Telling the kid whether God did it or not is not the poor teachers job who is caught in the middle of agendas. If the parents want some intelligent design taught, pick up a science book and do it themselves.

Seth
At 11/09/2005 9:30 PM, Anonymous said...: This is more a comment for the previous post on Kyle Lake's death, but I wasn't quick enough to read it before you posted on the Scope trial revisted...

Keep questioning. I'm really saddened by the fact that most Christians don't question anything anymore (when the bible itself says to test everything, and hold on to what's good). I'm also confused about the people who say we have free will and God directs everything. I don't think it's possible. Yet, I believe God can make us believe we have free will, while in fact, I don't think we do. (See Pharaoh, all over Exodus) Just the same, I believe God even directs your words - perhaps to drive 'believers' to more questioning and grow, perhaps. Or, perhaps to confuse the hypocrites (of which I am the worst) and Pharisees of present day.

All in all, I suppose it doesn't matter. If you're right, and there is no God, I'll live my life like there is. Even if it's a lie, I've experienced more peace and belonging (not just the emotions - cause those lie) than any other things I've seen. With all else, you eventually wake up with regret. And if I'm right, and God is the author of our lives and His son is Jesus the Christ, then I still win.

Hope this is constructive (I look back and wonder why I wrote this - besides the obvious answer that I believe God 'secretly' directed me to). I'm not anonymous because I'm a coward... I'm anonymous cause I don't have an account:

www.xanga.com/hibbity_bibbity

Peace
David
(one of them crazy Calvinists)
At 11/10/2005 3:22 AM, BEAST said...: How about the theory of Gravity?

In Scientific terms, a theory is a fact, in a sense that the only debatable issues are those regarding the basic mechanisms of the scientific theory involved.

As with regards to evolution, there is no doubt that it happened, and it is happening today, even as we speak. The only questions are those regarding its mechanisms, as with issues regarding other biological studies.
At 11/10/2005 10:27 AM, Alan said...: David Said
Even if it's a lie, I've experienced more peace and belonging (not just the emotions - cause those lie) ...... And if I'm right, and God is the author of our lives and His son is Jesus the Christ, then I still win.

Thanks David for the comment. You have used the classic Pascal's Wager here to justify your faith. I would say to you that most people of other faiths also find this sense of peace and belonging from their faith, so how would one know which religion is right? Any Hindu or Muslim could say the exact thing that you did, without the Jesus part.

You say that 'you still win'. In my view, you don't. You go through life in denial of your own reason and intellect in order to believe in a specific 'God' or creator. In your case, you must overlook the glaring inconstistancies and attrocities of the Bible and the very real evidence (or lack of evidence I should say) of Jesus' existence. I would not consider this a 'win' for anyone.

I also wouldn't consider the overall historical and current effect that religion has in our world to be a 'win'. One need only look to Northern Ireland, the Middle East or Kashmere to see the real world effect of faith in our world. The poverty and death due to overpopulation in Catholic dominated countries is yet another example of how humanity loses when it let's faith trump reason.

And finally, I would say that I think your emotions are true but it is the explanation for your emotions and emotional repsonses (God) that is the lie.

I could go on and on, but I think you get my point. Pascal's Wager is not so simple as it may seem.

Thanks again for your reply.
At 11/10/2005 12:24 PM, Lya Kahlo said...: " then I still win."

And that's all you really care about, I'm sure.
At 11/10/2005 1:51 PM, Anonymous said...: Beast,

A theory sets forth a concept of how specific events occur. It is not merely a description of those events. If you look and study the current theory of evolution it reveals reveals not a theory, but merely a "description of "punctuated" jumps in the fossil record."

The evolution of life, if evolution is the proper word, is indeed punctuated. The world awaits a theory for what process might have yielded those punctuations. When the London Museum of Natrual History, a mecca of Darwinian dogma, mounted a massive exhibit on evolution the only examples it could show were pink daisies evolving in to blue daisies, little dogs evelving into big dogs, a few dozen species of cichlid fish evelovinng into hundreds of species of-you guessed it-cichlid fish. They could not come up with a single major morphological change clearly recorded in the fossil record. This is not to say that evolution is not real, or plausable, but it is to say that it has not been sufficiently tested, or observed, to prove that it is what it suggests that it is, as gravity is and has. (and by the way, your right, we still do not know what the hell gravity really is, but we certainly can measure and observe it to bring it in the realm of fact)

Seth
At 11/10/2005 1:53 PM, Anonymous said...: evolving...sorry i wish i could evlove out of dyslexia

;)

seth