“This is not a case of science vs religion, but science vs science."

[BurtWorm]

“This may turn into the Scopes Monkey trial in reverse." I hope so. Scopes lost that one. ;)


http://www.thomasmore.org/news.html?NewsID=307

Ann Arbor, MI – A simmering yearlong dispute over the Gull Lake Community School District superintendent’s order that seventh grade science teachers teach Darwin’s theory of evolution and his confiscation of thirty copies of the book Of Pandas and People, which the teachers had been using for the past two years as a supplemental text supporting the theory of intelligent design, may soon end up in a federal court.

For the past two years, science teachers, Dawn Wendzel and Julie Olson, have been spending part of their classroom instruction teaching the theory of Intelligent Design alongside the theory of evolution. However, this past Fall they were told that they could no longer teach intelligent design, they could not teach the controversy between the theory of evolution and intelligent design and that they could only teach the scientific evidence for evolution.

...

The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on April 14, 2004, sent a six-page letter to the school board asking that the books be returned to the classrooms and that the teachers be allowed to teach the theory of intelligent design as they had been. The school board has been given fourteen days to respond.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center commented, “This may turn into the Scopes Monkey trial in reverse. Now that Darwinism has achieved dominance, it is being forced on all teachers regardless of gaps in the theory or the scientific evidence to the contrary. The actions of the Gull Lake superintendent not only violates the academic freedom of teachers to teach their subject, but also the freedom of their students to receive important information on the growing controversy surrounding the theory of evolution. Confiscation of the books the superintendent doesn’t like smacks of “book burning.” Continued Thompson, “This is not a case of science versus religion, but science versus science.”

[Kraklen]

1. "It's a case of science versus science"

says an ultra-religious nutjob.

[aden_nak]

2. Litmus Test For Scientific Theory:

If it can be summed up by saying, "We don't really understand it, so God musta' done it," it's not scientific theory.

[kliljedahl]

11. Bingo, may I borrow that?

Keith’s Barbeque Central

[aden_nak]

14. Go right ahead. It's not like they don't say the same thing. :D

[donco6]

3. Courts have ruled over and over . . .

that curriculum decisions belong with the Board of Education. If the Board decided evolution not creation, and the Superintendent was carrying out their direction, the teachers don't have the right to teach it anyway. That's just the way it is. Boards are elected bodies - and this is why.

[RandomKoolzip]

4. Actully it's a case of "truth vs. bullshit."

PLEASE tell me that we don't have to fight this fucking fight again. PLEASE.

What exactly do the theocrats have against the human race progressing and evolving? It's like the very idea that people and animals undergo changes over time offends them SOOOOOO deeply that they become psychotic; maybe it's because they realize that they have no capacity for positive change within themselves and they're projecting that distress outward. Maybe. :shrug:

I never thought I'd see the day where evolution has to go up on trial again. This is insanity, and double jeopardy as well.

[BurtWorm]

7. I just noticed that the date in the release is wrong.

This incident occurred in April 2005, not 2004 as the TMLC's own idiotic press release has it. :eyes:

[OrlandoGator]

5. "God did it" is not science.

These people have no fucking clue what science is.

[Johonny]

6. Science vs. crap

"it is being forced on all teachers regardless of gaps in the theory or the scientific evidence to the contrary."


Jesus if he has evidence to the contrary get that out to the journals quick. That's the kind of stuff of everlasting scientific fame.

Do teachers often complain about being froced to teach that the Earth is round, 1+ 1 = 2 or that Bush is president.

[Toots]

8. I had higher hopes for this thread

I thought we were really going to have a scientific discussion using evidence and logic. :shrug: All I got was right wing gibberish.

[hfojvt]

9. "the evidence before the court, is incontrovertible

there's no need for the jury to retire. In all my years of judging, I have never heard before, of someone more deserving of the full penalty of law..."

I like the NIV translation better, what is your version?

"No longer will the fool (aka Bush) be called noble, nor the scoundrel (aka Trump, Ken Lay) be highly respected.
For the fool speaks folly, his mind is busy with evil: he practices ungodliness and spreads error concerning the Lord; (okay that seems to be Falwell, Graham, and Dobson since it does not mention WMD or tax cuts and social security)
the hungry he leaves empty (cuts to food stamps and school lunches)
and from the thirsty he withholds water (remember the rightwing hero in Iraq who would not give the soldiers water until they got baptised?)
The scoundrel's methods are wicked, he makes up evil schemes (DSM, private accounts, tax cuts for CEOs and budget cuts for social programs)
to destroy the poor with lies (see today's Auntie Pinko)
even when the plea of the needy is just.
But the noble man makes noble plans,
and by noble deeds he stands."

[Toots]

13. Mine is from the King James Version

It actually was on Freeperland boards as evidence that Liberals were berated in the Bible. They do not know how to read I guess. Once I read it I realized how true it was.

[BurtWorm]

10. Par for the course in this conflict.

:eyes:

The two sides talk at cross purposes. You'd like to be "fair" and say there's blame to go around on all sides, but the blame seems to reside squarely on the pinheads of the IDers.

[Kraklen]

12. This is a scientific discussion using evidence and logic.

ID is crap.