USA TODAY: "Oh yeah, and by the way, the world is flat too." UT State Sen

[MrScorpio]

Evolution lacks fossil link
By D. Chris Buttars
The campaign to eliminate God from the public forum has been going on for decades, having accelerated greatly since the Supreme Court's ill-advised decision in 1963 to eliminate prayer from public schools. And I believe those fighting against the teaching of intelligent design in schools have an ulterior motive to eliminate references to God from the entire public forum.

The argument over classroom discussion of evolution vs. divine design is just the latest attack on everything that would mention a belief in God. If you talk against Darwinian evolution in the classroom, you immediately incur the rage of those who don't want God discussed in any way, shape or form.

These vehement critics claim that there are mountains of scientific proof that man evolved from some lower species also related to apes. But in this tremendous effort to support Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, in all these "mountains of information," there has not been any scientific fossil evidence linking apes to man.

The trouble with the "missing link" is that it is still missing! In fact, the whole fossil chain that could link apes to man is also missing! The theory of evolution, which states that man evolved from some other species, has more holes in it than a crocheted bathtub.

I realize that is a dramatic statement, so to be clear, let me restate: There is zero scientific fossil evidence that demonstrates organic evolutionary linkage between primates and man.

Darwin's famous The Origin of Species concludes that over eons of time, and through countless mutations, man evolved from an ape-like ancestor. It takes an enormous leap of faith (oh my, there's one of those terrible religious words!) to conclude that man evolved from ape without any empirical fossil evidence.

Teaching evolution is really about the determined drive by activists to eliminate any reference to an intelligent power in the universe. That said, could it be that the reason they can't find the missing link is that human evolution didn't happen at all?

Utah State Sen. D. Chris Buttars, R (Natch) -West Jordan, is active on the evolution-education issue.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-08-08-oppose_x.htm

[Jamastiene]

1. Ever noticed

that the people who refuse to believe in evolution are the ones who haven't done it yet, evolved, that is? I mean, maybe they are jealous or something. I don't get them. It's the only logical explanation for their total refusal to believe the scientifically proven truth. Don't tell them that though. Logical went out the window ages ago with them. And why can't they believe in "God" and evolution at the same time? I mean, who is to say that "God" didn't use evolution to create us? If I ever settle down on whether or not I will finally believe in "God" or not, I sure as hell ain't ditching my belief in the obvious truth about evolution. What's up with these people?

[Goldom]

2. Well that was depressing

I just went google image searching for "ape fossil" to post here as a random sort of "then what is THIS! AHA!" stupidity. However, every one I found was on a site -against- evolution. Idiots. -_-

[meegbear]

3. Teaching intelligent design ...

is really about the determined drive by activists to eliminate any reference to intelligence in the universe.

[Kellanved]

4. yup.

I checked in the fridge: no fossil evidence in there. I am quite certain that there isn't any in the cupboard either.
So he has to be right.

:silly:

[sniffa]

5. he Looks Like he'LL be meet his designer soon enough

[Avalux]

6. What an ass.

"Teaching evolution is really about the determined drive by activists to eliminate any reference to an intelligent power in the universe."

No, it's not. Evolution has withstood the past 150 years as the only credible explanation for the evidence presented. Sure there are holes, sure we don't have all the answers. Evolution is a SCIENTIFIC theory - do these folks not get it?

There are no others. NONE. Intelligent Design is NOT a scientific theory, as I heard claimed on MSNBC.

It seems we are fast approaching another Dark Ages when false statements such as these are allowed to stand.

[baldguy]

8. Right. There's no "evolutionist cabal" dedicated to eliminate faith in God

There IS a Creationist Cabal - who's only purpose is to eliminate all references to science that their narrow "faith" doesn't agree with.

Science requires proof. Faith doesn't. Anyone who tries to "prove" their faith scientifically has no faith.

[aden_nak]

7. Why aren't schools teaching the theory of "Wizard Design"?

You know, the theory that states that whenever something inexplicable or beyond comprehension happens, clearly the answer is that a wizard did it. I mean, clearly that works along the same principle as Intelligent Design.

[SkipNewarkDE]

9. Ever notice how...

These people have a sort of double standard? Their faith doesn't require any evidence to back up. But they put a burden of proof on a scientific theory. So if there is some perceived gap in the scientific evidence, that's a show stopper, yet the same scrutiny cannot and is not applied to their faith or belief system.

[thom1102]

10. Text of my response to USA Today...

At the end of this month, I will begin the final phase of becoming a high school physics teacher as I begin the 16 week process of student teaching. I have been attending school part time for the better part of 5 years to achieve this goal and as part of my education, the discussion over Evolution vs. Creationism, or Intelligent Design, or what ever the Nom du Jour for the religious argument against evolution happens to be, has come up on numerous occasions. What I have taken from these discussions is this: evolution is a scientific description of the mechanism by which species differentiation occurs, and that is all it tries to do. There is nothing, let me repeat this for emphasis, NOTHING in evolution that says that the whole processes couldn't have been set in motion by some higher power.

It has been the belief of religious scholars since the age of enlightenment that science and religion don't exclude each other, and many of the most famous scientists were devoutly religious. Where the conflict arises is when people who believe that the Bible is the literal truth and the scientific community, because evolution challenges their narrow historical view, and causes their children to question the Bible's literal accuracy.

Just as Utah State Sen. D. Chris Buttars said in his opinion piece "There is zero scientific fossil evidence that demonstrates organic evolutionary linkage between primates and man" (a claim that Darwin never made, by the way) there is even less scientific evidence to support the Biblical Creation story, which was passed down for centuries through oral tradition before it was written down. Very few people in the science education community who I am familiar with are opposed to the inclusion of the Biblical Creation story being taught in the context of philosophy class, or a class on world religions, but the simple truth in this entire argument is that the SCIENTIFIC basis for Intelligent design is sketchy at best, and therefore has no place in the SCIENCE classroom.