Board (State Board of Education) gets a taste of evolution debate

[coda]

Posted on Thu, Apr. 14, 2005


Board gets a taste of evolution debate

The State Board of Education questions intelligent design proponents in a preview of next month's hearings.

BY JOSH FUNK

The Wichita Eagle

<snip>

The minority group has lined up 24 witnesses, while no one has yet agreed to represent the pro-evolution majority view -- partly because some mainstream scientists have called for a boycott. "Opposition to the hearings mystifies and troubles me," said John Calvert (a retired lawyer who runs the Intelligent Design Network), who helped summarize the minority group's proposals along with former middle school science teacher Greg Lassey.


<snip>


Moderate board member Carol Rupe of Wichita reused some of Calvert's words to make her own point during the questioning, saying "It's opposition to science that mystifies and troubles me."


<snip>

Case and Williamson responded to questions about details of the majority's draft and explained why most members of the committee opposed the minority group's proposals. The way science is described in the standards -- as a search for natural explanations to natural phenomena -- is one sticking point.


The minority group says using the word "natural" in the definition makes the standards biased in favor of evolution because alternative theories might cite a supernatural cause for changes in life on Earth. "The current definition inserts a bias and that prevents critical analysis of evolution," said Lassey, the former science teacher. "In other words, it's a science stopper."


But the majority of the standards committee says describing science that way simply reflects its limitations because scientists can test the natural world only.




more........

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/11389545.htm


R E L A T E D L I N K S
• Draft of proposed state science standards
• What's covered in Wichita biology courses
• The Intelligent Design Network
• Kansas Citizens For Science
• The Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture
• The National Center for Science Education

[Inland]

1. Subsitute "testable" or "observable" for "natural"?

Does that help?

[atommom]

4. They might accept "observable," but most scientists would not,

since it's so subjective. They (the creationists) really do want to do away with logic and science, because examining evidence objectively is a secular process. A scientist cannot get away with explaining an event by saying that God made it happen, because at its core science is about seeking the underlying rules that make things happen. Whether this means studying molecular mechanisms, or delving into the mysteries of physics, it's just not a religious process. Dominionists equate the teaching of evolution with "materialism" and "rationalism," which in their minds is the same as atheism.

I've been reading a lot about Dominionists lately, and am still having trouble wrapping my mind around the simple fact that they don't believe in logic, and will never be swayed by logical arguments. :banghead:

[ashmanonar]

2. creationists are cowards...

just like any other dominionist. they like to start arguments that can't be lost, and they believe in things that can't be proven or disproven. theocrats are even worse. just claim that the US is a christian nation enough times and it is, even if it never was. :banghead:

[formerrepuke]

3. This 'debate' is a national embarassment.....n/t

[Biology]

5. Absolutely!

Kansas was, and still is, a laughing stock of the Western world because of the evolution debate in 1999-2000. Advisors at Universities around the world still tell college aged students NOT to come to Kansas for schooling since we are so backward. Many businesses do not consider locating to Kansas because of this problem, and recruitment of faculty for our colleges and Universities continually suffers because educated people do not want to live here nor do they wish to have their children educated here. This new controversy will only increase the negative attention given to our fine state. Intelligent design is creationism in disguise and does not belong in public schools.