School Mandates Alternate Evolution Theory — Soon it will be required everywhere. This blog has been predicting this trend since before the election.
the school board in rural south-central Pennsylvania community is believed to have become the first in the nation to mandate the teaching of “intelligent design,” which holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by an unspecified higher power.
Critics call the change in the ninth-grade biology curriculum a veiled attempt to require public schoolchildren to learn creationism, a biblical-based view that credits the origin of species to God. Schools typically teach evolution, the theory that Earth is billions of years old and that life forms developed over millions of years.
related links:
Wisconsin says yes!
Georgia in Court
The section “… it must have been created by an unspecified higher power.”
Reminds me of my time in a 12-step program, where people like me – who don’t believe in God – were encouraged to believe in a “higher power”.
But, some people who do believe in God have a problem with “higher power” – since that could mean Satan!
No joke, even though it sounds like The Church Lady! ðŸ™
I’m curious how tough it is for people who want creationism taught in schools to tolerate “unspecified higher power” – as a means to their ends. 🙂
Hey-yup. When I decided to read the Bible 25 years ago I realized that the first thing that the “God” required of me was to surrender my intellect and never question anything I was told. This has resulted in great success in society and career. I enjoy being considered close minded and bigoted.
But, um – why does the Bible contain thousands of pages of information, often mysterious, often factual, often historically verifiable and often difficult to discern? Could it be that the “God” actually REQUIRES intellect and investigation? Could it be that your entire life on this puny planet which ends in deterioration and death is nothing more than a TEST? An experiment where one’s integrity is investigated by the Inscrutable?
Yah – I think maybe there is a God and maybe the Earth isn’t very old and maybe there was an Abraham, an Isaac, an Israel, a Moses, a David, a Jesus, a Paul and a plan. Yah – I’m an igoramus. Yah – Ednorant Braenummed is my name. Everyone like me are Luddites, social retards ready for your purge ovens.
Brave New World! What manner of history are men able to manufacture! Dare not oppose the state sanctioned science! Realize you are in defiance of Truth! You will be silenced, or you will be eliminated! You ARE an accident of the Universe, you have no right to be here, you have no cause, no effect and your passage will mean nothing more than either strengthening or weakening the genetic pool. Your father is Time, your mother is Chance and you are a bastard child of neither design or reason. You and your kind are a hopeless breed, doomed to live and die not knowing if your actions were significant. Brave New World! Your higher power is Yourself! Praise You, for you are important… to you… because there can be none other.
You ARE an accident of the Universe, you have no right to be here…
LOL
I haven’t heard the National Lampoon version of “Deteriorata” in years! Thanks for reminding me of that! :).
If memory serves, their version went something like “You are a fluke of the universe, you have no right to be here. And whether you believe it or not, the universe is laughing behind your back”.
Great stuff.
You cannot be serious. Perhaps you should re-read your vaunted bible. It also contains reams of material that endorses rape, murder, child murder, and corruption. The few tidbits of information that are verifiable have been found to be utterly false (like the world being flat). It also contains numerous contradictions to itself. Beyond all of that is the fact that the books in the bible were voted (by men) as being the word of this god.
The scientific method is a self-correcting means to find truth. First and foremost it requires that all aspects of a hypothesis conform to the rigors of unbiased, repeatable verification. Complexity, in and of itself, provides absolutely no proof of a “designer.” This line of thinking reminds me of Clarke’s quip that anything sufficiently complex is just like magic. So, given that complexity alone is insufficient proof of a designer, creationists must provide evidence that establishes that such a creator exists and that there is one and only one (since they always state “a” creator). The bible cannot be used to substantiate their claim because the bible is not a scientific source.
States requiring that non-science be taught as science is lunacy. It is the height of religious hubris that one cult’s interpretation of creation is somehow scientific. Where is the scientific proof of creationism? Mind you, this has absolutely, positively nothing to do with evolution. Where is the scientific, repeatable proof of a designer(s) and the other aspects of the creationist scientific theory? Answer: there is none.
This kind of rubbish should not be taught as science to children. If it were my kid in this situation, I would be livid! If they want creationism taught to kids, teach it in a class about religion, cultural anthropology, or abnormal psychology but not about science.
I wouldn’t take any post written by “Ednorant Braenummed” (Ignorant Brain-numbed) too seriously.
Hard to tell – from text alone – whether the poster was being serious or facetious.