EVOLUTION
Is intelligent design religion or science?
Intelligent Design vs Evolution in the classroom.
Teaching Evolution or Creation Debate
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MSNBC Video: High School Student Takes On Administration
Texas Ed Board compromises on evolution materials 8/2011
The Texas State Board of Education delivered a blow to social conservatives Friday, giving final approval to supplemental high school science materials after a brief flare-up over some lessons teaching the principles of evolution.
The lessons in question included a lab comparison on chimpanzee and human skulls, the fossil record and cell complexity.
A board-appointed reviewer had called the lessons errors and recommended changes, but a group of scientists objected on Friday, threatening to re-ignite a fierce debate over teaching evolution in Texas public schools.
http://www.repealcreationism.com/
On May, 5, the City of New Orleans overwhelmingly endorsed Senator Peterson's SB 70 to repeal the Louisiana Science Education Act. The New Orleans City Council voted 6-0 in favor of the repeal.
Vatican: Faithful Should Listen to Science By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press Writer
http://www.salon.com/ November 04,2005
VATICAN CITY -- A Vatican cardinal said
Thursday the faithful should listen to what secular modern
science has to offer, warning that religion risks turning into
"fundamentalism" if it ignores scientific reason.
Cardinal Paul Poupard, who heads the Pontifical Council for
Culture, made the comments at a news conference on a Vatican
project to help end the "mutual prejudice" between religion and
science that has long bedeviled the Roman Catholic Church and is part of the evolution debate in the United States.
The Vatican project was inspired by Pope John Paul II's 1992
declaration that the church's 17th-century denunciation of
Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual
incomprehension." Galileo was condemned for supporting Nicolaus Copernicus' discovery that the Earth revolved around the sun; church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe. <snip>
Dangerous Memes - Dan Dennett examines religious belief through the lens of biology. All religion should to be taught in schools, so we can understand its nature as a natural phenomenon. The Intellegent Design movement is basically a hoax. The key to domination of the planet is culture and the key to culture is religion.
True Story: A parasite that gets into a mouse and needs to get into the belly of a cat and it turns the mouse into mighty mouse makes it fearless so it runs out into the open where it will get eaten by a cat.
Does that ever happen to us?
Yes it does. We also have these hijackers, parasites that infects the brain that induces suicidal behavior on behalf of a cause other than of one's own genetic fitness. Islam and Christianity both teach people to surrender their lives. Surrendered people obey gods word even if it doesn't make sense!
Everytime you read it or say it you make another copy in your brain.
" Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away " ~ Philip K. Dick
Ancient Aliens - We are not alone in the cosmos. See [ Moses ]
Hominids diverged from the chimp branch of the family tree roughly six million years ago, producing a series of evolutionary dead-ends before the ultimately successful genus Homo emerged. H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens grew out of the same line at different times.
The Neanderthals' ancestors diverged first, and they left Africa a couple of hundred thousand years ahead of ours. Homo sapiens arrived in Europe about 50,000 years ago. The two species overlapped for perhaps 20,000 years before the Neanderthals went extinct. Scientists still aren't sure why. A detailed analysis of human and chimp DNA suggests the lines finally diverged less than 5.4 million years ago. [1]
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Most K12 State Science Standards Don't Make the Grade.
Who is Teaching Science in K12 Schools?
New Jersey is the fourth state so far to reject the $800,000 abstinence education money, after California, Pennsylvania and Maine.Stand Up For Real Science A campaign is underway across the US to promote the "critical analysis" of evolution in public school science classrooms. This campaign can also be found under the guises of "teaching the strengths and weaknesses of evolution" or "teaching the controversy about evolution." Promoters of these campaigns claim to be simply "supporting academic freedom." Unfortunately, these phrases are being used as euphemisms for the notion that the scientific evidence supporting evolution and long-refuted "criticisms" of evolution should be treated equally.
youtube/gUu5hBp1AU8 youtube/7e0Ic03c6f8 youtube/dbbh1P6DW5I
SCIENCE TEST SCORES FALL FOR HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS 2006
The first nationwide science test administered in five years shows that achievement among high school seniors has declined across the past decade, even as scores in science rose among fourth graders and held steady among eighth graders, reported the Education Department. The drop in science proficiency appeared to reflect a broader trend, in which some academic gains made in elementary grades and middle school have been seen to fade during the high school years. The science results came from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a comprehensive examination administered in 2005 by a branch of the Department of Education to hundreds of thousands of students in all 50 states. The science test, which was administered during the first months of 2005, covered the earth, physical and life sciences, writes Sam Dillon. Some teachers blamed the decreasing amount of time devoted to science in schools, in part because of the No Child Left Behind Law, whose requirements for annual testing in reading and math during the elementary grades have led many schools to decrease the time spent on science or to abandon its teaching altogether.
"The State of State Science Standards 2005" the first comprehensive study of science academic standards conducted since 2000 -- appraised the quality of each states K-12 science standards as they are rushing to meet the No Child Left Behind Acts mandate for testing in this critical subject. The results are mixed. Nearly half of the fifty states surveyed received grades of "D" or "F" in a new review of statewide academic standards for primary-secondary school science. Every state received a letter grade based on how well its standards met a set of rigorous criteria, including:
- Do the standards contain clear and fair expectations by grade level for students?
- Are the standards organized in a sensible way, both showing logical progression from grade to grade and easily navigated so teachers, parents, and the public can understand?
- Is there an appropriate amount of science content, and if so, do the standards outline the best approach to share that content?
- Are the expectations outlined specific enough, yet set high aims that will equip students with the science skills they need for college?
- Are the standards appropriately serious, or do they incorporate pseudo-scientific fads or politics?
Scientists Create First Synthetic Cell, Opening New Era in Biology By ROBERT LEE HOTZ
5/2010 Heralding a potential new era in biology, scientists for the first time have created a synthetic cell, completely controlled by man-made genetic instructions, which can survive and reproduce itself, researchers at the private J. Craig Venter Institute. Scientists have been altering DNA piecemeal for a generation, producing a menagerie of genetically engineered plants and animals, but the ability to craft an entire organism offers a new power over life, they said. "This is literally a turning point in the relationship between man and nature," said molecular biologist Richard Ebright at Rutgers University, who wasn't involved in the project. "For the first time, someone has generated an entire artificial cell with pre-determined properties." David Magnus, director of the Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics, said, "It has the potential to transform genetic engineering. The research is going to explode once you can create designer genomes." Vatican calls synthetic cell creation 'interesting'
The scientists didn't give the new organism its own species name, but they did give its synthetic genome an official version number, like the prototype of a computer software operating system. The genome is called Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0. "We call it the first synthetic cell," said genomics pioneer Craig Venter, who oversaw the project. "These are very much real cells." Created at a cost of $30 million, this experimental one-cell organism opens the way to the manipulation of life on a previously unattainable scale, several researchers and ethics experts said.
To set this novel bacterium and all its descendants apart from any natural creation, Dr. Venter and his colleagues wrote their names into the creature's chemical DNA code, along with three apt quotations. "They put some poetry into the genome," said Dr. Voigt. The scientists also encoded an email address and the name of a website, so that anyone who successfully deciphered the quotations hidden in the genome could notify the scientists. More importantly, these genetic watermarks allow the researchers to pick out their cells from among more natural varieties and, eventually, to assert ownership. "You have to have a way of tracking it," said Stanford ethicist Mildred Cho, who has studied the issues posed by the creation of such organisms.
Although the new cell, a form of bacteria, was conceived solely as a demonstration project, several biologists were certain that the laboratory technique used to birth it would soon be applied to other strains of bacteria with commercial potential. "I think this quickly will be applied to all the most important industrial bacteria," said biologist Christopher Voigt at the University of California, San Francisco, who is developing microbes that help make gasoline.
Although patents on single genes now face legal challenges, Dr. Venter said he intended to patent his experimental cells. "They are pretty clearly human inventions," he said.
New field, called synthetic biology, which combines chemistry, computer science, molecular biology, genetics and cell biology to breed industrial life forms that can secrete fuels, vaccines or other saleable products.To make the synthetic cell, a team of 25 researchers at labs in Rockville, Md., and San Diego, Calif., led by bioengineer Daniel Gibson and Dr. Venter essentially turned computer code into a new life form. They started with a species of bacteria called Mycoplasma capricolum and, by replacing its genome with one they wrote themselves, turned it into a customized variant of a second species called Mycoplasma mycoides, they reported. To begin, they wrote out the creature's entire genetic code as a digital computer file documenting more than one million base pairs of DNA in a biochemical alphabet of adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine. They edited that file, adding new code, and then sent that electronic data to a DNA sequencing company called Blue Heron Bio in Bothell, Wash., where it was transformed into hundreds of small pieces of chemical DNA, they reported. To assemble the strips of DNA, the researchers said they took advantage of the natural capacities of several types of existing cells to meld genes and chromosomes: They used yeast and e. coli bacteria to stitch those short sequences into ever-longer fragments until they had assembled the complete genome, as the entire set of an organism's genetic instructions is called. They transplanted that master set of genes into an emptied cell, where it converted the cell into a different species.
CHRISTIAN RIGHT "STRIKINGLY UNSUCCESSFUL" IN SCHOOL BOARD EFFORTS
During a period in which the Christian Right wielded a great deal of influence in the federal and state political spheres, it appears to have been strikingly unsuccessful in its long-term efforts to push state and local school boards to adopt science curricula that include questioning the theory of evolution and teaching intelligent design as a legitimate alternative theory of creation, according to a Connecticut College researcher. Kimberly Trebbi Richards found that the Christian Right's initial short-term successes occurred through exceptionally effective development of interest group organization and lobbying techniques focused on electing or re-electing supportive officials. However, the more permanent reversals of those short-term successes came through growing counter-organization by opposing groups and through court decisions. Richards examined case studies from three major state or local areas where the Christian Right was initially successful in influencing science education at the elementary or high school levels: Kansas, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
University of Calif. Sued Over Creationism
A group representing California religious schools has filed a lawsuit accusing the University of California system of discriminating against high schools that teach creationism and other conservative Christian viewpoints.
The Association of Christian Schools International, which represents more than 800 schools, filed a federal lawsuit Thursday claiming UC admissions officials have refused to certify high school science courses that use textbooks challenging Darwin's theory of evolution. Other rejected courses include "Christianity's Influence in American History."
According to the lawsuit, the Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta was told its courses were rejected because they use textbooks printed by two Christian publishers, Bob Jones University Press and A Beka Books.
Wendell E. Bird, a lawyer for the association, said the policy violates the rights of students and religious schools.
"A threat to one religion is a threat to all," he said.
UC spokeswoman Ravi Poorsina said she could not comment, because the university had not been served with the lawsuit. Still, she said the university has a right to set course requirements.
"These requirements were established after careful study by faculty and staff to ensure that students who come here are fully prepared with broad knowledge and the critical thinking skills necessary to succeed," Poorsina.
Teachers have the lowest IQs of any college graduate group. Local school boards are elected. What are their qualifications? ANSWER
They have almost complete latitude to set the content of the curriculum! It is their decision that would have an unconstitutionally religious purpose and effect.
K - 12 PUBLIC EDUCATION
PROJECT STEVE
NCSE's "Project Steve" is a tongue-in-cheek parody of a long-standing creationist tradition of amassing lists of "scientists who doubt evolution" or "scientists who dissent from Darwinism." (For examples of such lists, see the FAQs on the web site at http://www.ncseweb.org/article.asp?category=18
Creationists draw up these lists to convince the public that evolution is somehow being rejected by scientists, that it is a "theory in crisis." Most members of the public lack sufficient contact with the scientific community to know that this claim is totally unfounded. NCSE has been exhorted by its members to compile a list of thousands of scientists affirming the validity of the theory of evolution, but although we easily could have done so, we have resisted such pressure. We did not wish to mislead the public into thinking that scientific issues are decided by who has the longer list of scientists!
Project Steve mocks this practice with a bit of humor, and because "Steves" (and Stephanies) are only about 1% of scientists, it incidentally makes the point that tens of thousands of scientists support evolution. And it honors the late Stephen Jay Gould, NCSE supporter and friend. As of 2/19, the Steveometer was 244 and rising. To join the list, write Skip Evans at evans@ncseweb.org.
Lawrence Krauss Talk of the Nation audio
*Ambrose Swasey professor of physics and chairman of the physics department at Case Western Reserve University Director of the Center for Education and Research in Cosmology and Astrophysics at Case Western Reserve University
The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online
K-12 Government INITIATIVES from 1999
Creation vs. Evolution Mailing List
Banned Books - What you are NOT allowed to read in Public Schools.