Teaching Intelligent Design vs Evolution in the classroom. Is intelligent design religion or science?
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TEACHING INTELLIGENT DESIGN
TEACHING EVOLUTION
Teaching Evolution or Creation Debate
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]
Dover PA
"This country wasn't founded on Muslim beliefs or evolution," "This country was founded on Christianity, and our students should be taught as such."
The suit brought by 11 parents is being heard without a jury in Harrisburg by U.S. District Judge John Jones III, whom President Bush appointed to the bench in 2002.
12/20/05
A federal judge today declared the teaching of intelligent design in Dover Area School District unconstitutional, saying an "ill-informed faction on a school board" adopted a policy that violated the separation of church and state.
In a far-reaching decision, Judge John E. Jones 3d concluded that intelligent design is not science.
"In making this determination, we have addressed the seminal question of whether ID is science," Jones wrote. "We have concluded that it is not, and moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents."
He scolded the board's majority for requiring teachers to read a statement to high school biology students that noted "gaps" in Darwin's theory of evolution and directed them to a book on intelligent design in the school library.
"The breathtaking inanity of the board's decision is evident when considered against the factual backdrop which has now been fully revealed through this trial," Jones said in a 139-page decision. "The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources."
Jones said those who disagree with the decision - the first-ever federal trial on the teaching of intelligent design - "will likely mark it as the product of an activist judge." But the judge, a Republican appointed to the bench by President Bush, said "this is manifestly not an activist Court."
School board chairwoman, Bernadette Reinking, said as far as she knows the board has no intention of appealing the case. She was one of eight new members elected to the nine-member board in November who oppose the teaching of intelligent design.
"I'm glad that it is finished," Reinking said. "The board wanted some finality to this."
Read the George Bush Appointed U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III Court Decision
DER SPIEGEL in today's account of the judical defeat of "Intelligent Design" wrote as follows: "Richter John Jones erklrte in der Urteilsbegrndung, es sei erstaunlich, dass mehrere Mitglieder des Schulrats stolz ihren Glauben in der ffentlichkeit verkndeten, sich aber nicht scheuten, zu lgen". In translation:"Judge Jon Jones declared in his judgement that it is astonishing, that a number of members of the Schoolcouncil proclaimed proudly their faith, but did not heistate to lie". Astonishing and wonderful of the Judge! The very essence of science is disinterested integrity, and that has been lacking in Intelligent Design and its various mutants.
11/9/05 DOVER, Pa. -- Voters came down hard Tuesday on school board members who backed a statement on intelligent design being read in biology class (National Association of Biology Teachers), ousting eight Republicans and replacing them with Democrats who want the concept stripped from the science curriculum (pick out a Science Book).Among the losing incumbents on the Dover, Pa., board were two members who testified in favor of the intelligent design policy at a recently concluded federal trial on the Dover policy: the chairwoman, Sheila Harkins, and Alan Bonsell.
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.
QUOTES BY OUR CHRISTIAN FOUNDING FATHERS
THE LAW
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Through the Fourteenth Amendment, this mandate applies to the states and government employees. The first clause of this amendment, commonly referred to as the "Establishment Clause," indeed does guarantee a separation of church and state.
It is the Fourteenth Amendment and the process of incorporation that makes parts of the Bill of Rights apply to the states. State governments are not permitted to engage in cruel and unusual punishment (not just the feds.), state governments are not allowed to abridge the free exercise of religion (not just the feds.), state governments must allow freedom of the press (not just the feds.), state governments cannot abridge the people's right to free assemble or petition their government or their right to freedom of speech (not just the feds.).
No school teacher has the right to make any student feel that their own religious belief is superior to a pupil's belief.
- A Teachers Guide to Religion in the Public Schools PDF
- Can a teacher wear religious garb to school provided the teacher does not proselytize to the students?
The United States of America was founded by radical secularists and atheists. Michigan State staffer John Bice points out that Jefferson actually scissored out the parts in the Bible that referred to angels and such. Bice wrote, "The Rev. Bird Wilson, an Episcopal minister and historian, lamented in an 1831 sermon, 'The founders of our nation were nearly all Infidels.'"
Article “Intelligent design is simply the most recent version of creationism, which is admittedly a religious concept,” said Alan Leshner, chief executive of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science and publisher of the journal Science. “There is no scientific basis to intelligent design.” Science is concerned with the natural world, while intelligent design supposes an agent independent of the natural world. You can teach such concepts, Leshner and Scott say; indeed, you should — just do it in philosophy and religion and literature classes. Don’t do it in science classes, because, by definition, that’s religion. It isn’t science.
One side can be wrong
Accepting 'intelligent design' in science classrooms would have disastrous consequences, warn Richard Dawkins and Jerry Coyne. If ID really were a scientific theory, positive evidence for it, gathered through research, would fill peer-reviewed scientific journals. This doesn't happen. It isn't that editors refuse to publish ID research. There simply isn't any ID research to publish. Its advocates bypass normal scientific due process by appealing directly to the non-scientific public and - with great shrewdness - to the government officials they elect.
Galileo - who started it all, and paid the price - had "a wonderful way" of separating the supernatural from the natural. There are two equally worthy ways to understand the divine, Galileo said. "One was reverent contemplation of the Bible, God's word," "The other was through scientific contemplation of the world, which is his creation.
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.
Creationism's Trojan Horse:
The Wedge of Intelligent Design
Forrest and Gross expose the scientific failure, the religious essence, and the political ambitions of "intelligent design" creationism. They examine the movement's "Wedge Strategy," which has advanced and is succeeding through public relations rather than through scientific research. Analyzing the content and character of "intelligent design theory," they highlight its threat to public education and to the separation of church and state.
TEACHER | INTELLIGENT DESIGN
| State v. John Scopes The Monkey Trial |
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| Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan during the trial Photo Credit: CORBIS/Bettmann |
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Who would dominate American culture--the modernists or the traditionalists? Scopes Trial
Journalists were looking for a showdown, and they found one in a Dayton, Tennessee courtroom in the summer of 1925. There a jury was to decide the fate of John Scopes, a high school biology teacher charged with illegally teaching the theory of evolution. The guilt or innocence of John Scopes, and even the constitutionality of Tennessee's anti-evolution statute, mattered little. The meaning of the trial emerged through its interpretation as a conflict of social and intellectual values. Unpublished Photographs from 1925 Tennessee vs. John Scopes "Monkey Trial" in Smithsonian Archives
TEACHER | EVOLUTION
Evolution on the Front Line
AAAS has played a prominent role in responding to efforts in Kansas, Pennsylvania and elsewhere to weaken or compromise the teaching of evolution in public school science classrooms. Here are some background materials on the controversy and links to AAAS resources on evolution.
12-13/04 Press Conference Announcing Legal Challenge to "Intelligent Design" Curriculum in PA School District. Article
The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and attorneys with Pepper Hamilton LLP will file a federal lawsuit on Tuesday on behalf of 11 parents who say that presenting "intelligent design" to students in public school violates their religious liberty by promoting religious beliefs to their children under the guise of science education. The lawsuit will be the first in the nation to challenge the instruction of "intelligent design," which is an assertion that an intelligent, supernatural entity has intervened in the history of life. The "intelligent design" debate gained national attention after the Dover Area School District Board in Pennsylvania voted in October to require science teachers to present this religious view as an alternative to the scientific theory of evolution. Dover is believed to be the first school district to mandate such a policy. Parents, scientists, clergy members and attorneys who are challenging the Dover School District policy.
The Dover statement:
Text of the intelligent design statement Dover, Pa., teachers were instructed to read to their students:
The Pennsylvania Academic Standards require students to learn about Darwin’s theory of evolution and eventually to take a standardized test of which evolution is a part.
Because Darwin’s theory is a theory, it continues to be tested as new evidence is discovered. The theory is not a fact. Gaps in the theory exist for which there is no evidence. A theory is defined as a well-tested explanation that unifies a broad range of observations.
Intelligent design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin’s view. The reference book, “Of Pandas and People,” is available for students who might be interested in gaining an understanding of what intelligent design actually involves.
With respect to any theory, students are encouraged to keep an open mind. The school leaves the discussion of the origins of life to individual students and their families. As a standards-driven district, class instruction focuses upon preparing students to achieve proficiency on standards-based assessments.
The New Monkey Trial
By persuading the Dover, Pa., school board to teach creationism, Christian zealots have provoked a showdown over the status of not just evolutionary theory, but science itself. It was an ordinary springtime school board meeting in the bedroom community of Dover, Pa. The high school needed new biology textbooks, and the science department had recommended Kenneth Miller and Joseph Levine's "Biology." "It was a fantastic text," said Carol "Casey" Brown, 57, a self-described Goldwater Republican and the board's senior member. "It just followed our curriculum so beautifully."But Bill Buckingham, a new board member who'd recently become chair of the curriculum committee, had an objection. "Biology," he said, was "laced with Darwinism." He wanted a book that balanced theories of evolution with Christian creationism, and he was willing to turn his town into a cultural battlefield to get it. "This country wasn't founded on Muslim beliefs or evolution," Buckingham, a stocky, gray-haired man who wears a red, white and blue crucifix pin on his lapel, said at the meeting. "This country was founded on Christianity, and our students should be taught as such."
TEACHER Evolution | Creation Debate
''Under God''
Dear God, save us from the people who believe in you." ~ unknown
The words "In God We Trust" were not consistently on all U.S. currency until 1956, during the McCarthy Hysteria.
The Treaty of Tripoli, passed by the U.S. Senate in 1797, read in part: "The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." The treaty was written during the Washington administration, and sent to the Senate during the Adams administration. It was read aloud to the Senate, and each Senator received a printed copy. This was the 339th time that a recorded vote was required by the Senate, but only the third time a vote was unanimous (the next time was to honor George Washington). There is no record of any debate or dissension on the treaty. It was reprinted in full in three newspapers - two in Philadelphia, one in New York City. There is no record of public outcry or complaint in subsequent editions of the papers.
Public prayer fanatics borrow page from enemy's script
SUMMARY: The Bush administration has been dealt a setback in its campaign to allow prayer in our public schools. The full 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has voted 15-9 to back the 2-1 vote by its earlier panel finding the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional because of the words ''under God.''
The pledge, written in 1892, had those words added to it in 1954, during the Eisenhower administration, and I remember a nun in our Catholic school telling us we had to say it because it was the law -- but it was wrong, because it violated the principle of separating church and state.
The court said nothing about pledging allegiance to the flag. It spoke only of the words ''under God''--which amounted, the court said, to an endorsement of religion.
John Ashcroft, violates his oath of office daily by getting down on his knees in his government office every morning and welcoming federal employees to join him in ''voluntary'' prayer on carpets paid for by the taxpayers.
"WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS TRUE EVEN THOUGH YOU CANNOT PROVE IT?"
Great minds can sometimes guess the truth before they have either the evidence or arguments for it (Diderot called it having the "esprit de divination"). What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?
"Evolution | Creation Debate: A Time for Truth"
"It is a fact that the earth, with liquid water, is more than 3.6 billion years old. It is a fact that cellular life has been around for at least half of that period and that organized multicellular life is at least 800 million years old.
It is a fact that major life forms now on earth were not at all represented in the past. There were no birds or mammals 250 million years ago.
It is a fact that major life forms of the past are no longer living. There used to be dinosaurs and Pithecanthropus, and there are none now.
It is a fact that all living forms come from previous living forms. Therefore, all present forms of life arose from ancestral forms that were different. Birds arose from nonbirds and humans from nonhumans. No person who pretends to any understanding of the natural world can deny these facts any more than she or he can deny that the earth is round, rotates on its axis, and revolves around the sun."
Those who favor intelligent design want to offer it as an alternative to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, critics want to keep the idea out of biology textbooks. They say the theory is nothing more than a dressed-up version of creation science, which the U.S. Supreme Court has prohibited from public schools as a violation of the separation of church and state.
The alternative to evolution theory is not creationism or intelligent design. But if one is to be objective one would point out that non-proven theories fall into the category of "theoretical" eg "theoretical physics"; "theoretical biology" etc. Not all disciplines have a formally separate "theoretical" branch. If the theoretical branch included philosophy, then we could point out that in philosophy, religious philosophy is compared with other ideas and concepts. Descartes' ideas are discussed in philosophy without any fear of separation of church and state. Thus for religious ideas to be discussed in biology, a separate branch of biology, being "theoretical biology" or "biological philosophy", must be considered where all unproven or contentious ideas can be evaluated together. As "intelligent design" is a religious philosophy, it does not belong in biology classes.
A scientist wishes equate valid theory with public knowledge, not belief, via education. It is religion that wishes to equate belief with public knowledge, by force if necessary. Everything in the sciences is just an assumption so everything is open to reasoned discussion. All science does is validly compare ideas. To be able to do this requires an exacting methodology. Thus "quibbles over details of the philosophy of science" are more important than almost anything else. The epistemology of science is one of the most important studies that is available because it provides the thin blue line that allows us to know the difference between a belief and a theory. I would estimate that most of us waste our minds on a needless conflict between theory and belief. Epistemology provides a way to know the difference.
The difference is enormous.The scientists made an enormous epistemological blunder trying to contest creationists on their own ground: the battlefield of belief. Theory cannot contest belief and belief cannot contest theory. If you make them contest they destroy each other. People ask "do you believe in evolution?" What is the only possible scientific reply? Evolution is not a belief, it is a testable theory. - John Edser Independent Researcher
Bruce Chapman, president of The Discovery Institute has led a movement on the "intelligent design theory" -- a belief that species did not evolve by natural selection but instead progressed according to a plan or design. San Antonio Express-News reported on 8/13/03 that the Texas Education Agency disclosed that biology textbook publisher Holt, Rinehart & Winston had submitted changes in its biology textbook to a passage directing students to "study hypotheses for the origin of life that are alternatives" to others posed in the book. The elected Texas Board of Education has no control over textbook content but can reject books because of errors or failure to follow the state curriculum, which is mandated by the Legislature.
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
*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
Talk of the Nation audio
http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1648408
PUBLIC EDUCATION
The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online
Americans United for the Separation Between Church and State
Public prayer fanatics borrow page from enemy's script March 5, 2003 BY ROGER EBERT
http://www.suntimes.com/output/eb-feature/cst-edt-ebert05.html
SUMMARY
The Bush administration has been dealt a setback in its campaign to allow prayer in our public schools. The full 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has voted 15-9 to back the 2-1 vote by its earlier panel finding the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional because of the words ''under God.''
The pledge, written in 1892, had those words added to it in 1954, during the Eisenhower administration, and I remember a nun in our Catholic school telling us we had to say it because it was the law -- but it was wrong, because it violated the principle of separating church and state.
The court said nothing about pledging allegiance to the flag. It spoke only of the words ''under God''--which amounted, the court said, to an endorsement of religion.
John Ashcroft, violates his oath of office daily by getting down on his knees in his government office every morning and welcoming federal employees to join him in ''voluntary'' prayer on carpets paid for by the taxpayers.
Teaching Evolution Feb. 6, 2004
According to the Georgia Department of Education, the word evolution is a "controversial buzzword" that should be removed from the state's biology curriculum. In this hour, we'll take a look at science education in schools. Should evolution be out? And what should science class teach us about the age and origins of the universe? Join NPR's Ira Flatow for a look at new challenges to teaching evolution in public schools.
Guests: Eugenie C. Scott
*Director of the National Center for Science Education, Inc.
NCSE -- a nonprofit, tax-exempt membership organization working to defend the teaching of evolution against sectarian attack. We are a nationally-recognized clearinghouse for information and advice to keep evolution in the science classroom and "scientific creationism" out. http://www.ncseweb.org/
National Center for Science Education, Inc.
Eugenie C. Scott, Ph.D.Executive Director
420 40th St., #2
Oakland, CA 94609-2509
510-601-7203 fax: 510-601-7204
"Morality is doing what is right, regardless what we are told. Religious dogma is doing what we are told, no matter what is right.
The Hidden Dangers of Fundamentalism
A connection exists between disease outbreaks and extreme religious practice.
Polio could pose as much of a threat as suicide bombers. Religious fundamentalism is bad for your health. There are, of course, the ill effects suffered by suicide bombers and their innocent victims. Consider also the sarin gas attacks by the Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) sect, which killed 12 people in the Tokyo subway in 1995, and sickened 1,000 more. (Yes, I know the media reported 5,000 casualties, but 80% of them were the "worried well" who sought hospital emergency departments because of contact with victims, or consequent anxiety attacks).
What concerns me, however, is infectious disease. Consider these case histories:
The last outbreak of polio in Canada and the United States, in 1978-1979, was the result of travel from the Netherlands, where an outbreak was ongoing, to Canada by members of the Reformed Netherlands Congregation, a religious group that refused vaccinations.
In the fall of 1984 followers of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who had purchased the small town of Antelope in Wasco County in north central Oregon, plotted to take over the county. They tested a plan to sicken many of the county's voters on Election Day by contaminating 10 salad bars with salmonella in the county's largest town, The Dalles. Although no one died, 751 people fell ill. The commune panicked and gave up the plan.
In Uganda in 1998, an outbreak of cholera killed 83, and the resurgence of the disease was blamed on members of a sect in Soono Parish who hid patients from medical patrols. The sect was called Red Cross (not to be confused with the international relief organization), a group that collects dead bodies in the belief that resurrection is imminent.
When cholera broke out in Zimbabwe in 2002, it spread quickly among members of the Johanne Marange Apostolic Faith sect who were resisting treatment.
Most disastrously, in March 2004 the Kano state government in northern Nigeria refused to take part in a United Nations-led campaign to vaccinate West African children against polio. Islamic clerics alleged that the vaccine had been filled with hormones as part of a US-led plot to sterilize African girls. As a result, polio has spread from there, by the end of September 2005, to 11 previously polio-free countries, mostly in Africa but including Indonesia, Nepal, and Yemen. More than 900 cases of paralysis have been recorded, and the outbreak has cost many thousands of dollar-equivalents in mass vaccination campaigns that they can ill afford. Mass campaigns are no longer needed once a country has eradicated polio but must be reinstated after an importation.
Also in 2004, the Iraqi Communist Party alleged that the Yazidi religious sect in northern Iraq was facing genocide as a result of poisoning. It stated: "Four hundred cases of poisoning have been recorded, most of which are in critical condition. ... The matter has gone as far as affecting the physician of the only hospital in the village, who died of poisoning." The World Health Organization has investigated and found that 50 cases of gastrointestinal illness (not 400) had been reported in Dohuk in northern Iraq. Thirteen of the cases were from a housing complex in Khanak inhabited by the Yazidi, who practice Zoroastrianism, the ancient religion of Persians and Kurds. The water supply was in poor condition, and it was contaminated with sewage, not poison. This is particularly ironic because, according to the tenets of Zoroastrianism, in order to conserve the purity of water, fire, and earth, the dead cannot be immersed, cremated, or buried; Herodotus noted that the Persians do not urinate or spit in rivers. So the Yazidis would have been expected to take particular care with their water supply.
In May 2005, a rubella outbreak in a cluster of unvaccinated religious communities in southwestern Ontario, Canada, also probably originated from the Netherlands in the same way as the polio cases a quarter-century earlier.
The moral of this story: If you are a religious fundamentalist and care about your health, don't believe every rumor you hear, don't refuse vaccination or treatment, and keep your water supply clean.
