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 | | From: | Jason Spaceman | | Subject: | Time: Stealth Attack On Evolution | | Date: | Sun, 23 Jan 2005 20:18:38 -0500 |
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 | From the article:
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Who is behind the movement to give equal time to Darwin's critics, and
what do they really want?
By MICHAEL D. LEMONICK NOAH ISACKSON; JEFFREY RESSNER
Ken Bingman has beern teaching biology in the public schools in the
Kansas City area for 42 years, and over the past decade he has seen a
marked change in how students react when he brings up evolution. "I
don't know if we're more religious today," he says, "but I see more
and more students who want a link to God." Although he is a
churchgoer, Bingman does not believe that link should be part of a
science class. Neither does the Supreme Court, which declared such
intermingling of church and state unconstitutional back in 1988.
But that decision does not sit well with a lot of Americans. So at a
time when religious faith is increasingly worn on public sleeves--most
prominently that of the President--a dispute that dates back to the
celebrated 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial" is being replayed around the
country in legislatures, courts, school-board meetings and
parent-teacher conferences. School administrators in rural Dover, Pa.,
visited biology classes last week to read a declaration proclaiming,
among other things, that "Darwin's theory [of evolution] ... is a
theory, not a fact." And in suburban Cobb County, Ga., officials
pasted stickers on biology textbooks declaring the same thing and are
now appealing a court order to remove them.
The intellectual underpinnings of the latest assault on Darwin's
theory come not from Bible-wielding Fundamentalists but from
well-funded think tanks promoting a theory they call intelligent
design, or I.D. for short. Their basic argument is that the origin of
life, the diversity of species and even the structure of organs like
the eye are so bewilderingly complex that they can only be the
handiwork of a higher intelligence (name and nature unspecified).
All the think tanks want to do, they insist, is make the teaching of
evolution more honest by bringing up its drawbacks. Who could argue
with that? But the mainstream scientific community contends that this
seemingly innocuous agenda is actually a stealthy way of promoting
religion. "Teaching evidence against evolution is a back-door way of
teaching creationism," says Eugenie Scott, executive director of the
National Center for Science Education.
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Read it at
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1019856,00.html
J. Spaceman
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| | From: | John Vreeland | | Subject: | Re: Time: Stealth Attack On Evolution | | Date: | Sun, 23 Jan 2005 23:23:49 -0500 |
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| On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 20:18:38 -0500, Jason Spaceman
wrote:
>"Teaching evidence against evolution is a back-door way of
>teaching creationism," says Eugenie Scott, executive director of the
>National Center for Science Education.
I think that this was badly worded. He should have said that teaching
non-scientific attacks on evolution is a back door way, etc.
Jack V (Vreejack)
"Will future ages believe that such stupid bigotry ever existed!"--_Ivanhoe_
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| | From: | Roger Coppock | | Subject: | Re: Time: Stealth Attack On Evolution | | Date: | 23 Jan 2005 23:10:38 -0800 |
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| John, Dr. Eugenie Scott is a SHE. Please see www.ncseweb.org
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