> -----Original Message----- > From: Dana [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2008 12:44 PM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Re: McCain's VP want's Creationism taught in Science Class > > I thnik when it comes to cosmology there is room for a student to say > but what if it was god not a lightning bolt? I agree that the answer > is that there is no telling, but you seem to be saying that the > student shouldn't even get to ask the question. I submit that the > question probably gets asked every year.
This is the current strategy for the various "Academic Freedom" bills. They make a very reasonable sounding case that no student should be punished for free inquiry. Everybody can agree with that! Of course they've no examples of when a student ever WAS penalized for asking for a question making the bills, at best, a solution for a nonexistent problem. Of course students continually ask similar questions - any good science teacher knows how to answer them (quite simply that science as a discipline only examines the falsifiable) and life moves on. Why not legislate it? However the bills (which generally have direct input from the ID propaganda organization, the Discovery Institute) contain more problematic items. Some common clauses/ramifications are: +) That no teacher should even penalized for stating a personal belief in a classroom and can't be punished for making personal ethical decisions based on personal beliefs. For example a science teacher than refuses to teach evolution or deviates from curriculum to teach perceived faults with evolution cannot be censured. +) That students can't be penalized for making statements based on personal beliefs. So, for example, if a student disrupts a classroom continually with the same false challenges to evolution (essentially proselytizing) they can't be censured. If a student answers a science test with faith-based answers they can't be marked down. +) These bills always single out evolutionary criticism for protection despite the fact that there are NO (none, nada, zip, zilch, zero) scientifically valid alternatives to biologic evolution currently available. So these bills are seeking to legislate an issue that they've created from whole cloth: scientific controversy over evolution. The bills, by design, seek to present a reasonable face. Who could possible argue AGAINST Academic Freedom! (Possibly the same anti-American traitors that argued against the Patriot Act or the kid-hating folks that argued against No Child Left Behind.) With a federal ruling against Intelligent Design in existence this strategy attempts to open loopholes which allow teaching of the main points of ID without expressly referencing it. Personally I would like to see science move to the offensive in this. The bills are designed to allow the teaching the ID (despite protests to the contrary) but to pass constitutional muster most contain some language concerning the validity of statements covered by the bill... in short for the bills to meet their purpose you MUST also consider ID a valid scientific alternative. Of course it isn't - and we have federal legal precedence to that effect. It's tedious and frustrating, but I would prefer to see the scientific community begin to accumulate precedents concerning specific claims. When the anti-evolutionists (through outright lies or ignorance) make false statements like "Evolution is a random process", "Evolution says you're descended from monkeys", "Evolution has made no predictions", "Evolution can't account for the complexity of the eye", etc I would like to see legal challenges. While I agree that these laws create a dangerously slippery slope, I also think that they might also be made to backfire on their creators. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:267411 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
