Creationists Try to Edge Around Ban

[motai]

WASHINGTON - Creationism is a mandatory class at Virginia's Liberty University, a Christian college founded in Lynchburg by evangelist Jerry Falwell.

(...)

The latest effort is to teach high school students "intelligent design" - which attributes the origin of the world to an intelligent designer, without using the word "God," and embraces some aspects of science.

Next month, ninth-graders in Dover, Pa., will become the first public school students in the nation to be taught "intelligent design" alongside evolution.

(...)

DeWitt believes all students should "have the academic freedom to question evolution. . . . I think it's dishonest to shove evolution down these students' throats as a fact."

But Cobb County high school biology teacher Wes McCoy argues that students need to be taught "a rational, step-by-step explanation of evolution" based on "authentic science" and that does not contradict religious beliefs.

(...)

But Morris, a proponent of teaching students "intelligent design," believes the theory of evolution is a type of unproven religion based on "weak" scientific evidence.

(...)

President Bush advocates teaching children "different theories about how the world started" and "scientific critiques of any theory."

Most Americans agree with him.

Nearly 80 years since the Scopes "Monkey Trial" pitted evolutionists against creationists, a CBS poll last month found that almost two thirds of Americans favor teaching creationism and evolution in public schools.

Last month, voters across the country backed a number of pro-creationism candidates, including Sen.-elect Jim DeMint, R-S.C., who attacked his opponent, state Education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum, for pushing evolution in schools.

(...)



http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArti cle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031779515094

[franznietzsche]

I hate fundamentalists, i jsut wanna throw that out there.


They're like the crackpots who claim relativity is only a theory, and not proven.

No, its really basically a fact. At worst its oversimplified, but its not wrong. And the same goes for evolution. The fact is that most americans know nothing about science and are not qualified to have an opinion in these matters. And the same goes for most politicians, since they draw from the same pool of ignorance.

[Gza]

Nearly 80 years since the Scopes "Monkey Trial" pitted evolutionists against creationists, a CBS poll last month found that almost two thirds of Americans favor teaching creationism and evolution in public schools.


That really jumped out at me. Who the hell ARE these people? I'd really like to know.

[cragwolf]

They are the people who largely agreed with Kerry's policies and voted for Bush.