SAD 59 debates teaching of evolution

The state Department of Education disagrees with an Athens School Board director who wants School Administrative District 59 to drop evolution from its high school science curricula.

Director Matthew Linkletter claims evolution is an unprovable theory and shouldn’t be taught as fact. He’s urged the SAD 59 Board of Directors to consider his view during its May 19 meeting in Madison, with a goal of removing evolution from science classrooms.

But David Connerty-Marin of the Department of Education says evolution must be taught because, in the state’s view, it’s a proven science.

“For our students to be prepared for college work and life in the 21st century, it’s necessary,” said Connerty-Marin.

Connerty-Marin said the Maine Learning Results program mandates the study of evolution in public science classes.

“Evolution is not just a belief, or based on faith, it’s based on scientific evaluation,” he said. “The worldwide science community supports it.”

Linkletter believes that neither evolution nor creationism belong in a high school science curriculum, because they cannot be proven.

“You can’t show, observe or prove (evolution),” he said.

School Administrative District 59 includes the towns of Madison, Athens, Brighton Plantation and Starks.

Chosen at random, two parents of Madison Area Memorial High School students expressed some support for Linkletter’s position.

“I think that’s a very valid point, to tell you the truth, because evolution is only a theory, not a hard fact,” said Nancy Martin, an educational technician at Athens Elementary School.

Martin, who has a son at the high school, said that she believes in creationism, as outlined in the Old Testament Book of Genesis. She said SAD 59 should pull evolution from the science curriculum unless creationism is afforded equal footing. (Source)

It’s highly ironic that the very people who exhibit such ignorance of evolution, those who are in the greatest need of an education in the biological sciences, are the same folks who oppose it for no good reason. That becomes obvious when the god folks of Maine don’t offer a single alternative explanation that accounts for the evidence observed in nature, evidence that can be subjected to the scientific method (since that’s what qualifies something as scientific as opposed to a philosophy, which science isn’t nearly as competent to examine). All they can do is claim “god did it” and shake their heads in either amazement or confusion. It’s hard to discern the difference.

And these people get to decide what little Jimmy gets to learn, little Mohammad, little Tzao, any other child who might not be a Christian? It’s nothing less than a travesty of the educational system. Special interest groups, and I don’t care which faction of the population they represent even if I might be sympathetic any other time, should be allowed to influence education. No kid should be taught what to think. Every child ought to be taught how to think.

The 21st century is the Data Age. We are consuming and producing data on a previously unimaginable scale. What children will need to learn to cope with this never-ending data stream is how to access the information they need. They need to develop discernment, so they can determine the validity of the ideas they encounter. No one with computer access and the knowledge of how to search needs to memorize the order of the presidents or the state capitals.

To allow the further perversion of a system already ineffective is nonsensical. Education needs to progress, not regress into the 1st century. Education, if it’s to remain relevant, has to adapt to the computer age. No amount of praying or Bible reading is going to accomplish that.

Maine may have a more extensive problem with their educational system. Presumably all these board members attended schools where evolution was taught as a biological science. Yet they managed to grasp nothing at all of the theory. They didn’t even learn what a scientific theory is. Since when is it every parent’s wish that their children graduate from school even more ignorant than themselves?

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A federal judge has ruled that the lawsuit against a Capistrano Valley High School teacher accused of fostering “hostility toward Christians” and promoting “irreligion over religion” can go to trial. Scott Martindale has the story at the Register:

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages and attorney fees, says Corbett typically spent “a large portion of class time propagating his personal views to a captive audience.” He railed against Christianity and Christian viewpoints on topics such as birth control, teenage sex, homosexuality and erectile dysfunction, according to the lawsuit.

Corbett, who attended Monday’s hearing, declined to comment, but said in a prepared statement: “I am frustrated that my side of this story has yet to be heard, but there is so much at stake for me and my family that my best course is to follow my lawyer’s advice and wait until this is over before I comment.”

Corbett is also the adviser to the Free Thinking Atheist and Agnostic Kinship student club at the school, and has been teaching for more than 30 years. His point above is a valid one – all the public has really seen is the family’s statement and the rally supporting the student. Hopefully the student’s tapes will be released sometime soon. (Source)

I doubt his comment will go far to counter the hysteria being fostered by the claims that “He railed against Christianity and Christian viewpoints.” That’s practically a felony in today’s Christian America. Heaven forbid (pun intended) students should ever be exposed to a reality that does not conform to religious belief. Can someone explain how this is any different from the desire of Muslims to have their own laws and practices recognized in this country? It will take more than a god to help America if we start caving in to every demand made by the religious that their beliefs be accorded any place in our secular government or public schools.

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“The Quest for Right” is another attempt to sneak religious nonsense into the classroom disguised as serious science.

From the site:

THERE IS A NEW DISCIPLINE:

The Quest for Right, a series of 7 textbooks created for the public schools, represents the ultimate marriage between an in-depth knowledge of biblical phenomena and natural and physical sciences. The several volumes have accomplished that which, heretofore, was deemed impossible: to level the playing field between those who desire a return to physical science in the classroom and those who embrace the theory of evolution. The Quest for Right turns the tide by providing an authoritative and enlightening scientific explanation of natural phenomena which will ultimately dethrone the unprofitable Darwinian view.

The backbone of Darwinism is not biological evolution per se, but electronic interpretation, the tenet that all physical, chemical, and biological processes result from a change in the electron structure of the atom which, in turn, may be deciphered through the orderly application of mathematics, as outlined in quantum mechanics. A few of the supporting theories are: degrading stars, neutron stars, black holes, extraterrestrial water, antimatter, the absolute dating systems, and the big bang, the explosion of a singularity infinitely smaller than the dot of an “i” from which space, time, and the massive stellar bodies supposedly sprang into being.

The philosophy rejects any divine intervention. Therefore, let the philosophy of Darwinism be judged on these specifics: electron interpretation and quantum mechanics. Conversely, the view that God is both responsible for and rules all the phenomena of the universe will stand or fall when the facts are applied. The view will not hinge on faith alone, but will be tested by the weightier principle of verifiable truths – the new discipline.

The Quest for Right is not only better at explaining natural phenomena, but also may be verified through testing. As a consequence, the material in the several volumes will not violate the so-called constitutional separation of church and state. Physical science, the old science of cause and effect, will have a long-term sustainability, replacing irresponsible doctrines based on whim. Teachers and students will rejoice in the simplicity of earthly phenomena when entertained by the new discipline.

The Quest for Right is not only an academic resource designed for the public schools, but also contains a wealth of information on pertinent subjects that seminarians need to know to be effective: geology, biology, geography, astronomy, chemistry, paleontology, and in-depth Biblical studies. The nuggets from the pages of Biblical history alone will give seminarians literally hundreds of fresh ideas for sermons and teachings. The ministry resources contained in The Quest for Right serve as invaluable aids that will enrich graduates beyond their highest expectations.

You will not want to miss the adventure of a lifetime which awaits you in Volume 1 of The Quest for Right.

Visit the official website for additional information and to purchase a copy: http://questforright.com/

“A book that will change the world.” – Wayne Lin, Editor, Tate Publishing LLC

As usual, creationists cannot grasp the very simple fact that evolution does not address the development of the universe. Cosmology and physics, being poorly understood by them, get all muddled together with biological evolution. They don’t really care. It’s all science, and all the sciences are a big scary evil. If you believe all the evidence that nature provides, you’re left with little reason to shoehorn a god into the process.

Please note, Christians: disguising your ideas so as to make them resemble real science isn’t going to work. It’s too obvious. We’re aware of your tricks and will expose them for what they are at every opportunity. Stick to your faith. At least no atheist is going to challenge your right to believe anything you wish, no matter how ignorant of science it may be. But we will object to your frequent attempts to inject your 2000 year old mythology into school science classes.

And a geek-ish note to the author, C. David Parsons:  no serious author has an AOL email address.  That’s just another sign of your lack of credibility.  You have a domain, use an email address attached to it.  At least try to appear like you know what you’re doing.

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 Board Opposes Evolution Being Taught As Fact

Four of five members of the School Board of Highlands County oppose the proposed change in the state’s science standards that would present evolution as fact to students.

Some school board members across the state have opposed the proposed revisions to the science curriculum that specifies that evolution be taught as “fact” as opposed to a “theory,” School Board Attorney John McClure said at a recent school board meeting. School Board Chairman J. Ned Hancock said Thursday he would support the resolution to encourage the state not to approve the science standard of evolution as fact.

School Board Vice Chairman Andy Tuck said Thursday, “as a person of faith, I strongly oppose any study of evolution as fact at all. I’m purely in favor of it staying a theory and only a theory. “I won’t support any evolution being taught as fact at all in any of our schools.”(Source)

North Florida weighing in against evolution

A growing number of North Florida superintendents and school boards are objecting to the state’s proposed new science standards, saying the standards give too much credence to evolution and leave no room for alternative theories.

Evolution is “going to be taught as fact, and everyone knows it’s not fact,” said Dennis Bennett, the superintendent in Dixie County, west of Gainesville. “There’s holes in it you can drive a truck through.”

At least seven of Florida’s 67 school boards – all north of Ocala – have passed opposition resolutions, according to the Florida Citizens for Science, a group that supports the standards and has been methodically searching board minutes.

That number could double by the time the state Board of Education votes on the standards Feb. 19, said Wayne Blanton, executive director of the Florida School Boards Association.

Dominated by Baptist churches and dotted with military bases, most of North Florida makes no bones about its political and cultural conservatism. Throw an election year into the mix, Blanton said, and it’s no surprise that school officials in places like Bonifay and Macclenny are “going to try to do some things their constituents want.”

“We just wanted to get it on the record that we’re a Judeo-Christian community, and we believe in academic freedom,” Bennett said.

“I’m a Christian. And I believe I was created by God, and that I didn’t come from an amoeba or a monkey,” said Ken Hall, a School Board member in Madison County, east of Tallahassee.

The St. John’s resolution says the standards should “allow for balanced, objective and intellectually open instruction” that doesn’t treat evolution as “dogmatic fact.”

“Anybody with half a brain can see that natural selection takes place,” said Beverly Slough, a St. John’s board member who is president-elect of the Florida School Boards Association. “But to make great leaps from a fish to a man … the fossil record doesn’t support all that.”(Source)

Half-a-brain indeed. That seems to be the only requirement to be a Florida Board of Education member.

A lonely voice of reason:

 Schools Should Teach Evolution

Florida children may soon be the laughingstock of the nation, especially if they have a public school education.

There’s a move afoot to include the Bible story of creation as part of our science classes — you know the one: God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh?

Instead, Florida children should be learning about evolution in science class. The theory of evolution is just that, a scientific theory, with facts and fossils and proven timelines and carbon dating.

I’m sorry. The Bible story, the fable of creationism, has no place in official science class. No place in public school altogether, unless you’re taking some sort of comparative religion class. What’s next? Jonah and the whale instead of marine biology?

Teaching fables as real science does our children a disservice when they get out in the real world. Save the religious stories for Sunday school and let our Florida science teachers use real science to educate our students. (Source)

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