05.28.08
The evolving strategy
The never-ending fight over Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution has entered a new phase. Rebuffed in the courts over efforts to bring creationism and intelligent design into the classroom, critics of Darwinism — whether whole or in part — are now pushing so-called “academic freedom†bills in state legislatures. These bills, claim their sponsors, are designed to protect teachers who teach the strengths and weaknesses of evolutionary theory. As critics of the legislation allege, however, it is simply a stealth way to introduce legally and scientifically discredited doctrine into the curriculum.
Since 2004, bills have been introduced in eight states — Michigan, Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, Maryland, Missouri, Oklahoma and, most recently, South Carolina — although no state has enacted such legislation so far. The Louisiana Senate has passed an academic freedom bill, and similar bills passed in the Florida Senate and House but failed earlier this month when the two houses couldn’t reconcile their versions.
“It’s clear this is the latest attempt to get intelligent design into the schools,†said Robert Pennock, a professor of evolutionary biology at Michigan State. He was also an expert witness at the 2005 Dover, Pa., trial that banned the teaching of intelligent design (the concept that certain features of the universe are so complex they must have an intelligent cause) in that school district after the school board had mandated it.
“This is the latest in a sequence of bills,†he added. “Initially, [proponents] said students should learn the alternative view, intelligent design. Now they’ve backed away from using that term, and the latest strategy is couching it in terms of critical analysis and academic freedom; but the intent is to get in the intelligent design and creationism [the belief that all the universe was created by a being, and the Earth is only several thousand years old] arguments. It’s very clear what these are all about.â€
Not so, says John West of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, which supports research that challenges aspects of Darwinian theory.
“These proposed bills would clarify the situation by making clear that any genuinely scientific evidence for or against Darwin’s theory can be discussed in an objective manner in relevant courses,†West said. “There is a great deal of confusion among both teachers and school administrators about what is legal and what is allowed. This is especially the case because evolution proponents have been misusing the Dover ruling to scare school administrators into thinking that the presentation of scientific criticisms of Darwin’s theory is somehow unconstitutional, which is patently false.â€
This is not how a number of prominent scientific and teaching organizations view these bills. For them, it’s a case of déjà vu all over again.
“This law is allowing metaphysical explanation into the world of scientific method,†said Brian Shmaefsky of the National Association of Biology Teachers. “When we teach evolution, we’re presenting a certain series of facts based on observation. Once you get into intelligent design, that’s the world of the metaphysical. You can’t debate it. This bill gives equal credence to the metaphysical and physical worlds we use in the scientific method. The strength of the scientific method is it’s the world we can deal with.â€
Others argue that these bills not only leave the door open for religious doctrine to be taught in science classes but that they are a surreptitious way to undermine school board control over curriculum.
“It’s part of a plot to sell a way to teach a package of religious beliefs and pretend it’s something else,†said Richard Katskee, assistant legal director with Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “What you’re really saying here is school boards no longer have the authority to decide what will be taught, and an independent teacher or student can substitute their own ideas as to what can be taught. The proper teaching of science is an issue of professional competence and professional ethics. To use the language of academic freedom to push professional incompetence is just a category mistake. To present nonscience as criticism of evolution and pass that off as science is designed to mislead.â€
According to West, none of the bills permit the teaching of creationism. Also, he said, nearly all the bills contain a section that “only protects the teaching of scientific information,†and “as for the question of intelligent design, most of the bills don’t apply to intelligent design at all because they protect only the right to teach about the strengths and weaknesses of existing theories already in the curriculum, not the right to cover new theories not in the curriculum.
“As for overriding school district policies,†he added, “it’s been evolution proponents who have most pushed for statewide science standards on evolution that would override local school district standards in this area. So it’s the height of hypocrisy for evolution proponents to raise issues of local control when they are the ones who have crusaded against any local control on this issue for years.â€
Of course, the response to this is that if evolution proponents have indeed been so heavy-handed in their methods, it’s because they are determined to keep creationism and intelligent design — both deemed religious doctrines by the courts — out of science class.
Yet the battle continues to rage. Helping keep the controversy alive is Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, a pro-intelligent design documentary currently playing around the country, which has earned a documentary-respectable $7.5 million at the box office despite being trashed by mainstream critics (earning a measly 9 percent positive on Rottentomatoes.com’s ranking of critical reaction). But as far as intelligent design’s opponents are concerned, the war will not be won on movie screens but in the courts.
“Every battle we actually fight, we win,†Katskee said. “The problem is the Discovery Institute knows there are lots and lots of venues to fight in. Rechanging the language after every setback in court is definitely a rear guard action. And it’s a war of attrition.â€
SoD said,
May 28, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Consider a Science of Intelligent Design with a broaden Religion impact;
A Thing that has not yet been disproved … can hold it’s reasonable assumption that it do exist; And as long as a Thing remain unproven, it can maintain it’s greatest possibility of being so. Indeed in this world, Intelligent Design has faltered, but because the beautiful and shinning crystal glass was shattered when it fell to the floor, doesn’t mean it’s Superior Design didn’t exist before it’s fragments were disarranged.
Here are 2 given statements of information on this inquisitive concern;
1… How would an Individual Envision Their inner Mind Soul …
Most people asked this question … would be lost for and answer … many would finally say after much thought …. ‘like a ghost’ … some would probably say there is no such thing …
Concerning this question …. it has been given me to tell the people associated with this one tiny rock orbiting within this one specific galaxy … ‘We’ of an Intelligent Mind Soul, are Beings of a Complex ‘Designed Circuitry of Intelligent Energy’ …. no larger than the palm of an adult hand, and thinner than a sheet of paper …. A living web-like fiber of translucent energy … It is this complex Circuitry of Energy which in takes and process thoughts in many ways similar to a computer chip, but an organic Plasma Chip …
Most people of this planet are celestials fallen from place rather they remember this or not … but there are the few who were nurtured by celestial during their course of a Neanderthal Evolution ….
The mystery to a celestial Mind Cell, is that work which the Master Creator in Her greatness had first designed, then spun the Mind Cell into existence ….
There in a translucent Field of High Frequency Energy … the Mind Soul first appears wrapped in a woven cocoon as the finest work of silk … such works would resemble the spinning of white cotton candy as the spinning silk-like candy then appears on it’s paper stick.
In time …. Mystic Cocoons are delivered of a specific generation count, into a different specific Fields of Plasma Energy which is sustained of a frequency acceleration similar to the process known as cold fusion … these such First Fields of Plasma Energy could be seen as free floating balls of sparkling Energy … some larger than four of earth’s suns combined in one mass ….. Then in time some were as small as a jack ball ….
First in Creation there are the Mystic accelerated Fields of Plasma Energy generating shades of a Black-like Neon Light which generates shades of a royal blue aura … then there are Fields of Plasma Energy generating shades of a near Blacken Red Neon Light which generates shades of an apple red aura … then there are Fields generating shades of a Blacken Green Neon Light which generates shades of an apple green aura … and finally there are Fields generating degrees of a Mystic intensified neon White Light which generates degrees of an alluring white aura …
Later in time …these such Fields of Plasma Energy which were contained in a mirrored glass sphere similar in size to Earth’s moon …. have often been referred to as the Bosom of GOD … one such field of accelerated energy has also been referred to as Abraham’s Bosom …
Once Plasma Mind Cells emerged from their Silk Woven Cocoon, in Chambers of their God Head … each then appears engulfed with an accumulated quantity of inert energy referred to as a Soul … in this manner each Mind Soul have developed of a shape shifting Ghost-like appearance …. each yielding that same Mystic Pigmentation of their God Head‘s Field of accelerated Plasma Energy …. Such a Pigmented ‘Ghost of a Soul’, is that which engulfs the Mind Cell at all times …. It is this Ghost of an energy state, when it become quickened, is also referred to as a Spirit …. For the Spirit is but an accelerated state of any energy:
In time …. many Mind Souls began to possess or incarnate of many different designs of physical forms …. All developed physical forms followed pigmentation of their Plasma kind ….
But much has changed in the character of a Mind Cell’s ‘Ghost like Energy’ since the falling from place … and since many eons of reincarnations ….
2 … How do a Believer Envision GOD …
Most every one asked, envision God as a Being of light or lightening, or energy … and each would be partially right … it has been given me to tell the people this… the Master Creator is far more than any humanity has imagined
The Master Creator is ‘One’ who’s Massive Intelligence of a Complex Circuitry of ‘Charged Plasma Energy’ is Adorned in the immeasurable Gown of Inert and Shiny Blackness of Dark Matter … a Being of the greatest intelligence known and unknown …. One who did create and do hold firm the very Designed Foundation of all Worlds created … that same One who sit in Highest position of all Her Creations of 9 Universal Planes, and who in doing so established 4 Inner Dimensional Levels there in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th, Universal Planes and 3 Inner Dimensional Levels there in the and 8th Universal Plane; as Earth now sets in open view here in the 7th Universal Plane of endless darkness. All Planes and their Inner Dimensional levels are held in placed by the stabilizing accomplishments of Quantum Frequencies.
Of such A Creator is said; if Her Shiny Gown of Dark Matter was to transform into a Voltage Being of Lightening, and were to step down from Her hidden Place there in the First Dimensional Level of the First Universal Plane; and were to take journey through our known universe of expanded darkness. Her appearance would stand as a Five Figurative Form of Blue Lightening. Taller than any known Nebula. And that spiraling galaxies would be as tiny lily pads coupling each Her every gigantic Footsteps; and that each lily pad of a galaxy, would buckle to fall in scattered debris at Her passing.
I’m just an Old Soul passing through, given something important to say …
http://sod2008.multiply.com
evelynseedofdavid@gmail.com
Confloosed said,
June 1, 2008 at 1:17 am
Wow.
I mean WOOOOOWW!
@SoD,
I read your comment, twice. Now my brain hurts, My grasped Of grammar and, punctuation, Capitalisation and other normalcy rules of writing has been adsorbed by Eelectron flux Capacitor, and still I have absolutely no idea of what you were trying to say in your comment.
Please can you explain how the “Mystic Pigmentation of their God Head‘s Field of accelerated Plasma Energy” relates to the education bills in the various state legislations?
I missed that bit and feel that I ought to know.
Thank you.
Spiritual Light | Open_Secrets said,
June 2, 2008 at 10:29 am
[...] to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, Almaas asks us to consider the implications of being a Being of Light. What does that mean in terms of time? What about the [...]