God or Ape

[Teacher Mark 53]

Published Feb 4, 2009, by ■ Carol Forsloff

This month Louisiana schools will start in earnest applying new rules. Those rules are in a handbook telling teachers how they can teach Intelligent Design. The law was passed allowing it last year, and this year are instructions on how.

Teachers can use materials outside the classroom to teach intelligent design. You can bet many people will pulling out their Bibles from their bags and giving the kiddies illustrations from that as well as from science materials. Already the questions raised by this are in science news from discussion of Dawkins to the nature of God and creation.

In Natchitoches a local teen maintains she is confused. Her science teacher has told the classroom that some people think man is a descendant of apes but that there is good evidence that God made man at the beginning. This information is different than what she had learned before, but the same as what she learns at church. It’s likely the teen will believe that Darwin’s scientific theories are no more truth than what the Bible teaches and that science is something to debate.

In late 2007 co-host Sherri Shepherd of The View said she didn’t believe in evolution and even questioned whether or not the world is round.

This type of debate becomes contemporary with Louisiana’s application of the law passed last year, allowing the teaching of Intelligent Design. It is timely given the handbook just passed out to teachers in recent days.

The Intelligent Design organization is heavily promoting its particular point of view in places like Louisiana and also on its website. The website lists those scientists and thinkers who disagree with Darwin.

When the law allowing the teaching of creationism and intelligent design was passed in Louisiana there was scarcely a peep from the people. The law went through the legislature quite smoothly, with a few intellectuals protesting but the rank and file of folks simply not knowing or thinking it a good idea. The problem is the precedent it sets for other places in the United States and the confusion that may take place between what a student learns in one place and what is learned in another.

All of this will likely continue to be confusing for teens in Natchitoches and throughout the rest of the state as they attempt to sort out what they learn in the classroom and what young people learn in the rest of the United States.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/266544

[Jasman0717 9]

In late 2007 co-host Sherri Shepherd of The View said she didn't believe in evolution and even questioned whether or not the world is round.

So is the world flat like her head

[pedroh 21]

i dont know why is this still being discussed.. it's so stupid and worthles...

teach evolution in science, teach whatever belief u think of in another class

[Yoink 7]

I just re-read Angels and Demons and Dan Brown said Religion and science can co-exist and are just 2 different languages trying to show the same thing.

I love not having any original thoughts sometimes

[tmma 467]

I just re-read Angels and Demons and Dan Brown

Me too! That's a good book.

[Teacher Mark 53]

I don't see anything wrong with both theories being presented side by side. The key is making sure that the text, and the instructor, are unbiased. Let the students decide for themselves.

[Jasman0717 9]

I don't see anything wrong with both theories being presented side by side. The key is making sure that the text, and the instructor, are unbiased. Let the students decide for themselves.

[Teacher Mark 53]

I would choose to show this Family Guy clip. Peter Griffin sums it all up nicely, as usual:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/54634/family-guy...ion-vs-creation

Edited February 8, 2009 by Joe Six-Pack

[Melrose Plant 1]

I am personally in favor of teaching the Un-Intelligent Design theory in our schools. That theory Accounts for a Good Deal.

[Teacher Mark 53]

Just couldn't resist MP?! Well you're in here, might as well get comfortable.

Edited February 8, 2009 by Joe Six-Pack

[pedroh 21]

I don't see anything wrong with both theories being presented side by side. The key is making sure that the text, and the instructor, are unbiased. Let the students decide for themselves.

intelligent design is not a theory, is not based in the scientific method.. it's a belief..

[Caladan 19]

I don't see anything wrong with both theories being presented side by side. The key is making sure that the text, and the instructor, are unbiased. Let the students decide for themselves.

Because only one of the theories is science.

I would love to see religion classes in schools, but I don't want intelligent design being taught as an alternative to evolutionary biology any more than I want kids being taught 2+2 = 5.

[Teacher Mark 53]

the·o·ry

1: the analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one another

2: abstract thought : speculation

3: the general or abstract principles of a body of fact, a science, or an art <music theory>

4 a: a belief, policy, or procedure proposed or followed as the basis of action <her method is based on the theory that all children want to learn> b: an ideal or hypothetical set of facts, principles, or circumstances —often used in the phrase in theory<in theory, we have always advocated freedom for all>

5: a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body of principles offered to explain phenomena <the wave theory of light>

6 a: a hypothesis assumed for the sake of argument or investigation b: an unproved assumption : conjecture c: a body of theorems presenting a concise systematic view of a subject <theory of equations>

I don't see anything wrong with both theories being presented side by side. The key is making sure that the text, and the instructor, are unbiased. Let the students decide for themselves.

Because only one of the theories is science.

I would love to see religion classes in schools, but I don't want intelligent design being taught as an alternative to evolutionary biology any more than I want kids being taught 2+2 = 5.

It's OK for the other parents to have their children taught what they don't believe though?

[NickD 202]

I don't see anything wrong with both theories being presented side by side. The key is making sure that the text, and the instructor, are unbiased. Let the students decide for themselves.

Ha, I can't even decide for myself, no proof from either side, and what you feel or believe is not indisputable proof. Should just leave it as, we don't know. But for some reason, we can certainly wonder about it.

Ha, listened to PBS radio with a professor from the Colombia university that teaches a course on the history of comic books, now that is something important for our kids to know.

Can anyone get a job with a degree on comic book history?

[Teacher Mark 53]

I don't see anything wrong with both theories being presented side by side. The key is making sure that the text, and the instructor, are unbiased. Let the students decide for themselves.

Ha, I can't even decide for myself, no proof from either side, and what you feel or believe is not indisputable proof. Should just leave it as, we don't know. But for some reason, we can certainly wonder about it.

Ha, listened to PBS radio with a professor from the Colombia university that teaches a course on the history of comic books, now that is something important for our kids to know.

Can anyone get a job with a degree on comic book history?

Never mind. I misunderstood the question.

I think a better question in the current environment is "Can anybody get a job?"

Edited February 8, 2009 by Joe Six-Pack