Elise's space

Whilst perusing last weeks Houma, LA, newspaper, the "Daily Comet", I noticed a couple articles of some interest. On page 9A (the opinion and letters page) at the bottom, there is one article which attempts to assert that evolution is some evil anti-god theory that Hitler used to justify the Holocaust. this article was about Ben Stien movie :Expelled. Aparrently Stein wanted to call the movie "from Darwin to Hitler". the article is so disgusting that I cannot, for the sake of my sanity, re-type it here. But what I can say is that the Author, John Aman, claims that all violence and death is the fault of Evolutionary theory, and completely ignores all the voilence, death, bigotry, and televangelism that religious dogma has wreaked upon humanity. He is also blissfully ignorant of a fact of the Theory of Evolution that the other article, a letter on the same page that Gavin Coldwell of Baton Rouge sent in, makes clear. following is his letter verbatim.

            "Bill threatens scientific method.

            The Louisiana Legislature in recklessly approving a bogus bill loosening standards regarding teaching Evolution, would be well advised to reconsider.

            Despite what the Louisiana Family Forum might assert, evolutionary theory is the bedrock of modern biological sciences and over the last century has lost no luster within legitimate scientific communities.

            Intelligent Design, However, enjoys no reputable scientific support at all and proponents of ID have provided no acceptable evidence to support what is essentially a negative case, that evolutionary theory has gaps, therefore Genesis is literal fact.

            ID is not recognized by any public school district in the U.S., the National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Academy of Sciences, the Nobel Committee, Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale or any other major university in the developed world!

            The most recent test case resulted in a conservative Republican judge scathingly dismissing the attempts by that school board to promote ID. Most of the board members the re-election. It is worth noting that Darwin himself did not actually create Evolutionary theory, but determined the universal mechanic that makes it possible.

            Evolution was already widley documented and the implications of such a wealth of evidence were clear. That we are still debating the issue 150 years later (and after even Pope John Paul II recognized Darwinian legitimacy) is an indictment of dogmatic anti-intellectualism.

            Darwin's theory has been tested and withstood all comers. Indeed, testability is the foundation of science and is precisely why ID is a laughable fraud.

            A scientific theory must always be falsifiable and subject to abandonment. Yet, although many amendments have been made to Darwin's initial suppositions, his central thesis remains beyond resonable doubt.

            The ID position is inherently unverifiable and does not constitute science. Were we to teach Christian origins, we surely would also have to elevate the disparate origin stories of all other faiths, small and large. After all, Science has no geographic boundary; the laws of physics affect Taoists and Catholics.

            The fact that much Christian theology is based on earlier sources indicates the dangers inherent in believing only one "truth" to the exclusion of others.

            Scientific Theories must at all times be open to challenge, testing and revision. One cannot test religious doctrine (a matter of faith) with the scientific method, and to place ID and Evolution on level scholastic ground is coourting ridicule."

The Daily Comet is part of the New York Times.

this is great! now we can get FSMism taught! formerly, only science was taught in science classes.

Louisiana's public schools were bad enough without ID, including it would only slow the school system even further. this is too much to ask of the education budget and the teachers.

Evolution is not an Origins story, but a biological mechanism that accounts for the diversity of life.

This blog is dedicated to the memory of Mr. Mike St.Pierre.