Theory of intelligent design enters Blount Co. (Tennessee) high schools

[truthpusher]

http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=2836983

Theory of intelligent design enters Blount Co. (Tennessee) high schools
January 20, 2005

By TEARSA SMITH

6 News Anchor/Reporter

BLOUNT COUNTY (WATE) -- If you have high schoolers in Blount County and you haven't heard of intelligent design, you'll hear plenty about it in the future. It's an alternative to teaching evolution.

(snip)

However, the school board recently approved the theory for teachers to introduce.

(snip)

The move comes on the heals of a national debate and controversy. Some parents in Dover, Pennsylvania are outraged with their school system's adoption of intelligent design. They're even suing the town, calling the move unconstitutional because it favors creationism.

(snip)

To the best of the school boards' knowledge, there isn't a current text book that teaches intelligent design. For now, teachers will have to design their own curriculums.

http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=2836983

[Solly Mack]

1. I hope parents sue in Blount County as well

[Fifth of Five]

20. I live there...

Fortunately for me, my children have graduated high school already. Also fortunately, there are three school systems in Blount County - the county schools, Alcoa City Schools, and Maryville City Schools.

As far as I know, the call for teaching ID as science has not reached the two city school systems. I doubt it would be accepted in either of those systems, as the boards are, at least marginally, more inclined to leave the teaching/curriculum decisions to the school administrators and teachers.

A surprising number of the teachers, at least in Maryville, are among the few Democrats in, as Bush** would say, "in this part of the world."

[KamaAina]

2. How far is that from Dayton, TN?

home of the Scopes "monkey trial"?

[SharonAnn]

13. About 45 miles. I'm in the between the two of them and it's weird here.

Roane County High School is also the place where the principal gave his famous speech a couple of years ago before a football game. It was about how you're not allowed to pray anymore, and the homosexual lifestyle, etc.. Here it is on Snopes (it's for real)!

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/prayer.htm

There's not doubt that this is a seriously sick part of the state and a seriously sick part of the country.

[Liberal Veteran]

3. Creationism by any other name would still stink of theology.

No matter how hard they try to pass it off as "science".

[Botany]

4. When Mom & Dad are brother and sister .....

..... by God you are in the hills of Tennessee mister.

Evolution = change in gene frequency over time. That is it. Why are these troglodytes wanting to continue to fight this battle. Darwin was a Deacon in the Anglican church.

God gave me a brain. These clowns must have missed something.

[bluestateguy]

5. This is what happens when you let demagogue politicians make edu. policy

Somebody needs to tell the politicians to keep their mitts off of education and let the professionals do their jobs.

[Botany]

6. No that is why "they" want home schooling

It is all part of the plot to take little Jimmy from a "Christ centered life."
I am a landscaper and one of my customers was a real right wing born again
nut case and you would be blown away by the anti education shit she listened
to on her Christian Radio 24/7 ........

[bluestateguy]

10. We should not resist home schooling

Two good things can come of it:

1) All the fundamentalistwackos take their kids out of the public schools, thus making the public school parents more progressive and liberal. The religious wackos won't waste time trying to influence the public schools if all their kids are home schooled.

2) In school districts where the fundamentalist wackos take over the public schools, progressive parents should have the option of home schooling their children. In addition, liberal benefactors should be sought out to provide funding for new and affordable private schools that will teach progressive values in communities where religious nut jobs have taken over the public schools.

[SharonAnn]

14. Actually, many of them here do home school their children.

These children are never exposed to something that is not "christian".

Even their piano teacher is a christian and all the music they play is christian music.

It's unbelievable!

A LTTE in the Knxoville News Sentinel a couple years ago said "Where I grew up in Yankee country, people generally regarded the South as a region uniquely marked by demagoguery, anti-intellectualism and deep, deep ignorance."

[mutus_frutex]

24. In my country,

the school program (what here is called the curriculum) is decided at a national level, by a national teachers administration which is non-partisan. The few times when some people tried to introduce partisan politics there was an outrage from the public. We are very proud of the system, which is "laico, gratuito y obligatorio" (secular, free and mandatory).

What is interesting, and would probably outrage people in this country is that private school are also mandated to teach the same program. They can also teach whatever else they want, but the standard program MUST be taught.

(And just to make you a little envious, even the third level, university, is free.. :-) )

Cheers...

[Whoa_Nelly]

7. "heals" ??

The move comes on the heals of a national debate and controversy.

Apparently the writer needs to return to school.

[GOPFighter]

8. By Golly...

...then it's only fair the the churches be required to present evolution alongside the theory of divine creation. Fair is fair, right?

[Luminous Animal]

9. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Intelligent Design

by Adam Felber
http://www.felbers.net/mt/archives/000986.html

Q: What's Intelligent Design?
A: "The theory of intelligent design (ID) holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause rather than an undirected process such as natural selection. ID is thus a scientific disagreement with the core claim of evolutionary theory that the apparent design of living systems is an illusion."
.............

Q: Oh. Like God?
A: Not necessarily. Just an "intelligence." A lot of ID people are very careful to point out that they are scientists, and positing an "intelligence" that created life doesn't mean "God." Could be anything.

Q: Like a giant lobster.
A: Sure. Like a giant lobster.

...............

Q: So what is ID doing to research the identity and characteristics of this "intelligence" that it posits?
A: Well, nothing that I've found yet...

.............

Q: But these ID guys aren't looking into just who this intelligence is, are they?
A: No.

Q: Because they think it's God, right?
A: They don't say that.

Q: Because if they thought they saw evidence of giant superintelligent eyestalks peering down on them from under a celestial carapace, they'd be seriously bummed, wouldn't they?
A: I think this Q&A is over now.

Q: Yeah, but, the goal of science is to-
A: Hey, look at these keys.

Q: Oooooh - sparkly!
A: ...

________________________________________

Welcome Michael Moore Bulletin Board refugees: www.upsizethis.org

[marzipanni]

23. Giant Omniscient Male Lobster From Space!

Well, they do refer to him as "He", so I guess it's a male lobster.

[WMliberal]

11. it's a Theory now?

I thought it was just a hypothesis, due to a lack of evidence of the "Intelligent" part.

[TahitiNut]

12. Faux "science."

:shrug:


Unless the hypothesis is testable (i.e. predicts as yet unobserved phnomena), it's not a 'theory'.

[Ediacara]

16. It was never even an hypothesis

It's intellectual laziness.

[Eurobabe]

19. Let's 86 the "intellectual"

it just plain ignorant laziness.

[Ediacara]

15. Wow

They didn't wait one damn day to start up the theocracy did they?

[Birthmark]

17. There's no such thing as a "Theory of Intelligent Design."

ID is made up twaddle that is based on faulty logic and appears almost exclusively in popular books, not science. Last I heard, there was ONE scientific paper that alluded to ID and it was shredded for its inaccuracies and faulty reasoning. There is simply no Theory of Intelligent Design

[NorthernSpy]

18. Correct -- ID is not science.

I think that "intelligent design" is philosophy (shading into theology at the shallow end).

Interesting commentaries from Physics Today: "Intelligent Design Is Creationism in a Cheap Tuxedo"; and "Philosophy Is Essential to the Intelligent Design Debate".

[Voltaire99]

21. Indeed, the existence of Tennessee should be proof of that. ;-)

Dear Tennesseans,

I have it on good authority straight from Jesus that He wants you to drop all this "theorizing" and stick to making and drinking bourbon, preferably in that order.

Amen!

--The Right Reverend Voltaire99

[Birthmark]

25. Preach it, Rev, er, and pass me that bottle, please!

Praise the Intelligent Designer!

[kodi]

22. personally, i can't wait to see the "intelligent design" coloring book

now there is a project for some ambitious duer