Texas Gov. Perry: Add intelligent design to teaching

[Thom Little]

Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican who has made outreach to Christian conservatives a theme of his gubernatorial portfolio, thinks Texas public school students should be taught intelligent design along with evolutionary theory, his office said Thursday.

.......

Perry "supports the teaching of the theory of intelligent design," spokeswoman Kathy Walt said. "Texas schools teach the theory of evolution; intelligent design is a valid scientific theory, and he believes it should be taught as well."

She said elements of creationism are consistent with intelligent design and that teaching different theories is part of developing students' critical thinking skills.

Marvin Olasky, a University of Texas journalism professor who has written favorably on intelligent design, credited Perry with "advancing discussion of this issue. I find it refreshing that he's saying it. The issue is not going to go away."


http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/01/6perry.html?COXnetJSessionIDbuild113=D26Yl1mrbrZlyPGymYJDLNommqF3bcb0iBY4K1PSbJHqqCoWzGWi!-1865891230&UrAuth=%60N%60NUOcNZUbTTUWUXUWUZT[UUUWU_U

[booksenkatz]

1. "intelligent design is a valid scientific theory" WTF????????

PROVE IT! SHOW ME THE RESEARCH! SHOW ME THE DOCUMENTATION! And no, the buy-bull is not documentation.

/Texan who used to be homesick but is now happily ensconced in Michigan

[jobycom]

4. Prove it? Perry doesn't even believe it! He just knows his audience.

He's a shrewd politician. Sadly, he's used all his ability to stay in office, and none of it to do anything good. Still better than Bush, but that's like saying a tootache is better than a hernia.

[Whoa_Nelly]

40. Here's an ID horse-puckey POS article that supports it as valid

:puke:

The idiocy of ID...this article is so twisted, it only reads as "intelligent", but is so deliberately misleading and confusing that those who believe in ID will say, "Hear, hear! Smart article! Take that you heathens!", whereas this piece of nonsensical BS actually states the use of scientific evolutionary data to prove that ID is a provable scientific method; It's that convoluted.

And the site this article comes from calls itself: Center for Science and Culture...yeah...sounds BRILLIANT! <<clinking beer bottles>>

http://www.evolutionnews.org/2006/01/intelligent_design_is_empirica.html

Intelligent Design is Empirically Testable and Makes Predictions
By Jay Richards and Jonathan Witt

Among the many, many errors in Judge John Jones’ Dover vs. Kitzmiller opinion is the charge that intelligent design (ID) makes no empirically testable claims (see pp. 66 ff.). Similarly, other ID critics assert that intelligent design makes no testable predictions.1 In fact, intelligent design fulfills both criteria since it makes numerous empirically testable predictions.

It’s true that there’s no way to falsify the bare assertion that a cosmic designer exists. Nevertheless, the specific design arguments currently in play are empirically testable, even falsifiable,2 and involve testable predictions.

Consider the argument that Michael Behe makes in his book Darwin’s Black Box. There he proposes that design is detectable in many “molecular machines,” including the bacterial flagellum. Behe argues that this tiny flagellar motor needs all of its parts to function—is “irreducibly complex.” Such systems in our experience are a hallmark of designed systems, because they require the foresight that is the exclusive jurisdiction of intelligent agents. Darwin’s mechanism of natural selection and random variations, in contrast, requires a functional system at each transition along the way. Natural selection can select for present but not for future function.

Notice that Behe’s argument, contra the assertions of Judge Jones and the ACLU’s expert witnesses, rests not on ignorance or on a purely negative argument against Neo-Darwinism, but on what we know about designed systems, the causal powers of intelligent agents, and on our growing knowledge of the cellular world and its many mechanisms.

Behe predicts that scientists will not uncover a continuously functional Darwinian pathway from a simple precursor to the bacterial flagellum and, moreover, any detailed evolutionary pathway that is articulated will presuppose other irreducibly complex systems. How does one test and discredit Behe’s claims? Describe a realistic, continuously functional Darwinian pathway from simple ancestor to present motor. The flagellum might still be designed, but Behe’s means of detecting such design would have been falsified.

more :puke: at the link....

[SammyBlue]

2. PANDERING ALERT. . .Rick Perry panders to Christian Taliban

Fact. . .what facts! They don't need no steekin' facts! They have spin, dogma, rhetoric and ideology.

[NanceGreggs]

3. Okay ...

Teaching different theories is part of developing students' critical thinking skills?

Fine. Let's include some other 'theories' that gained popularity in the past.

How about the 'flat earth' theory? It was the accepted wisdom for centuries, so there must be something to it.

And the sun revolves around the earth? That was a theory widely-accepted - nay, insisted upon - by the Catholic Church, no less, for a very long time.

Why build a bridge to the 21st Century, when you can just as easily build a gravel road back to the Dark Ages?

[jobycom]

5. ROFL! A gravel road back to the Dark Ages!

Brilliant! :rofl:

[rd_kent]

10. Hey, wait a minute you!!!!

Thats that crazy LOGIC talk there!!! We dont let logic get in the way of our hairbrained ideas, so you just stop it right now!!!!

[Crunchy Frog]

15. In order to be completely consistent

they really should be insisting that alternate theories on origins be taught in churches rather than just the Biblical creation story. They shouldn't have any problem with that, since it will encourage critical thinking which is what they claim they want.:shrug:

[moggie]

17. The biblical creation story?

Which one? Both of them?

[Karmageddon]

19. I LOVE your argument Crunchy. I hope you don't mind, but I plan to...

...steal it and use it often.

[Crunchy Frog]

20. S'okay, feel free to.

I've stolen it from someone else myself.

[mitchum]

38. But a church is the last place that critical thinking would be welcomed...

don't want the marks...er...uh...faithful... to start wondering if the magic is really so magical after all, y'know.

[okoboji]

39. and lets all remember that

- Adam has one less rib than Eve
- Adam and Eve do not have belly buttons
- dinosars can't exisit, they would not have been on the Arc
- a whole lot of incest had to occur both at the begining and directly after the great flood with Noah and his family in order to populate the earth

[Free the Press]

6. um, anyone have a link to the scientific study that supports this theory?

How about a link to the scientific community embracing ID as a valid scientific theory?

[redqueen]

7. *sigh*

What the hell is wrong with these people?!

[HuffleClaw]

8. "She said elements of creationism are consistent with intelligent design"

BWHAAHHHAAAHAAAAAAA

they are the freaking SAME THING. idiots. only difference is they culled all mention of GOD from 'intelligent design'

[ucmike]

9. i'm for a compromise

how about we split the difference and just add intelligence to teaching.

[Justitia]

11. Some enterprising journalist made sure to get him on record, huh?

He looks like a fool.

His "spokeswoman" is stupid, naive and should be fired for either one.

Sooooo....when do we get some juicy direct quotes to this effect directly from Guv Goodhair?

I predict some serious backpedaling - just watch.

I really like having this in nice, bold print for Nov's Gubernatorial election!

[ladjf]

12. That guy would back the teaching of pornography in the schools

if it would get him elected.

[montieg]

13. Dammit! It's just like a snake pit

You stomp the bastards down in one area and they comeback up somewhere else!
Just about the time we Texans think we have battled the forces of ignorance and darness to a standstill, one of these witless dumbf__ks stands up and gives the world another Texas laughing point. I wonder if all that hairspray has leeched through his skull and is quietly eating away at......... oops! I started to say 'his brain'! Silly me!

[efhmc]

22. The only Dems I can still find in this rw small Texas town are retired

teachers and boy are they mad. The goal of bush and company is to DESTROY public education. The deep penetrating knowledge that comes from knowing science and literature and history would make all people progressives and that is something that just cannot be allowed to happen. Therefore repukes are deliberately and methodically destroying public education and offering vouchers and parochial education in its stead.

[boot@9]

27. you have got that right!

with Craddick in the lead. i'm afraid the worse is yet to come. do not be suprised to see the special session of school finance turn into some sort of victory for vouchers. Oh, do not be suprised if the Odessa school board is the first to bring up and adopt ID.

[montieg]

29. O Brother, where art thou? Thou truly singeth my song!

I am a school counselor in a tiny west central Tx town and it seems like the teachers here have finally realized that they have been voting their own destruction. I agree that there is a concentrated attack on every aspect of public education. To wit: NCLB. No longer is what is best for the child even considered. Now all that matters is the numbers. If your district tests ONE child (as ours did) more than the magic percentages, the district is unfit--a failure! In other words, public education is set up to fail. The strategic initiative behind this: dry up the campaign contributions that teacher's organizations traditionally favor Democrats with. May they all rot in Hell.

[boot@9]

31. keep spreading the

word. my wife and i are retired school professionals and we see all the time how much ignorance and apathy there is among Texas school employees. Believe me is there is not a huge outcry from the public, things are going to get much worse in Texas.

[mbperrin]

14. Marvin Olasky is too modest. He's not just a journo prof, but

the editor of WORLD MAGAZINE. Check it out:
http://www.worldmag.com/world_about_us.cfm


He's *'s adviser on faith based stuff and nonsense....

[Crunchy Frog]

16. They should be teaching about how

Gov. Perry intelligently redesigned the Congressional Districts in Texas. Maybe gerrymandering can be proven to demonstrate the existence of God.

[0007]

18. Makes good sense me! I've always said that Captain Goodhair

had control of every strand.


When you're in love you'll subscribe to anything once.

[slackmaster]

21. I'll bet Governor Perry eats at the Hell that is Olive Garden

[Hardrada]

23. They have to teach Intelligent Design in schools because

of the failing churches.

[VegasWolf]

24. Gotta get those church attendances back up somehow. Too many

people wising up and not bothering with church anymore.

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[Maestro]

What pandering...

The asshole better figure out way to fund our schools. What a prick! He's scared now anyhow because Scottie Mclleland's mommie, Strayhorn, just announced she is breaking with the rethug party and running as an independent for the governor's seat. The rethugs will probably split their vote allowing a Dem, Chris Bell, to be elected.

[PDittie]

25. God save us froom the zealots and morans

We have a chance, this November.

And not with Kinky Fucking Friedman, either.

[efhmc]

41. Your name for the kink is soooo perfect.

[IndyOp]

26. Should we really add ID to teaching, MoFo?

My apologies to readers with sensitive eyes - I was just quoting the Gov back to himself.

:grr:

[eppur_se_muova]

28. It's not a THEORY at all, it's a hypothesis at best.

And a completely UNTESTABLE hypothesis, which is the worst kind.

Whenever ID is mentioned, PLEASE be sure to refer to it as the "Intelligent Design Hypothesis", and NEVER, EVER as a theory.

[antonialee839]

30. antonialee839: Add intelligent Gov. to Texas

[Rex]

32. If they demand I teach intelligent design, no problem!

Natural selection, intelligent design, genetic mutation, whatever. I will NOT however teach that some really really really old dude, with flowing grey hair & beard sits on a cloud all day and points fingers at people down below in supreme judgment. Sorry, nope, no.

[VegasWolf]

33. He shoots lightening bolts out of that finger too!

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[0rganism]

34. Looks like someone hasn't been keeping up with current caselaw

Any judge with an ounce of sense will laugh this shit out of the classroom so fast the governor's head will spin like a top.

[TexasLady]

35. Yo PERRY~!

DONT mess with Texas.

Fool.

[tavalon]

36. Governor Goodhair

is not Intelligent Design. Can we send him back to the factory for refurbishing?

[depakid]

37. I guess Texas couldn't allow itself to be out done by Kansas!

The fundies and their "leaders" are far too arogant to let that happen. LOL!

I should note that even Baylor is embarrassed to have ID nut (and Sophist) Willaim Dembski on its faculty. Lucky he's tenured-

[greiner3]

42. Sorry for any Dem texans, but you all are f'ing nuts! n/t

[Melissa G]

43. Good Job Goodhair.. drive a few more thinking repubs over

to Strayhorn. Heck drive a whole herd of them over with some more of your not so bright ideas..Hope a few of your repub friends vote for Kinky too. Open up the way for Bell to drive up to the Gov's mansion off Lavaca. I'm sure his car will look good parked in the drive!

[mvd]

44. Ridiculously ignorant!

Not surprising. It shows how little they know about science to call intelligent design a theory. What factual evidence can they use to create a scientific theory out of intelligent design? And how do you test the theory? They can't provide answers.

[JusticeForAll]

45. I hope we'll see lots of these next to Ricky's name

this week on the Top 10 Conservative Idiot's list:

[killbotfactory]

46. They should teach Scientology, too

It has science in it's name! How much more proof do you need?