Modesto science teacher's plan to teach intelligent design sparks debate

[marmar]

from the Modesto Bee:



Of all the much-wrangled issues in public school education, the case of evolution may be the most fragile peace.

Last month, a Modesto science teacher announced at a back-to-school night that he would teach the theory of intelligent design alongside evolution. Modesto City Schools district officials say that will not happen.

However, some trustees and other science teachers say it should. Parents on both sides of the divide are discovering that it is.

"I agree that some science and other teachers (teach intelligent design), yes, and it is unethical when they do so," retired science teacher Mike Kennedy of Oakdale said in an e-mail.

Intelligent design is the theory that living things are too complex to have happened randomly in nature. Proponents say science proves there was a master designer. ..........(more)


The complete piece is at: http://www.modbee.com/2010/09/26/1355528/modesto-science-teachers-plan.html#ixzz10gPjleuF

[derby378]

1. As a follow-up, he'll teach phrenology alongside psychiatry

And he'll encore with reading chicken entrails to predict market trends.

[MrScorpio]

3. And Alchemy next to Chemistry nt

[Brickbat]

7. And astronomy next to astrology.

[realisticphish]

2. I swear, they are indeed "unsinkable rubber duckies"

The Dover smackdown should have sent a message, but apparently some people are oblivious.

[derby378]

4. It's because of the Tea Party bunch

The ID proponents are betting on these guys taking a lot of seats in Congress and frustrating the Democrats.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. And will they also teach astrology along with astronomy?

"Intelligent Design" is not science. It's pseudoscience that can't be proven true or false. It can't be paired with true scientific theory.

[Bucky]

6. sigh

:banghead: Next, he'll be teaching alternative mathematics in which 2+2=5.

[Confusious]

8. That great flushing sound you hear is...

jobs, of course, but also the future of the United States.

Backwater, here we come!

[etherealtruth]

9. My oldest child attended middle and part of high school in Virginia

One of his biology teachers, in reference to evolution, told my son all he needed to know was in the bible ... vomit.

Sadly, I think the Virginia schools (as a whole) were outstanding .... but bad teachers do exist.

* we were living a bit beyond the beltway and this teacher's attitude reflected, in large part, the community

[Brickbat]

10. My sixth-grader came home the other day and said a kid in his class told the science teacher,

after a lecture about life on Earth 150 million years ago, that the teacher was wrong and God had done it all.

[bluestateguy]

11. I would encourage my child to skip his class on the day(s) of the intelligent design lesson

nt

[Xipe Totec]

12. Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial

Science is "exhibit A" in a landmark trial on the teaching of evolution.


http://video.pbs.org/video/980040807/

[exboyfil]

29. The funny about that documentary

is the school board member who did the challenge. You could tell all he did was go through and count the number of times Darwin and natural selection was mentioned. He did even try to understand what was being discussed and the evidence for it.

Ken Miller (coauthor of my daughter's High School Biology book) made an interesting point. No matter how many graphs you show, how many fossils you find, or how much we learn about DNA - you will not bring certain people into your camp. You are not dealing with rational individuals.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

13. you don't TEACH intelligent design...

there is nothing to it..."God made it happen" or "Aliens made it happen"...that's it...

sP

[ET Awful]

16. You don't teach intelligent design, you preach intelligent design . . .

should be a bumper sticker.

[msongs]

14. it's religion not science, but that never stops the fundies anyway nt

[Solly Mack]

15. A science teacher that calls ID a theory should be fired for impersonating a science teacher.

[Xipe Totec]

17. Natural selection is at work, even now, between scientist and fundamentalist jackasses

good luck, jackasses.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JackDragna]

23. ID isn't science.

..so quoting scientists doesn't help. :)

[Xipe Totec]

26. Yea, and I'd drop Gödel, since it doesn't help our case

:evilgrin:

One of the most significant logicians of all time, Gödel made an immense impact upon scientific and philosophical thinking in the 20th century, a time when many, such as Bertrand Russell, A. N. Whitehead and David Hilbert, were pioneering the use of logic and set theory to understand the foundations of mathematics.

Gödel is best known for his two incompleteness theorems, published in 1931 when he was 25 years of age, one year after finishing his doctorate at the University of Vienna. The more famous incompleteness theorem states that for any self-consistent recursive axiomatic system powerful enough to describe the arithmetic of the natural numbers (Peano arithmetic), there are true propositions about the naturals that cannot be proved from the axioms. To prove this theorem, Gödel developed a technique now known as Gödel numbering, which codes formal expressions as natural numbers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_G%C3%B6del

Along with Cantor, Gödel exposed the soft, vulnerable belly of mathematics, the language of science.

Paraphrasing, Gödel proved that there are truths beyond the ability of mathematics to prove. And if mathematics is the language of science, then there are truths beyond the ability of science to describe.


It is a frightening and unsettling proof.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

27. Who are the "head bangers", and what does that have to do with "intelligent design"?

[opihimoimoi]

19. Its in their DNA...religious bullies running amok or, starting to...

[sakabatou]

20. Does this teacher realize that he's breaking the law?

[COLGATE4]

21. The Fundie zealot Xians never take a break, never rest,

never give up. They are relentless in their drive to see Xianity the official religion of the country and the Bible the only textbook required by our students. They just shift their attack from one spot to another, always searching for the wedge, the weak spot, and they think they've found one with "Intelligent Design". Fortunately, in every case where the issue has been challenged in court, ID has lost. But that just means that they'll redouble their efforts.

[Orsino]

22. There is no theory of intelligent design.

There is, however, a lot of religious pseudo-science and hand-waving with which we could waste our children's valuable time.

[hayu_lol]

24. Intelligent design?

When do I, and others, get our third set of teeth? Designer screwed up.

[Xipe Totec]

25. And where are the four-assed monkeys? n/t

[exboyfil]

28. My daughter took Life Science I this summer via

North Dakota Center for Distance Education. It had a really good section on evolution, speciation, natural selection, and genetic variation. When I was prepping my daughter because she had to take a test at her Middle School to test out of Life Science I, I asked them about evolution (part of finding out what subjects would be on the test). They said they did it in Life Science II. So far I have not seen it in that class. Hope they get to it, but we do have a lot of 8,000 year old earth crowd running around. I don't think our teachers are that way though.

I did see something in my church today which bothered me. They are teaching Dobson's Project Truth, and the quote which got to me was as follows: " examines the importance of viewing history, theology, science, sociology, and other disciplines from a biblical perspective."

What do they mean? Unfortunately I missed this Sunday and I will be on vacation the next two Sundays. I think my wife is thankful because she would not want me to confront this if they are teaching nonsense (the very premise of considering science from a biblical perspective is insane - the use of technology derived from science yes, but actual observation that forms the cornerstone of science?) I am not a life scientist, but I think I know enough life science along with physical science to discuss with them what you should be teaching in church.

My father-in-law thinks the teacher is an 8,000 year type, and he is not really happy about this either (he taught math for 40 years at the university). Of course my father-in-law got me good a few years ago when he had me fill in teaching for him in his Bible study. He gave me Genesis I and II to teach. I think he planned it that way (just kidding).