Victory in Ohio!!!
From the Ohio Dispatch:
Eight months after scrapping curriculum guidelines that critics feared would open the schoolhouse door to creationism, the State Board of Education yesterday pulled the plug on its seemingly incessant debate over Darwin’s theory of evolution.
The board voted 14-3 to “discharge” a subcommittee that had been keeping the issue alive.
Martha Wise, a board member from Avon, said she pushed to end the discussion because the issue had become a lightning rod for debate and had long overshadowed the work of the board.
“It was time to move on,” she said. But that doesn’t mean that a new board might not feel differently, she added.
“Martha Wise, a board member from Avon, said she pushed to end the discussion because the issue had become a lightning rod for debate and had long overshadowed the work of the board. ”
Martha Wise, such an appropriate name. She showed courage in that she opposed Michael Cochran, co-chairman of the subcommittee and President Sue West- endorf; and they are ticked off.
Martha Wise- Great work.
From the Ohio Dispatch: “Board member Deborah Owens Fink, of Richfield, who like Cochran has long argued that critics are wrong to assume that “critical analysis” of evolution was a thinly veiled effort to inject religion into the classroom, left the board meeting before yesterday’s vote.”
What a spiteful little pouter - if she can’t have her way then she is going to take her “bible” (not the bound and printed one; the imaginary one that biblical literalists keep inside their heads) and leave. Good - don’t let the door smack you in the ass on the way out.
My congratulations to Martha Wise, the rational and enlightened members of the Ohio Board of Education, and the Ohio Citizens for Science for another well fought for victory.
Also from the Ohio Dispatch: “The 19-member board includes 11 elected members and eight appointed by the governor. Five seats are up for election Nov. 7, and the governor will fill four more when those terms expire this year.” Well, if the current polls hold true, Ohio will not have to suffer under the administration of a governor beholden to the radical religious right who would likely use these appointments to try and stack the deck with a bunch of worthless and unintellectual creationists who have no business telling educators what is or is not science.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2006/governor/oh/ohio_governor_race-5.html
It’s good to see there are some good intelligent people in Ohio. Now if they can only count the votes correctly this November. Then I’ll be happy.
Hooray…I guess this PROVES once and for all ….there AIN”T NO STINKIN GOD!( at least not casting out demons or performing “miracles” at behest or RELIGIOUS REICH in Ohio, USA)
Bout f**ing time. Once again they’re lying “had long overshadowed the work of the board.” Like your other work? Call a spade a spade, you don’t want to talk about it anymore because it makes sense! F**ing fools, everywhere ya go, every turn….I’m so tired of this shit.
yah weh,
Ahem,
The irony is that there can never be proof there is no god.
I guess this PROVES once and for all ….there AIN”T NO STINKIN GOD!
Sorry yah weh, but I’m going to somewhat echo what Dale wrote. All that this decision proves is that 14 of the 19 current Ohio School Board members have respect for academically honest science education, respect for the fact that we live in a nation that has a very diverse population and very diverse religious views (including the fact that there are also people with no religious views), and respect for the principle of keeping church and state separate.
If you are looking for proofs - look to mathematics. In science, theories are based upon our best interpretations of the available existing evidence. God or other elements of the supernatural are not applicable to honest science; in fact, science in general and evolution in particular simply does not require a God, but it doesn’t rule out God either - it is religiously neutral. Furthermore, our understandings of currently acceptable theories are always subject to refinement or outright replacement if new pieces of evidence are discovered and independently verified and vetted within the scientific community.
The choice to either believe or not believe in God is a personal decision based upon faith. Absolute proof in this case is all relative - that is why it is not science. The purposes of these fights (such as this one in Ohio) are to ultimately preserve the integrity of science education - not to prove or disprove any one or multiple religious faiths.
Even in math you have, some undetermined values. Like, zero divided by one is zero. Zero divided by zero is “indeterminate,” one divided by zero is “undefined,” just like the concept of a supernatural force.
If you are looking for proofs - look to mathematics.
I was thinking back to my old high school geometry class.
Geometry:
What do you say when you see an empty parrot cage?
polygon!
What did the little acorn say when he grew up?
geometry!
What do you call an angle which is adorable?
acute angle
What should you do when it rains?
coincide
Tony,
It’s funny you mention geometry. At JFK on Tuesday I was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a compass, a protractor, and a graphical calculator.
They believed I had ties to the Al-Gebra network. I was charged with carrying weapons of math instruction.
That was a GOOD one, Dale! Though, in future, would you mind making a disclaimer before such posts? (My keyboard doesn’t seem to like coffee as much as I do, apparently.)
Lynne,
LOL, A disclaimer like: “Swallow coffee before reading!?”
Yes, something like that would work.
Does anyone remember movie line : ‘Badges , we don’t need no stinkin badges’?
My “NO STINKIN GOD” comment was a parody of that line…..
of well. my attempt at humor was lost~~~~
Sorry yah weh - that one went right over me. I think that I’ve been just a bit too wound up lately.
yahweh,
Sorry man, you made me feel bad for that wrongful accusation. And, no, I never heard of the stinking movie, however it did kick off a rather casual thread.
And quit using obscure movie lines in your vain attempts at humor; humor is not supposed to be serious.
Dale: You’re a “Treasure( thought not ) of the Sierra Madres.”
Verrrry funny.
I’m just glad Ohio is starting to look like a state in 2006, not 1906. The only thing I can contribute this discussion is the laughable notion of intelligent design (recently excluded from my State’s science cirriculum). It’s as though the RR is saying “I don’t understand it - it’s too complex; God must have done it!”. Evolution doesn’t understand all of it, but those of us that endorse it believe in the simple fact that we don’t have to understand it. I don’t really “understand” how the internet works, but that doens’t mean I think god did it.
I’m just glad Ohio is starting to look like a state in 2006, not 1906. The only thing I can contribute this discussion is the laughable notion of intelligent design (recently excluded from my State’s science cirriculum). It’s as though the RR is saying “I don’t understand it - it’s too complex; God must have done it!”. Evolution doesn’t understand all of it, but those of us that endorse it believe in the simple fact that we don’t have to understand it. I don’t really “understand” how the internet works, but that doens’t mean I think god did it.
The reason most people don’t look to science for an answer is that when an answer is given that poses conjecture to a certain religion, that person that brought about the conjecture is looked at as being a non-believer or an intellectual and are then cast out from the group as being different. most people of certain religious faiths say that all they need is their faith to live their daily lives by, this is because they themselves would be singled out of the group as not being like the rest of the group and most people have an insecurity of wanting to belong, that’s why the scientific community gets shunned as being evil, in the instance of stem cell rersearch, they liken it to abortion, but it isn’t. Until the brain is formed the group of cells are just that, cells with the potential of becoming a life. These cell groups that are present before the forming of the brain are directly controlled by the mothers brain via the u-cord. This process continues until the point at which the brain in the embrio has formed and takes over the forming lifes bodily functions We all know that in order for a being to have a conscious it must have a brain, and the religious right doesn’t understand this for the main reason that their brains must not have fully formed during the process or they were dropped on their heads when they were little, but anyway, if stem cell research started to help the many causes that it can, what do you think would happen to the religious right who we all know THRIVES off of peoples pain and suffering? The religious right doesn’t want people to be cured by REAL scientific means? Why? because they (religious right) can’t provide cures, just conjecture to keep a person in pain so that they continue to come back to them (religious right) for the treatment which turns into $$$ for them.
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as their’s also was. But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.