Florida will teach evolution but only as theory

You say to a rational man, show me proof of evolution, and he comes up with fossils, empirical evidence of change, failed species, a realistic age for the earth... in short SCIENCE.

You ask a creationist the same question and he challenges you with nonsense like "so lobsters evolved from dogs, huh?" or "so Man evolved from rocks, eh?"

There is no logic that can oppose belief. You can believe that the earth is flat; that the sun orbits the earth; that birds were an afterthought of creation; etc., etc. If you live inside an egg, when you look up the sky does appear to be white. For some people that's all it takes.

When you challenge someone's faith in an opinionated religion that comes up with explanations for everything imaginable AND promises life after death, there is no possible debate.

When the telegraph was invented someone said that Florida could now talk to Maine. Ralph Waldo Emerson remarked, "Yes, but has Florida anything to say to Maine?"

Only trained morons insist that Science and Christian Fundamentalism share the same shelf at WalMart or public schools, take your pick. Along with Astrology, Lamarckian genetics, and a treasured belief in the superiority of one race over another. "It's the fair thing," they insist.

These are the same people who get on a plane in Atlanta to fly to Chicago even though "...if God meant for man to fly, he would have been born with wings."

Here's an excellent quote by a man who has the brains, intellect, and wisdom to be able to accept the facts and realities of science while still being religious (a pastor in fact):

"Children should learn science in science class, not religion disguised as science," said the Rev. Brant Copeland, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Tallahassee.

"Because to speak of evolution as a theory in the context of these standards is to minimize its importance as the basic concept in biological science; because, as a Christian, I am not threatened by what science can tell us about God's marvelous, mysterious and ever-changing creation."

Go Obama wrote:

Obama, who is vying to become the first black president of the United States, won overwhelming support in a mock election by more than 200 American and Muslim delegates at the US-Islamic World Forum in the Qatari capital. His Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and Republican candidates won only a handful of votes.

and your agenda is? lol see this is white supremacy in action.

Lucy44 wrote:

Darwinism is not science either. It is also a "theory".
Show me empirical data that the big bang really happened. Show me that we all evolved from apes. Not some pencil drawings in a book. I want proof.
Don't know who this Flying Spaghetti Monster is, and frankly, I really don't care.

The only thing your post shows is a total ignorance of evolution and natural selection.(Our education system is to blame for that.) The "we evolved from apes" is always a giveaway. We didn't evolve from apes though we do share a common evolutionary ancestor.

The fact that you and many others don't understand, agree or just choose not to agree in no way makes bible and it's fantasy of creation correct. It has no business being taught in a school setting. It's not factual either historically or scientifically and to believe otherwise shows the gullibility that religion feeds on.

Sergeant wrote:

The most important point is to understand that “Evolution”(small-changes) started after “Creation”; genes can’t mutate if they don’t exist…

exactly..and thats what science is looking now...what caused the creation..

...but to simply say 'god did it' is lazy and unfounded..people used to think thor caused thunder..until science told us he doesnt..

http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg19726...

http://www.casavaria.com/sentido/science/2006...

Free Thinking American wrote:

Oh Boy! At the rate we're going the US will be one of the dumbest countries in no time. Our dollar will be worthless and we'll all be fat,happy and living at the mercy of all the "smarter" countries.

What you have to realize is the link between schooling and religion is the p word - politics.

The dumbing down of society is a political agenda. Power will rest with those who are outside the "Christian" schooling system.

I put Christian is inverted commas because this creationist nonsense has nothing whatsoever to do with the Catholic/Anglican/Protestant Christianity I know and understand.

What is happening is purely a creation of political minds that are feeding the gullible and defenseless with mind-wash.

Scientifically speaking, evolution is a theory. These so called educators need to educate themselves on scientific terms. An hypothesis is basically an educated guess and is not supported by experimental evidence. A theory is a framework that describes a certain behavior or action and is supported by experimental evidence. In science an idea starts as an hypothesis, and if supported by evidence becomes a theory which can ultimately become a law, depending on the circumstances.

Lucy44 wrote:

Darwinism is not science either. It is also a "theory".
Show me empirical data that the big bang really happened. Show me that we all evolved from apes. Not some pencil drawings in a book. I want proof.
Don't know who this Flying Spaghetti Monster is, and frankly, I really don't care.

Show me where Darwin said we descend from apes. Look hard, but you wont find it. Darwin nor any other legitimate evolutionist has ever said we descend from apes. Darwin said humans and apes descend from a common ancestor. There's a big difference.

Poor Lucy.

If someone hadn't taught you to read, would you deny the existence of books? If you only spoke English, would everything written in Polish not matter?

Just because you cannot get your mind around a concept [like evolution] does that mean it's invalid?

Lucy44 wrote:

If they are going to teach Darwinism, they also need to teach creationism as well, to balance it out. In "theory" that is.

Creationism is an hypothesis, not a theory.

Lucy44 wrote:

Darwinism is not science either. It is also a "theory".

http://www.nap.edu/html/creationism/evidence....

Lucy44 wrote:

If they are going to teach Darwinism, they also need to teach creationism as well, to balance it out. In "theory" that is.

What does this even mean? Creationism is a religious myth, and as been repeatedly, conclusively debunked. Why is Fl so determined to dumb its students down even further.

Just a theory? Why don't those mouth breathers even know what a scientific theory is?

The actual language will refer to this as the "scientific theory of evolution".

Clearly the board which adopted this phrase did so under political pressure from the theocratic right here in Florida.

It is worth looking more closely at the coupling of "scientific" with the word "theory" because in doing so it more clearly defines evolution as having met the criteria of scientific process, as opposed to "theory" in lay terms which means a guess or conjecture.

If we as a society are willing to be cowed by religious extremest into accepting superstition as science then Florida might as well accept the fact that sun and planets revolve around the earth and that there was nothing prior to 6000 years BC.

Haven't we had enough of the Christian Taliban telling us how to reason and what to accept as fact? these zealots won't be happy until we live in a theocracy enforced by the return of the Inquisition

Dennis2 wrote:

Here's an excellent quote by a man who has the brains, intellect, and wisdom to be able to accept the facts and realities of science while still being religious (a pastor in fact):
"Children should learn science in science class, not religion disguised as science," said the Rev. Brant Copeland, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Tallahassee.
"Because to speak of evolution as a theory in the context of these standards is to minimize its importance as the basic concept in biological science; because, as a Christian, I am not threatened by what science can tell us about God's marvelous, mysterious and ever-changing creation."

Beautiful, Dennis, thanks. It's reassuring to think that not all Christians are ignorant rubes.

harper wrote:

<quoted text>
they are willing victims of brainwashing..NOTHING about religion makes any sense...not one bit..i realized that when i was about 7...
i actually feel sorry for some people who believe the rubbish the church tells them...but some just seem to actually want to be lied to..if the lies make them feel better they prefer it to the truth...sad but true..

In a way, I feel sorry for them too. But what bothers me is that they think that their unproven myth is somehow superior to the knowledge and hard work preformed by scientist actually studying evolution. They have no faith or trust in their fellow man, unless he's a preacher maybe. I guess they believe that we are not supposed to use our brains or seek answers. We are supposed to reduce our intelligence to the lowest common denominator and seek answers no further than the bible. We are just supposed to explain everything with "god" and live in a state of bliss.

The Bald Guy wrote:

<quoted text>
So... I take it no one's explained to you what it means to prove that a change took place from one species to another? Listing all of the species which are THOUGHT to be linked in the order in which they are THOUGHT to have evolved does not provide proof. It simply states the theory...

Yeah, we know. Idiots like you would only possibly accept a fossilized animal in the middle of "morphing" into something else....like a wombat morphing into a water buffalo. You morons refuse to accept millions of pieces of hard evidence from multiple scientific disciplines all adding veracity to the Theory of Evolution....yet have no problems blindly accepting things in an ancient book written before man knew much about anything in the natural world. You are the most idiotic, hypocritical bunch of loonies ever. You demand more and more evidence from science, and when you get it, you just want more. When asked to provide ANY evidence to back-up your particular religious creation story you claim that "faith" is all you need....oh and "the bible"....... which tells you what to believe.....and you know it has to be true because it's in "the bible".....and "the bible" tells you it true because it's written in "the bible". Remember, if you ever get a life threatening illness.......just "pray it away". When a flu epidemic is in your area, don't get a flu shot because it is brought to you by "the evil purveyors of science".....just "pray it away". If it doesn't work, who cares?? You are all so eager to meet your "god" why prolong your trip with the medicine brought to you by "the evil purveyors of science"?

Hugh Williamson wrote:

Scientifically speaking, evolution is a theory. These so called educators need to educate themselves on scientific terms. An hypothesis is basically an educated guess and is not supported by experimental evidence. A theory is a framework that describes a certain behavior or action and is supported by experimental evidence. In science an idea starts as an hypothesis, and if supported by evidence becomes a theory which can ultimately become a law, depending on the circumstances.

Meaning Evolution as a theory is heavily supported by evidence and as such is the best we have. Alternatives which are purely based of faith cannot be used as the basis of further scientific progress as they are by definition completely unprovable.

Science can only proceed based on evidence, and on scientific methods which are used to test factors for validity. To deprive children of a clear understanding of scientific method, is to deprive a child from being able to work out conclusions when presented with basic facts, or even to question the basic facts.

In other words, the man that was the child, becomes just a simple element within society who is only able to contribute that which his physical strength allows. A beast of burden and nothing more.

Shame on the society that wants to subjugate fellow man to such an existence.

The Bald Guy wrote:

<quoted text>
People go on the attack when they can't support their views/claims with anything logical or factual...

Please provide anything LOGICAL and FACTUAL about creationism?

Dennis2 wrote:

Here's an excellent quote by a man who has the brains, intellect, and wisdom to be able to accept the facts and realities of science while still being religious (a pastor in fact):
"Children should learn science in science class, not religion disguised as science," said the Rev. Brant Copeland, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Tallahassee.
"Because to speak of evolution as a theory in the context of these standards is to minimize its importance as the basic concept in biological science; because, as a Christian, I am not threatened by what science can tell us about God's marvelous, mysterious and ever-changing creation."

Rev. Copeland is an enlightened man, and a beacon against the oncoming tide of Medievalism that is sweeping the South.

Its ridiculous that teaching science in science class is still even a hotbutton issue. Is this FL or medieval europe or the Scope's Monkey Trial?