On Intelligent Design, A Lesson in Political Science 101

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by Bud Kennedy
Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas), page 2B
December 5, 2007

To heck with what’s in your wallet.

What’s in your kid’s science textbook?

If the ruling mullahs in Austin get their way, creation theology will be there, no matter whether we want religion mixed with classroom science.

Gov. Rick Perry already said that he supports teaching “intelligent design” — the belief that a higher power had a hand in creation.

He called it a “valid scientific theory.”

Perry, of course, has a Texas A&M University degree in science — animal science.

His degree certainly should help him identify the BS that came out of the Texas Education Agency recently.

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Why Science Needs History

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by Rick Casey
The Houston Chronicle (Texas), page B1
December 5, 2007

A recent flap at the Texas Education Agency demonstrates why we need to teach history better so we can teach science better.

After nine years as the Texas Education Agency’s science director, Chris Comer resigned after being suspended for appearing to oppose the “intelligent design” theory of the origins of the universe.

TEA officials say other factors were involved in her firing, but e-mails obtained by the Austin American Statesman make clear that Comer’s scientific orthodoxy and apparent political heresy were a major factor.

Her mortal sin was that in October she sent an e-mail to an Austin online community announcing an upcoming lecture by Barbara Forrest, a Southeast Louisiana University philosophy professor and coauthor of Inside Creationism’s Trojan Horse.

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Get Religion Out of Science Education

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by Robyn Blumner
Columbus Dispatch (Ohio), page A11
December 11, 2007

Christine Comer was forced to resign as director of science at the Texas Education Agency because she for warded an e- mail about a lecture on the fallacy of intelligent design and creationism as a scientifically grounded alternative to evolution. Comer, who spent 27 years as a science teacher and had been in her post at the agency for nine years, was told that the agency must remain “ neutral” on the subject.

Are they kidding? On one hand you have a theory that has been successfully tested using the scientific method for more than 100 years and whose accuracy repeatedly has been affirmed by the vast fields of biology and genetics. On the other hand you have a hypothesis that relies on supernatural intervention for which there has been no legitimate scientific testing or objective proof.

Florida is also in a dust- up because the teaching of evolution has been included in its proposed science standards. Donna Callaway, a member of the state Board of Education — appointed by former Gov. Jeb Bush — said she’ll oppose the new standards because of it.

Really, folks, when scientific innovation is the key to our nation’s future, we don’t have the time to be mucking around in this tired debate. You don’t produce doctors and scientists by teaching science from the Bible.

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Don’t Mess with Science Standards

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by Alan I. Leshner
Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas), page 11B (Opinion)
December 11, 2007

Special to the Star-Telegram As Texas prepares to reconsider what youngsters statewide should know about science, the forced ouster of science curriculum director Chris Comer of the Texas Education Agency, apparently for standing up for the integrity of science education, stands as both shocking and sad. Even more disturbing, perhaps, is the official explanation for it.

Comer’s forwarding of an e-mail about a lecture by Barbara Forrest, author of the book Inside Creationism’s Trojan Horse, apparently rubbed some TEA higher-ups the wrong way. The agency must, after all, “remain neutral,” according to a memo calling for Comer’s termination. Agency spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe later went on to explain how “there’s been a long-standing policy that the pros and cons of scientific theory must be taught.”

These comments — suggesting that scientific facts based on indisputable physical evidence are somehow subject to debate on nonscientific grounds — are especially troubling in a state known for its innovation and filled with high-quality research universities.

Everyone has a constitutional right to interpret the origins of life based on Christian or any other doctrine. Religious discussion might be perfectly appropriate in theology or philosophy classes.

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Gods and Monsters

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by David Usborne
Weekend Australian Magazine (Australia), page 40+
November 17-18, 2007

This former school teacher from Australia is the force behind the Creation Museum, a controversial new institution in the US that aims to demolish the theory of evolution.

Dinosaurs of all kinds abound here, from the stegosaurus silhouettes rearing atop the iron gates as you first reach the parking lot to the numerous and impressively convincing animatronic pterosaurs wagging their giant tails and chewing plastic cud inside. At America’s newest public museum dedicated to exploring the origins of man and our planet, dinos are big box office, especially with kids.

Yet, there is something askew about the exhibits here and it doesn’t take long to see. It’s not just the “Thou shalt not touch” signs or the biblically named Noah’s Café, offering respite for lunch. How about a stroll down the Trail of Life – first stop, the Garden of Eden with faux cypress trees and gurgling streams? Look, there are Adam and Eve taking a dip, and not far away another dinosaur lurks, and a lion, too.

It’s not just the presence of the naked pair, with niftily placed lily pads to cover their naughty bits, that seems barmy. Wouldn’t they have been gobbled up by now, before they’d had the chance to eat the forbidden fruit? What were the designers of this place thinking?

Here’s what they were thinking: Adam and Eve really did beget us, and before they sinned all creatures were vegetarian, meaning dinosaurs were no more likely to eat them than butterflies were. They were thinking also that man and dinosaurs lived at the same time. As you proceed on your walk, a few more surprises await. We are told how the world is no more than 6000 years old and Noah’s Flood created all the world’s fossils as well as its topography (including the Grand Canyon, gouged by its ebbing waters). And yes, Earth and the entire universe were indeed created in six days.

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Interview with Judge John Jones, III — Dover, PA ID Trial Judge

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CONSIDER LESSONS, COMPLEXITY OF INTELLIGENT-DESIGN CASE
by Dan Margolies
Kansas City Star (Kansas), page B10
December 9, 2007

In 2005, federal Judge John Jones III found himself in the national spotlight when he presided over a trial about the introduction of intelligent design into public school classrooms.

Jones, who was appointed to the federal bench in 2002 by President Bush, ruled that the Dover, Pa., school board violated the constitutional ban on teaching religion in public schools when it sought to introduce intelligent design in high school biology courses.

His 139-page decision concluded that intelligent design — the notion that life is too complex to have arisen though natural selection and must have been designed by an intelligent agent — was not science and “cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents.”

The case was the subject of a two-hour edition last month of the PBS program “Nova,” and its significance was such that Time magazine in 2006 included Jones in its Time100 list, the 100 most influential people in the world.

On Thursday, Jones was the keynote speaker at the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association’s annual meeting at the Muehlebach Hotel. Jones addressed nearly 1,000 lawyers and judges and spoke about judicial independence.

Before his speech, he sat down with Kansas City Star business and legal affairs reporter Dan Margolies to talk about the Dover case. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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Fantasy flick set to smash Rings trilogy

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by Dominik Lemanski
Daily Star Weekend (UK), page 28
November 18, 2007

Fantasy flick The Golden Compass is set to clean up at cinemas this Christmas.

The £90 million epic is tipped to unleash a money-spinning series bringing in more cash than even the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

In addition, film bosses have launched a marketing blitz and are expecting a bumper Christmas as fans flock to buy a string of spin-offs, including a computer adaptation developed by LA-based Shiny Entertainment for Sega.

The Chris Weitz-directed flick comes from the same studio, New Line Cinema, as the Lord of the Rings trilogy which won 17 Oscars and made £1.5 billion.

Starring Nicole Kidman, 40, and Daniel Craig, 39, The Golden Compass is based on British Author Philp Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, which has sold more than 14 million copies worldwide.

In the film, young heroine Lyra Belacqua, played by British newcomer, Dakota Blue Richards, 13, battles a mysterious cult accused of stealing kids.

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Philip Pullman’s Controversial “Golden Compass”

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Special effects shine more than the stars
by John Hiscock
Daily Telegraph (UK), page 7
November 20,  2007

The first instalment of Philip Pullman’s hugely successful trilogy of fantasy books, His Dark Materials, has had a troubled transition to the screen. The adaptation has managed to upset both Christians and atheists, the former because of the book’s anti-religious themes and the latter because those very themes have been watered down and virtually excised from the film.

In addition, the original writer-director, Chris Weitz, quit when he realised the size of the task facing him, returning only when his replacement, Anand Tucker, also left the project after running into creative differences with studio bosses.

But an early screening of The Golden Compass in Los Angeles reveals that the investors who put up the £90 million cost of the film can rest easy — though it lacks the impact or charm of The Chronicles of Narnia, the special effects are extraordinary and the film is sure to be a success with young audiences.

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