South Carolina De-Evolving

[breakwall]

Evolution bill criticized as regressive

http://greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050930/NEWS03/509300325/1011/NEWS01

A new national group working to neutralize the political influence of the religious right released a report Thursday calling South Carolina one of 10 "Islands of Ignorance" because of legislative efforts to change the way evolution is taught in public schools.

The report, by the Campaign to Defend the Constitution, cites state Sen. Mike Fair's bill that would require schools to teach that evolution is controversial.

Fair, R-Greenville, said the intent of the bill he introduced for consideration when the General Assembly reconvenes in January is to end what he sees as a bias in favor of evolution in the curriculum.

"We'd like to see neutrality," he said. "We'd like to see science speak for itself and not have advocates for a theory of a single cell becoming man, for which there is no evidence."

I'd like to interject a small point. The "theory" of a single cell becoming a man is not actually evolution...it's actually called "conception".

In response to the bill, an actual religious person with brains (there are more of them than you think!) levelled this:

"We can do better when we let science do its job and then ask religion to do its job," said Dr. James Forbes, senior minister of Riverside Church in New York City and one of the spokesmen for the group.

I'd also like to include This article from the Austin Statesman. It is a well-researched, easy-to-read article about the case for Evolution and why it is sound science.

 

[killallhippies]

i used to live near greenville. nice city with good drugs, but way, way too conservative. southern hypocrisy rules.

 

[kotori]

Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. More or less.

 

[breakwall]

i used to live near greenville. nice city with good drugs, but way, way too conservative. southern hypocrisy rules.

Well, I hear the Exodus project is in full-swing down there...

South Carolina may not be flowing with milk and honey, but it looks like the promised land to the leaders of [the Christian Exodus] group, which hopes to relocate thousands of conservative Christian families like the Janoskis from across America to the Palmetto State.

Their aim: to tip the political scales, which they see as already weighted heavily to the right, further in that direction.

Secession "is a valid option," said Janoski, a "state coordinator" for the organization -- but he hopes it doesn't come to that.

http://greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050712/NEWS01/507120311/1004

What the hell is happening down there?

 

[Queersetti]

The whackos can't convince the rest of us that evolution is false by their arguments, so they seek to convince us by their actions.

 

[kotori]

Secession "is a valid option," said Janoski, a "state coordinator" for the organization -- but he hopes it doesn't come to that.

We should have let them go the first time.

 

[killallhippies]

doesn't anybody remember the bob jones university fiasco from back in the day during the first g.w. presidential run? remember where that was?

 

[breakwall]

The whackos can't convince the rest of us that evolution is false by their arguments, so they seek to convince us by their actions.

If I could quote from the second article, ironically from a Texas newspaper, it explains the validity of evolution in a way that even I, a rather un-evolved specimen, could grasp...

"What makes evolution a scientific explanation is that it makes testable predictions," Lander said. "You only believe theories when they make non-obvious predictions that are confirmed by scientific evidence."

Lander's experiment tested a quirky prediction of evolutionary theory: that a harmful mutation is unlikely to persist if it is serious enough to reduce an individual's odds of leaving descendants by an amount that is greater than the number one divided by the population of that species.

The rule proved true not only for mice and chimps, Lander said. A new and still unpublished analysis of the canine genome has found that dogs, whose numbers have historically been greater than those of apes but smaller than those of mice, have an intermediate number of harmful mutations — again, just as evolution predicts.

"Evolution is a way of understanding the world that continues to hold up day after day to scientific tests," Lander said.

 

[breakwall]

doesn't anybody remember the bob jones university fiasco from back in the day during the first g.w. presidential run? remember where that was?

I don't actually. What was it all about? I thought the purpose of Bob Jones U was to create the next generation of SuperEvangelists who did coke off the bellies of naked Supreme Court Justices and were immune to scandal...

 

[Oliver Clozoff]

It's a bit frustrating that evolution still isn't accepted by most Americans almost 150 years later. It's a bit more of a bummer to think of oneself as chimp's cousin than a creature made in God's image given dominion over all creation, but c'mon people. Look at all that evidence...

 

[LeahLo519]

I don't understand why it's still an issue. I'm from Kansas (spare me), and I've been arguing left and right with the older, more "religiously inclined" generation for ages. Evolution is science, to hell with theory...God is a theory too.

 

[killallhippies]

I don't actually. What was it all about? I thought the purpose of Bob Jones U was to create the next generation of SuperEvangelists who did coke off the bellies of naked Supreme Court Justices and were immune to scandal...

tssk, tssk. bob jones university is an ultra-conservative christian university that advocated seperation of the races until only a few years ago when g.w. made a visit there during his campaign and then caught a lot of flack for it. they are located in greenville, sc. i used to know people who went there. they were very, very white. greenville is weird. you should visit sometime.

 

[Queersetti]

I don't actually. What was it all about? I thought the purpose of Bob Jones U was to create the next generation of SuperEvangelists who did coke off the bellies of naked Supreme Court Justices and were immune to scandal...

Bush came under fire for appearing at the ironically named BJU, because of it's policy banning interracial dating among it's student body, and because of anti-semitic and anti-Catholic statement by the Rev. Bob himself.

 

[Saint Boner]

South Carolina just may be the armpit of America.

 

[breakwall]

For some reason I always pictured South Carolina as a pastoral state, with verdant rolling hills and placid people. You know, like Mayberry. I never knew that the undercurrent of ignorance was so strong there.

 

[cjh]

tssk, tssk. bob jones university is an ultra-conservative christian university that advocated seperation of the races until only a few years ago when g.w. made a visit there during his campaign and then caught a lot of flack for it. they are located in greenville, sc. i used to know people who went there. they were very, very white. greenville is weird. you should visit sometime.

it's a pretty scary place.

When you hear the false teaching of Catholics, Mormons, or Islamics, go to the Bible.

http://www.bju.edu/resources/chapel/notes.php

damn heathen catholics.

i like the initials, though. i wanna get me one of those cheerleaders with "bju" sittin' way up firm and high on her sweater.

 

[killallhippies]

south carolina is also where the bush camp sabotaged the mccain presidential run with false allegations about his sanity.

not that that has anything to do with evolution, but i still find it interesting.

 

[Queersetti]

Nicholas Cage Names His Son After Superman

Whoops, this was supposed to be a new thread.

I must be de-evolving.

 

[breakwall]

south carolina is also where the bush camp sabotaged the mccain presidential run with false allegations about his sanity.

not that that has anything to do with evolution, but i still find it interesting.

It's just more evidence to Q's theory that Evolution does indeed skip a few people.

 

[breakwall]

LOS ANGELES Oct 3, 2005 — Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage is a new father.

His wife, Alice Kim Cage, gave birth Monday to a boy, Kal-el Coppola Cage, in New York City, said Cage's Los Angeles-based publicist, Annett Wolf. No other details were available.

You know, maybe evolution ISN'T the right theory. Certainly it seems that people are getting dumber, not smarter...

 

[Oliver Clozoff]

south carolina is also where the bush camp sabotaged the mccain presidential run with false allegations about his sanity.

not that that has anything to do with evolution, but i still find it interesting.

And allegedly claimed that he had a black child!

Crime of all crimes in SC.

 

[killallhippies]

And allegedly claimed that he had a black child!

Crime of all crimes in SC.

i almost forgot about that one, but you're right. that bullshit actually made the news for some fucking reason.

 

[cjh]

And allegedly claimed that he had a black child!

Crime of all crimes in SC.

don't forget it's favorite segregationist senator, strom thurmond, rip.

he actually did father an illegitimate child with an african-american teenage housekeeper.

 

[breakwall]

In Canada, provinces are in charge of setting up their own school curriculum. As Canada goes, Alberta is probably our most conservative province and there hasn't been a peep there, or anywhere else for that matter, about introducing "alternative theories" to counter evolution.

It would seem that perhaps this is a completely American phenomenon.

 

[Ishmael]

Evolution bill criticized as regressive

http://greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050930/NEWS03/509300325/1011/NEWS01



I'd like to interject a small point. The "theory" of a single cell becoming a man is not actually evolution...it's actually called "conception".

In response to the bill, an actual religious person with brains (there are more of them than you think!) levelled this:




I'd also like to include This article from the Austin Statesman. It is a well-researched, easy-to-read article about the case for Evolution and why it is sound science.

Well, S. Car. can be as stupid as they want. That's the way a Federal Republic works. It's a S. Car. problem. Not a national, or international, problem. Let the people of S. Car. deal with it.

Further, the constitution doesn't speak to the issue. Whoever that asshole is that thinks he's defending the constitution is is an idiot. Don't care which side he's on.

Ishmael