| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Jason Spaceman" |
| Date: |
20 Jul 2005 06:24:28 AM |
| Object: |
In the News: Classroom Evolution's Grass-Roots Defender |
From the article:
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Va. Group Sees Threat To Darwinist Teaching
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 20, 2005; Page B04
A grass-roots group troubled by recent Republican triumphs and the
influence of the Christian right is fighting back in Northern Virginia
by defending the teaching of Darwinian evolution, a battleground in
the national culture war.
An e-mail last month seeking support from more than 300 local
Democratic campaign volunteers and other potential supporters
described efforts across the country to challenge evolutionary theory.
It warned against "politically infused theological pseudo-science" and
said silence risks undermining Virginia schools and weakening the
state's economy.
The e-mail was the first shot from an unlikely group led mostly by
Vietnam-era protesters who describe their aim as beating Republicans
who oppose teaching evolution at their own organizational game. Based
in Northern Virginia, the group says its immediate goal is a Fairfax
County School Board endorsement of modern Darwinian theory, which
faces attacks in many states by Christian groups and education
activists.
The group's bigger dream is a statewide repudiation of intelligent
design, a movement positing that life is too complex to spring from
chemistry and biology alone. Followers, often asserting that a creator
must have guided the origins of earth and man, believe public schools
would better serve students by teaching unresolved aspects of
evolutionary theory.
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Read it at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/19/AR2005071901868.html
J. Spaceman
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| User: "Andrew Arensburger" |
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| Title: Re: In the News: Classroom Evolution's Grass-Roots Defender |
21 Jul 2005 03:28:57 PM |
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In talk.origins Jason Spaceman <notreally@jspaceman.homelinux.org> wrote:
From the article:
A grass-roots group troubled by recent Republican triumphs and the
influence of the Christian right is fighting back in Northern Virginia
by defending the teaching of Darwinian evolution, a battleground in
the national culture war.
[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/19/AR2005071901868.html
I saw this yesterday, and I'm not sure where I stand on this.
I hope someone will say something to help me make up my mind, or at
least get a mental handle on the issue.
There was a thread here earlier saying that Darwin fish are
bad, because they give the impression that evolution (or Darwinism) is
a religion in competition with Christianity. Having non-scientists
come out and campaign for evolution might reinforce that impression.
On the other hand, as has often been pointed out, ID and
creationism are not a scientific movement, but a political one. So
perhaps it makes sense to use political methods.
A good old-fashioned petition or demonstration might be a good
way for the sane and sensible majority to speak out against the loud
fundie minority.
It might be a good idea to send the Project Steve statement to
the local school board and ask them to endorse it.
For that matter, and in the same spirit, it might be fun to
circulate a petition asking the school board to sign the Project Steve
statement, then (depending on the numbers) instead of turning in the
full list, just give them the list of Steves.
--
Andrew Arensburger, Systems guy University of Maryland
arensb.no-bloody-spam@umd.edu Office of Information Technology
Windows doesn't just crash: it opens a dialog box and lets you press OK first.
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