| Topic: |
Sociology > Depression |
| User: |
"CyberDroog" |
| Date: |
03 Aug 2006 05:43:01 PM |
| Object: |
Kansas Is On The Brink Of Normality |
Kansas schools set to re-embrace evolution
23:13 02 August 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Celeste Biever
In a state primary election, Kansas voters have ousted two radical
conservative school board members who opposed teaching evolution in
schools.
The result of the 1 August election guarantees that the Kansas state school
board will be transformed in January 2007 from one that mainly opposes the
teaching of evolution to one that has majority support for it.
"I am thrilled," says Janet Waugh, a pro-evolution school board member and
Democrat who lives in Kansas City and won her primary on Tuesday. "The
people of Kansas are tired of being the laughing stock of not just the
nation, but the world."
Although the election was a primary and not a general election, the result
ensures that two of the school board's six anti-evolution members will not
stand in the general election in November 2006.
As both the Republican and Democrat candidates for those seats are now very
likely to be pro-evolution, the result of the general election should be
immaterial: at least six out of 10 school board members will be pro
evolution when the current school board hands over in January 2007.
"The only thing that can happen is for things to get better for us," says
Jack Krebs of Kansas Citizens For Science, a non-profit group that seeks to
educate the public about evolution.
"Adequate explanations"
A central issue in the primary election was evolution. In November 2005,
the school board voted 6 to 4 to change the state's definition of science
so that it could include supernatural causes and to change the definition
of evolution to imply that evolution conflicts with belief in God (see
Kansas backs intelligent design in science lessons).
Before November 2005, the curriculum read that "science seeks natural
explanations". Now it reads that science seeks "more adequate explanations"
for natural phenomena. It also adds that: "The view that living things in
all the major kingdoms are modified descendants of a common ancestor...has
been challenged in recent years", even though mainstream science has
produced vast amounts of evidence for common descent.
These are subtle changes, but would allow supernatural ideas to be taught
as science, and an unscientific amount of doubt to be heaped on Darwinian
evolution, says Krebs. Anti-evolutionists have a problem accepting certain
aspects of Darwinian evolution because it conflicts with the idea that a
supernatural being, such as God, created the world.
Down to business
John Calvert, manager of the Intelligent Design Network in Shawnee Mission,
Kansas, is in favour of the 2005 changes and denies that they were
religiously motivated. "I don't think that science is just about material
explanation," he says. "There is an enormous amount of data that is
inconsistent with common ancestry."
The state standards form a guide for local school districts but had not yet
been adopted into the curriculum of any actual schools, probably because
the districts were waiting to ensure that the school board that had voted
for them would stay, before going to the effort of changing their
curriculums.
Pro-evolution experts feared that if a majority of anti-evolution
candidates had stayed, the curriculum would have been adopted by local
districts with creationist leanings. But soon the school board will not
have a majority in favour of the new standards. "One of the first parts of
getting down to business will be to remove these creationist standards,"
says Krebs.
Connie Marsh and Brad Patzer, who were in favour of the new standards in
November were ousted in Tuesday’s vote, and will leave the school board in
January 2007.
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| User: "Contrarian" |
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| Title: Re: Kansas Is On The Brink Of Normality |
04 Aug 2006 12:05:54 AM |
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CyberDroog <CyberDroog@clockworkorange.com> wrote:
hmm, umm. is normality a Good Thing? what's Normal(tm)
--
Breaking news: http://lazerbrody.typepad.com July 24/25 especially
.
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| User: "Alan Harding" |
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| Title: Re: Kansas Is On The Brink Of Normality |
04 Aug 2006 01:37:53 AM |
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In message <SAAAg.2451$lq.1468@newsread1.mlpsca01.us.to.verio.net>,
Contrarian <adrba65@gmail.com> writes
CyberDroog <CyberDroog@clockworkorange.com> wrote:
hmm, umm. is normality a Good Thing? what's Normal(tm)
Me.
--
The opinions given above may be mine. They might also
just be what I feel like saying right now, okay?
.
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