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SPARKY: It is thanks to Warren Ellis — We have another sighting of Religious Fundamentalist Loonie Pat Robertson as a gigantic asshat once more ... and a topic to develop ...
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The image “http://www.aframnews.com/html/2005-09-07/index.8.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

Pat Robertson warns Pennsylvannia town of disaster because they refuse to teach bad science:

USA TODAY — “ For the uninitiated, intelligent design is the scientifically untestable theory that life forms and the universe are so complex that a higher being must have been involved in making them. Put another way, it's creationism with clever new packaging.

Dover schools were the first in the nation to require mention of intelligent design, putting Dover at the center of the national debate over whether the theory is science or religion. That prompted a legal challenge from those who believe intelligent design has no place in science class because it is a matter of faith, and so violates the constitutional separation of church and state. A federal judge is expected to rule by January.

But Dover residents decided they wanted no part of the fight. Upset by the cost of the lawsuit and the classroom distraction, they intelligently designed a new school board. As if to remove any doubt about the religious agenda of the theory's backers, the increasingly wacky Rev. Pat Robertson told viewers of his 700 Club program Thursday that God might well forsake Dover. ... ”

WikiNews: Teaching Intelligent Design: Dover PA school board election results

Megan Kitzmiller, Dover Area High School senior and daughter of Tammy Kitzmiller, holds a sign supporting the Dover Citizens Actively Reviewing Educational Strategies (Dover C.A.R.E.S.) to cars pulling into the Dover Township Community Center polling place in Dover, Pa., on election day, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2005. The debate over how evolution is taught in this rural school district could influence whether eight school board members will remain in office after Tuesday. The Dover Area School Board incumbents are defending a board policy adopted in October 2004 requiring ninth-graders to hear about "intelligent design"before learning about evolution in biology class. Eight Dover families, including Tammy Kitzmiller, are suing the school district, alleging that the policy violates the constitutional separation of church and state. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

November 9, 2005

The Dover, Pennsylvania school board became the first to mandate inclusion of Intelligent Design in a public school biology curriculum. For this year's November 8 election, Republicans fielded a pro-Intelligent Design slate of candidates including some returning candidates who had previously voted to include a statement about Intelligent Design in the biology curriculum. A mixed slate of Democrat and Republican candidates came forward as an alternative group of school board candidates, the Dover CARES coalition. They proposed to remove Intelligent Design from the biology curriculum but allow discussion of Intelligent Design in courses dealing with philosophy and comparative religion.
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All eight open school board seats were won by Dover CARES coalition candidates. Two candidates who had previously voted as school board members to include intelligent design in the public school science curriculum received the fewest votes in Tuesday's election. One of the newly elected board members is Bryan Rehm, a parent of a Dover school student. Rehm, along with ten other parents, initiated a law suit against the school board for its decision to insert Intelligent Design into the science curriculum.

In October 2004, the Dover school board decided that Intelligent Design is a scientific theory that should be mentioned in biology classes that include discussion of biological evolution as part of the course content. The board mandated that a statement should be read in those classes stating "Intelligent Design is an explanation of the origin of life," and "The school leaves the discussion of the Origins of Life to individual students and their families."

The school board's statement on Intelligent Design directs students to the book Of Pandas and People as a source of information "for students who might be interested in gaining an understanding of what Intelligent Design actually involves." This book is published by the Foundation for Thought and Ethics, a non-profit organization founded for the purpose of "promoting and publishing textbooks presenting a Christian perspective."

Parents of some Dover public school students filed a lawsuit against the school board, charging that including the school board's statement on Intelligent Design was an attempt to introduce religion into the science curriculum. The book Of Pandas and People says, "Intelligent design means that various forms of life began abruptly through an intelligent agency." The original complaint in the law suit against the school board claimed that "Intelligent design is a non-scientific argument or assertion."

The US District Court Judge John Jones, who heard the non-jury case, hopes to make his ruling by the end of the year. The evidence phase of the trial ended on November 4, 2005.

A local Dover newspaper, the York Daily Record, editorialized that Dover voters should take trial testimony into account during the general election when they could cast votes for school board members along with other elective offices.
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Biology teachers in the Dover schools have refused to read the school board's statement on Intelligent Design to students because the Pennsylvania state code for education states that "The professional educator may not knowingly and intentionally misrepresent subject matter." In a letter to their administrator, the teachers stated their view that "Intelligent design is not science." School administrators have been reading the school board's Intelligent Design statement to students in Dover public schools.

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Thursday, November 10, 2005

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