http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurri ... sclaimers/
Religion in government is evil
I have to give Ryan mad props for digging up this link:
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showp ... stcount=72
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showp ... stcount=72
Chuck thinks that I look to good to be a computer geek. I think that I know too much about interface design, css, xhtml, php, asp, perl, and ia (too name a few things) to not be one.
Patrick M wrote:I have to give Ryan mad props for digging up this link:
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showp ... stcount=72
Wanna bet the Chang douchebag hasn't ever seen textbook pages like
these.?
Btw, if we teach the Bible as fact, as jeebus-freaks want us to, I 'spect they'll be as vigilant about culling of things that were exposed as inaccurate or fraudulent long ago there, too-- yet have persisted for *hundreds* of years. Right?
"I recommend that you delete the Rancid Snakepit" - Grant
Newsweek just completed a poll (12/2-3) of 1,009 adults that concluded - among other shocking things - that 40% of Americans think that creationism should be taught in public schools INSTEAD of evolution. We are moving in a dangerous direction in this country if this is in fact the case.
Dan
The language and concepts contained herein are
guaranteed not to cause eternal torment in the
place where the guy with the horns and pointed
stick conducts his business. - FZ
The language and concepts contained herein are
guaranteed not to cause eternal torment in the
place where the guy with the horns and pointed
stick conducts his business. - FZ
-
Rspaight
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Ten Commandments Backed by Bush Administration in Court Fight
Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration, saying that religion ``has played a defining role'' in the nation's history, urged the U.S. Supreme Court to permit Ten Commandments displays in courthouses.
The Justice Department today filed a brief supporting two Kentucky counties accused of violating the constitutional ban on government establishment of religion by posting framed copies of the Ten Commandments.
``Official acknowledgement and recognition of the Ten Commandments' influence on American legal history comport with the Establishment Clause,'' the administration argued in a brief filed with the court in Washington.
The filing came in one of two Ten Commandments cases the high court will review early next year. Hundreds of state and local governments sponsor such displays. The justices are also considering the constitutionality of a monument on the Texas State Capitol grounds.
In the Kentucky case, McCreary and Pulaski County officials modified the displays after the American Civil Liberties Union sued. The counties added other documents, including an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence, the national motto of ``In God We Trust'' and a proclamation from President Ronald Reagan marking 1983 as the Year of the Bible.
The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the displays likely violated the Constitution because government officials had a predominantly religious purpose in putting them up. The appeals court upheld a preliminary injunction issued by a trial judge
Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration, saying that religion ``has played a defining role'' in the nation's history, urged the U.S. Supreme Court to permit Ten Commandments displays in courthouses.
The Justice Department today filed a brief supporting two Kentucky counties accused of violating the constitutional ban on government establishment of religion by posting framed copies of the Ten Commandments.
``Official acknowledgement and recognition of the Ten Commandments' influence on American legal history comport with the Establishment Clause,'' the administration argued in a brief filed with the court in Washington.
The filing came in one of two Ten Commandments cases the high court will review early next year. Hundreds of state and local governments sponsor such displays. The justices are also considering the constitutionality of a monument on the Texas State Capitol grounds.
In the Kentucky case, McCreary and Pulaski County officials modified the displays after the American Civil Liberties Union sued. The counties added other documents, including an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence, the national motto of ``In God We Trust'' and a proclamation from President Ronald Reagan marking 1983 as the Year of the Bible.
The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the displays likely violated the Constitution because government officials had a predominantly religious purpose in putting them up. The appeals court upheld a preliminary injunction issued by a trial judge
RQOTW: "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA." -- Mitt Romney
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Rspaight
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Judge: Evolution stickers unconstitutional
Markers in science textbooks violated church-state separation
Thursday, January 13, 2005 Posted: 1841 GMT (0241 HKT)
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A federal judge in Atlanta, Georgia, has ruled that a suburban county school district's textbook stickers referring to evolution as "a theory not a fact" are unconstitutional.
In ruling that the stickers violate the constitutionally mandated separation between church and state, U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper ruled that labeling evolution a "theory" played on the popular definition of the word as a "hunch" and could confuse students.
The stickers read, "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered."
The disclaimers were put in the books by school officials in 2002.
"Due to the manner in which the sticker refers to evolution as a theory, the sticker also has the effect of undermining evolution education to the benefit of those Cobb County citizens who would prefer that students maintain their religious beliefs regarding the origin of life," Cooper wrote in his ruling.
Cooper said he was ruling on the "narrow issue" of the case, brought against the Cobb County School District and Board of Education by four parents of district students, was whether the district's stickers violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
His conclusion, he said, "is not that the school board should not have called evolution a theory or that the school board should have called evolution a fact."
"Rather, the distinction of evolution as a theory rather than a fact is the distinction that religiously motivated individuals have specifically asked school boards to make in the most recent anti-evolution movement, and that was exactly what parents in Cobb County did in this case," he wrote.
"By adopting this specific language, even if at the direction of counsel, the Cobb County School Board appears to have sided with these religiously motivated individuals."
The sticker, he said, sends "a message that the school board agrees with the beliefs of Christian fundamentalists and creationists."
"The school board has effectively improperly entangled itself with religion by appearing to take a position," Cooper wrote. "Therefore, the sticker must be removed from all of the textbooks into which it has been placed."
Five parents of students and the American Civil Liberties Union had challenged the stickers in court, arguing they violated the constitutional separation of church and state.
The case was heard in federal court last November. The school system defended the warning stickers as a show of tolerance, not religious activism as some parents claimed.
"The Cobb County school board is doing more than accommodating religion," Michael Manely, an attorney for the parents, argued during the trial, according to a report from The Associated Press. "They are promoting religious dogma to all students."
Lawyers for Cobb County, however, argued in court that the school board had made a good-faith effort to address questions that inevitably arise during the teaching of evolution.
"Science and religion are related and they're not mutually exclusive," school district attorney Linwood Gunn said in an AP report. "This sticker was an effort to get past that conflict and to teach good science."
According to the AP, the schools placed the stickers after more than 2,000 parents complained the textbooks presented evolution as fact, without mentioning rival ideas about the beginnings of life.
Markers in science textbooks violated church-state separation
Thursday, January 13, 2005 Posted: 1841 GMT (0241 HKT)
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A federal judge in Atlanta, Georgia, has ruled that a suburban county school district's textbook stickers referring to evolution as "a theory not a fact" are unconstitutional.
In ruling that the stickers violate the constitutionally mandated separation between church and state, U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper ruled that labeling evolution a "theory" played on the popular definition of the word as a "hunch" and could confuse students.
The stickers read, "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered."
The disclaimers were put in the books by school officials in 2002.
"Due to the manner in which the sticker refers to evolution as a theory, the sticker also has the effect of undermining evolution education to the benefit of those Cobb County citizens who would prefer that students maintain their religious beliefs regarding the origin of life," Cooper wrote in his ruling.
Cooper said he was ruling on the "narrow issue" of the case, brought against the Cobb County School District and Board of Education by four parents of district students, was whether the district's stickers violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
His conclusion, he said, "is not that the school board should not have called evolution a theory or that the school board should have called evolution a fact."
"Rather, the distinction of evolution as a theory rather than a fact is the distinction that religiously motivated individuals have specifically asked school boards to make in the most recent anti-evolution movement, and that was exactly what parents in Cobb County did in this case," he wrote.
"By adopting this specific language, even if at the direction of counsel, the Cobb County School Board appears to have sided with these religiously motivated individuals."
The sticker, he said, sends "a message that the school board agrees with the beliefs of Christian fundamentalists and creationists."
"The school board has effectively improperly entangled itself with religion by appearing to take a position," Cooper wrote. "Therefore, the sticker must be removed from all of the textbooks into which it has been placed."
Five parents of students and the American Civil Liberties Union had challenged the stickers in court, arguing they violated the constitutional separation of church and state.
The case was heard in federal court last November. The school system defended the warning stickers as a show of tolerance, not religious activism as some parents claimed.
"The Cobb County school board is doing more than accommodating religion," Michael Manely, an attorney for the parents, argued during the trial, according to a report from The Associated Press. "They are promoting religious dogma to all students."
Lawyers for Cobb County, however, argued in court that the school board had made a good-faith effort to address questions that inevitably arise during the teaching of evolution.
"Science and religion are related and they're not mutually exclusive," school district attorney Linwood Gunn said in an AP report. "This sticker was an effort to get past that conflict and to teach good science."
According to the AP, the schools placed the stickers after more than 2,000 parents complained the textbooks presented evolution as fact, without mentioning rival ideas about the beginnings of life.
RQOTW: "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA." -- Mitt Romney
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lukpac
- Top Dog and Sellout
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Rspaight wrote:http://www.theonion.com/wdyt/index.php?issue=4103
"The thing is, they're right. Evolution is nothing more than a well-supported, predictive, scientifically rigorous theory."
Sadly (or maybe not so sadly) the Burger King behind Jered Garza is now gone.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD
Patrick M wrote:I have to give Ryan mad props for digging up this link:
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showp ... stcount=72
and I give Luke props for attempting to rationally debate Paul Chang. My favorite part is when Grant (gasp!) and Luke attack him on the 3/5 of a person shit, and his argument completely unravels. But like a good demogogue he just keeps right on spewing nonsense. I really wish I'd been around SHtv at the time to join in the debate with this turd ... I probably would have gotten into trouble a long time ago!
Dan
The language and concepts contained herein are
guaranteed not to cause eternal torment in the
place where the guy with the horns and pointed
stick conducts his business. - FZ
The language and concepts contained herein are
guaranteed not to cause eternal torment in the
place where the guy with the horns and pointed
stick conducts his business. - FZ