In January, schools in Cobb County in suburban Atlanta were forced to peel off the disclaimers when a federal judge said they were an endorsement of religion. The ruling was appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which will hear arguments on Thursday.
Advocates on both sides say the appeals court's decision will go a long way toward shaping a debate between science and religion that has cropped up in various forms around the country.
"If it's unconstitutional to tell students to study evolution with an open mind, then what's not unconstitutional?" said John West, a senior fellow with the Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based think tank that supports intelligent design, the belief that the universe is so complex it must have been created by a higher power. "The judge is basically trying to make it unconstitutional for anyone to have a divergent view, and we think that has a chilling effect on free speech."
Opponents of the sticker campaign see it as a backdoor attempt to introduce the biblical story of creation into the public schools _ something the U.S. Supreme Court disallowed in a 1987 case from Louisiana.
"The anti-evolution forces have been searching for a new strategy that would accomplish the same end," said Kenneth Miller, a professor of biology at Brown University and co-author of the science book that was stickered. "That purpose is, if not to get evolution out of the schools altogether, then at least undermine it as much as possible in the minds of students."
The disclaimers were placed in the books in 2002 by school officials in Cobb County, a suburb of about 650,000 people. The stickers were printed up after more than 2,000 parents complained that science texts presented evolution as a fact, with no mention of other theories.
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 school board called the stickers "a reasonable and evenhanded guide to science instruction" that encourages students to be critical thinkers.
Some parents, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, sued, claiming the stickers violated the constitutional separation of church and state.
U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper ruled that the sticker "conveys an impermissible message of endorsement and tells some citizens that they are political outsiders while telling others they are political insiders."
In Pennsylvania, a federal judge has yet to decide whether the Dover Area School District can require ninth-grade biology students to learn about intelligent design. A few days after the trial ended earlier this fall, Dover voters ousted eight of the nine school board members who adopted the policy.
The same week, state education officials in Kansas adopted new classroom science standards that call the theory of evolution into question.
In 2004, Georgia's school superintendent proposed a statewide science curriculum that dropped the word "evolution" in favor of "changes over time." That plan was soon scrapped amid protests from teachers.
Once again the ACLU is on its rampage. The parents complained and the ACLU intervened.
From the liberal college Berkley. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/evotheory.html
The theory of evolution, formalized by Charles Darwin, is as much theory as is the theory of gravity, or the theory of relativity. Unlike theories of physics, biological theories, and especially evolution, have been argued long and hard in socio-political arenas. Even today, evolution is not often taught in primary schools. However, evolution is the binding force of all biological research. It is the unifying theme. In paleontology, evolution gives workers a powerful way to organize the remains of past life and better understand the one history of life. The history of thought about evolution in general and paleontological contributions specifically are often useful to the workers of today. Science, like any iterative process, draws heavily from its history.http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/search/topicbrowse2.php?topic_id=48
What is the history of evolutionary theory?
Resources:
Adaptation: The case of penguins
The process of natural selection produces stunning adaptations. Learn about the history of this concept, while you explore the incredible adaptations that penguins have evolved, allowing them to survive and reproduce in a climate that reaches -60°C!
This article appears at Visionlearning.
Darwin and Wallace: Natural selection
Darwin and Wallace came up with the idea of natural selection, but their idea of how evolution occurs was not without predecessors.
This article is located within History of Evolutionary Thought.
History of evolutionary thought
In this section, you will see how study in four disciplinary areas — Earth's history, life's history, mechanisms of evolution, and development and genetics — has contributed to our current understanding of evolution.
Jean Baptiste Lamarck: Early concepts of evolution
Darwin was not the first to propose that life evolves; Lamarck and naturalists before him also considered the possibility that species change over time.
This article is located within History of Evolutionary Thought.
On the Origin of Species
This online book includes the complete text of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, in which Darwin lays out his conception of natural selection and surveys the evidence that supports the theory of evolution.
This book appears at Literature.org.
Species, speciation and the environment
Niles Eldredge gives a historical overview of scientists' thinking on the process of speciation, along with modern perspectives on this issue.
This article appears at ActionBioscience.org.
Evolution is just that. A theory. Here is what one Judge on the appeals court said.
By Doug Gross
ASSOCIATED PRESS
3:43 p.m. December 15, 2005
ATLANTA – A federal appeals panel Thursday questioned the accuracy of a judge's ruling that a disclaimer in school textbooks describing evolution as "a theory, not a fact" represents an endorsement of religion.
"I don't think you all can contest any of the sentences" on the disclaimer sticker, Judge Ed Carnes of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals told an attorney arguing for parents who sued.
"It is a theory, not a fact; the book supports that," Carnes said.
The lower court in January ordered a suburban Atlanta school district to remove the stickers. The judge, Clarence Cooper, wrote the disclaimer "conveys an impermissible message of endorsement and tells some citizens that they are political outsiders while telling others they are political insiders."
Cobb County schools attorney Linwood Gunn argued Thursday that Cooper misconstrued the school board's intention, which he said was to allay community concerns while teaching good science.
"There's nothing religious in the case except constituents' beliefs or presumed beliefs," Gunn said.
Jeffrey Bramlett, arguing for the American Civil Liberties Union and parents, cited the book's author, Kenneth Miller, who testified it would be misleading to say evolution is not a fact.
That sticker "was like a cigarette warning to kids, singling out this one thing from everything in the entire book," ACLU Georgia legal director Gerry Weber said outside court.
Carnes, considered one of the court's most conservative members, was joined on the panel by Judge Frank Hull, a Clinton appointee, and Judge William Pryor, a controversial appointment last year by President Bush.
The panel did not indicate when it would rule.
The stickers were placed on about 35,000 books in suburban Cobb County in 2002 and 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 Cobb County case is one of several that have pushed the teaching of evolution into the national spotlight.
In Pennsylvania, a federal judge has yet to decide whether Dover schools may require "intelligent design" be taught in ninth-grade biology classes.
In Kansas, state education officials recently cleared the way for schools to teach "intelligent design," which says the universe is so complex it must have been created by a higher power. Critics say it's creationism disguised as science.
Last year, Georgia's state schools superintendent proposed a statewide science curriculum that dropped the word "evolution" in favor of "changes over time," but the plan was quickly scrapped amid protests by teachers.
Update: This headline says it all. 11th Circuit Skeptical of Evolution Sticker Ruling
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1134641111572
Judge Edward E. Carnes, joined by Judges Frank M. Hull and William H. Pryor Jr., led sharp questioning of Jeffrey O. Bramlett, who represented the challengers of the sticker and had to defend the January ruling of U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment