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Intelligent Design: Creationism's new name
This is the same as Creationism, and schools in America and outside are having it masquerade as a "scientific" theory competing with evolution.Although it is not too long ago that the Catholic Church still enforced complete literary belief in the Bible, even they have now started distancing themselves from it when it comes to evolution versus Genesis.
See The Times UK, October 05, 2005 - Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible:
The Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland are warning their five million worshippers, as well as any others drawn to the study of scripture, that they should not expect "total accuracy" from the Bible.So they consider the Bible - the whole of which was previously held to be "God's Inerrant Word" - to be partly true and therefore partly false today. They're also determining which parts of the Bible are true and which aren't, without any of that 'divine guidance' which supposedly guided the early Church Councils in establishing the Christian canon.
"We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision," they say in The Gift of Scripture. ...But the first 11 chapters of Genesis, in which two different and at times conflicting stories of creation are told, are among those that this country’s Catholic bishops insist cannot be "historical". At most, they say, they may contain "historical traces".
The document shows how far the Catholic Church has come since the 17th century, when Galileo was condemned as a heretic for flouting a near-universal belief in the divine inspiration of the Bible by advocating the Copernican view of the solar system. Only a century ago, Pope Pius X condemned Modernist Catholic scholars who adapted historical-critical methods of analysing ancient literature to the Bible.
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The Bible is true in passages relating to human salvation, they say, but continue: "We should not expect total accuracy from the Bible in other, secular matters."
To explain this abrupt change in the general Catholic (and pan-Christian) beliefs about the origins of life which were still held only a century ago, these Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland state:
the Church must offer the gospel in ways "appropriate to changing times, intelligible and attractive to our contemporaries". [Same Link]In other words, they're willing to make the scripture conform to whatever appeals to the masses and fits the time.
Though Catholic bishops in the UK appear to have green-lighted evolution, it is not uniformly accepted amongst senior Catholic officials:
Evolution dispute now set to split Catholic hierarchy - The Independent (UK), Aug 5, 2005:
The conflict at the highest level of the Catholic Church about the truth of Darwin's theory of evolution breaks out publicly today.The Pontiff of Rome is making his opinion clear - Pope Benedict XVI has now fired the Vatican astronomer who was predisposed to accepting evolution:Recent comments by a cardinal close to the Pope that random evolution was incompatible with belief in "God the creator" are fiercely assailed in today's edition of The Tablet, Britain's Catholic weekly, by the Vatican astronomer.
In an article with explosive implications for the Church, Father George Coyne, an American Jesuit priest who is a distinguished astronomy professor, attacks head-on the views of Cardinal Christoph Shönborn, the Archbishop of Vienna and a long-standing associate of Joseph Ratzinger, the German cardinal who was elected as Pope Benedict XVI in April.
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For a Vatican official of such seniority openly to attack the views of a cardinal on such a potentially explosive subject as evolution is unprecedented. It also reveals a deep rift at the heart of the Catholic Church's thinking.
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The key question behind the debate is the opinion of new Pope. Some fear that the cardinal would never have published such a controversial article in such a prominent medium without his personal approval. But nothing will be known for certain until the Pope speaks for himself.
Pope sacks astronomer over evolution debate - Daily Mail, August 23, 2006
Pope Benedict XVI has sacked his chief astronomer after a series of public clashes over the theory of evolution.This makes it irrelevant that the representatives of UK's Catholic Churches have accepted evolution, because the Pope has the final say, as per the 1870 Doctrine of Papal Infallibility, and his position on this matter is very clear.
He has removed Father George Coyne from his position as director of the Vatican Observatory after the American Jesuit priest repeatedly contradicted the Holy See's endorsement of "intelligent design" theory, which essentially backs the "Adam and Eve" theory of creation.
Many Protestant groups and all fundamentalist Christian sects feel certain that Creationism, or Intelligent Design as it is now called, is the truth.
In fact, they are supported in this by president George W. Bush, himself a fundamentalist Born-Again Christian. He imagines that religious myths repackaged as 'Intelligent Design' form a valid alternative 'theory' to actual science:
Bush Remarks Roil Debate on Teaching of Evolution - New York Times, August 3, 2005
A sharp debate between scientists and religious conservatives escalated Tuesday over comments by President Bush that the theory of intelligent design should be taught with evolution in the nation's public schools.The belief in a flat-earth can then also be considered a "different school of thought", one that some Christians still hold to. However, the earth is not flat and therefore ought not to be taught in schools as some alternative theory.
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Mr. Bush said in the interview, according to a transcript, "I felt like both sides ought to be properly taught." Asked again by a reporter whether he believed that both sides in the debate between evolution and intelligent design should be taught in the schools, Mr. Bush replied that he did, "so people can understand what the debate is about."
Mr. Bush was pressed as to whether he accepted the view that intelligent design was an alternative to evolution, but he did not directly answer. "I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," he said, adding that "you're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, and the answer is yes."
Bush's statements have effectively encouraged Christian proponents of intelligent design, whilst lending a false legitimacy to Intelligent Design as being an actual alternative theory.
Bush weighs into evolution debate - BBC, August, 9 2005
President Bush's championing of intelligent design will be interpreted as further evidence of the growing influence of the religious right.
In 1999, Kansas had rejected the theory of evolution. Once again, science is considered paganism, going against the Word of God:
Kansas rejects theory of evolution - BBC, August 11, 1999
...the board of education in Kansas voted to drop evolution as a subject in the science curriculum.US school battle over evolution - BBC, 6 May, 2005
The Kansas state school board has begun four days of hearings into how children in state schools are taught about the origins of life. Religious conservatives are pressing for a change to state guidelines that would play down Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. They argue that the teaching of evolution shows a bias against religion.
The situation in the US has become so drastic that it ended up going to court, with science emerging victorious, fortunately.
US judge bans intelligent design from science lessons, The Guardian, December 21, 2005
· Victory for parents on teaching of evolutionIt now turns out that Christians sent Judge Jones death threats, to the extent that he needed federal protection.
· Theory ruled to be religion by the back door
A courtroom battle seen as a test case for the teaching of science in America ended in a decisive victory for evolution yesterday when a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled that it was unconstitutional to teach "intelligent design" in biology class.
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Yesterday's verdict concludes a trial that was seen as the most important legal review of science and religion since the 1920s. It arrives at a time when the teaching of evolution is under attack in school districts from Georgia to Kansas and when the school district in Dover was seen as the cutting edge of a new effort by the religious right to inject its views into America's state school system.
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"The evidence at trial demonstrates that 'intelligent design' is nothing less than the progeny of creationism," Judge Jones wrote. ... "We find that the secular purposes claimed by the board amount to pretext for the board's real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom," Judge Jones wrote. ... "The overwhelming evidence at trial established that ID is a religious view, a mere relabelling of creationism, and not a scientific theory," he wrote.
Judge received death threats after ruling on intelligent design - The Wichita Eagle (Kansas), September 27, 2006
Associated Press LAWRENCE, Kan. - A judge who struck down a Dover, Penn., school board's decision to teach intelligent design in public schools said he was stunned by the reaction, which included death threats and a week of protection from federal marshals.In spite of the ruling, Christians still want to push ID and fight evolution:Pennsylvania U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III told an audience in Lawrence Tuesday that the case illustrated why judges must issue rulings free of political whims or hopes of receiving a favor.
In a 139-page decision last year, Jones ruled that the Dover school board intended to promote religion when it instituted a policy requiring students to hear a statement about intelligent design before ninth-grade biology lessons on evolution. He ruled that it is unconstitutional to teach intelligent design as an alternative to evolution.
"And if you would have told me when I got on the bench four years ago that I would have death threats in a case like this as opposed to, for example, a crack cocaine case where I mete out a heavy sentence, I would have told you that you were crazy," he said. "But I did. And that's a sad statement."
Court defeat fails to deter intelligent design backers - The Guardian, December 22, 2005
Proponents of "intelligent design" vowed yesterday to continue their battle against the teaching of evolution in American schools despite a stinging defeat in a Pennsylvania court. They said that Tuesday's ruling was only legally binding in part of Pennsylvania, around the town of Dover, where the education authority had been sued for advocating intelligent design in its schools.And Christian parents still don't want to expose their children to science, as it contradicts Biblical teachings:
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Meanwhile, a federal appeals court in Georgia is considering the case of an Atlanta suburb that had stickers put into biology textbooks, describing evolution as "a theory, not a fact".
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Opponents of intelligent design believe the law is on their side. A supreme court decision in 1987 banned the teaching of creationism as an explanation of human origins, and in his verdict on Tuesday Judge Jones said intelligent design was "a mere relabelling of creationism".
But George Bush has openly espoused teaching intelligent design alongside evolution, and he is trying to appoint two conservatives to the supreme court.
UK Guardian news, February 20, 2006 - Teachers enlisted in battle against creationists
US scientists have for the first time enlisted the help of teachers in their battle against campaigners who want the theory of intelligent design to be taught in schools. More than 300 teachers were invited to attend this year's American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference in St Louis, Missouri, yesterday, and many revealed their concerns.At the bottom of the same news report, there are links to more articles on this disturbing topic.
Although recent court rulings have favoured the teaching of the theory of evolution, the teachers told how finger-wagging parents in the midwest insist they abandon biology textbooks for biblical creationism or intelligent design.
The madness is not restricted to the US, however, because it has spread everywhere where Evangelical Christianity has taken root. It's now happening even in the UK:
UK Guardian news, March 9, 2002 - Top school's creationists preach value of biblical story over evolution
State-funded secondary teachers do not accept findings of Darwin
Fundamentalist Christians who do not believe in evolution have taken control of a state-funded secondary school in England. In a development which will astonish many British parents, creationist teachers at the city technology college in Gateshead are undermining the scientific teaching of biology in favour of persuading pupils of the literal truth of the Bible.
In the US it has become so serious now that Oxford University Science professor, famed biologist Richard Dawkins and professor Jerry Coyne of the University of Chicago have to waste their valuable time in actually discussing this ridiculous issue.
UK Guardian news, September 1, 2005: One side can be wrong
Accepting 'intelligent design' in science classrooms would have disastrous consequences, warn Richard Dawkins and Jerry Coyne.About the insistence of fundamentalist Christians on having schools teach both Intelligent Design and Evolution side by side, Dawkins and Coyne have this to say:
Tempting as this is, a serious worry remains. The seductive "let's teach the controversy" language still conveys the false, and highly pernicious, idea that there really are two sides. This would distract students from the genuinely important and interesting controversies that enliven evolutionary discourse. Worse, it would hand creationism the only victory it realistically aspires to. Without needing to make a single good point in any argument, it would have won the right for a form of supernaturalism to be recognised as an authentic part of science. And that would be the end of science education in America.
See more: Talk Origins - Exploring the Creation-Evolution Controversy
More little known facts:
- Deathbed scenarios of heretics invented by Christians:
To this day, many blinded Christians continue to parrot the popular fabrication that Charles Darwin recanted of his theory of evolution on his deathbed and prayed to Jesus for forgiveness. Needless to say, this is completely untrue. He never recanted.
Infidel deathbeds contains a few more myths spun along these lines by pious liars. - "Luther", a deceptive film described as "historic":
This recently made film about the Protestant reformer Martin Luther has omitted all of his many bad points. The man's vituperative hatred for the faculty of reason, oppressed farmers who revolted against the nobility, women, Jews, disabled people, the Pope and Catholicism, Anabaptists, Turks.
The film makes no mention of his anti-Semitic booklet Of the Jews and their Lies that inspired the Christians throughout Nazi Germany. It was indeed a booklet to rival any anti-Semitic propaganda manufactured by the Nazis themselves.
Luther's comparison of disabled children to the Devil and his ideas on how to deal with them increased their mistreatment and often got them murdered.
See: Martin Luther - Mother Teresa:
Sainted by Pope John Paul II, this woman was a fraud who has been exposed countless times for several inhuman and criminal actions. Yet the facts have not been given anywhere as much attention in the media as her supposed dedication to helping the destitute. The result has been that most people are still in the dark about how little she has done to help others and how she and her institute have instead been making a lot of money. - The recent origins of the belief in Rapture - a Christian site that documents its late history.
- More biased reporting in the press:
In June 2005, many UK and international newspapers had inaccurate headlines about "Witchcraft Abuse" in Britian. However, the actual situation was that African Churches in the UK and their Christian members were inhumanely abusing their own children, on suspicion that the latter were witches (or possessed).
"Churches blamed for exorcism growth" was the more accurate headline, which the UK newspaper Observer carried.
Similarly, in the vast majority of Christian suicide/murder cult cases in the US, like that of David Koresh (Seventh Day Adventist) and Heaven's Gate, the reports keep silent on the Christian nature of these cults.
Christian terrorism goes unrecognised. See former preacher Dan Barker's article Christian Terrorism In Oklahoma City and Christian Terrorism. - National Surveys Question Christian Morality - Believers Are No Better, shows how despite Christian propaganda to the contrary, Christians really aren't more successful than non-Christians. And in spite of Christians taking the high moral ground, the statistics contradict them.
- Miraculous myths of tsunami survival - too good to be true:
Many pious myths about miraculous Christian escapes from the all-devouring Asian tsunami of end 2004 have been exposed at the Urban Legends Reference pages: Saved by Humility. However, the same page brings up a tale of a tsunami incident that left a Church in India "miraculously" untouched. This turns out to be a simple case of the Church having been built on higher ground and is refuted here. (This Church is yet another case of Churches having been built on top of pagan shrines demolished by Christians.) - According to recent reports, the Vatican has undertaken a concerted campaign to have "Christianophobia" recognized by the UN. Alongside anti-Semitism, no less. What a sad joke. It is very reminiscent of the Nazi war criminals who thought they could escape from justice after WWII by donning the prison-uniforms of their concentration camp victims.
- Vatican scholars are going to rewrite the Bible
See also: