Slashdot Mirror
Using Copyrights To Fight Intelligent Design
An anonymous reader writes "The National Academies' National Research Council and the National Science Teachers Association are using the power of copyright to ensure that students in Kansas receive a robust education. They're backed by the AAS: The American Association for the Advancement of Science." From the release: "[they] have decided they cannot grant the Kansas State School Board permission to use substantial sections of text from two standards-related documents: the research council's 'National Science Education Standards' and 'Pathways to Science Standards', published by NSTA. The organizations sent letters to Kansas school authorities on Wednesday, Oct. 26 requesting that their copyrighted material not be used ... Leshner said AAAS backs the decision on copyright permission. 'We need to protect the integrity of science education if we expect the young people of Kansas to be fully productive members of an increasingly competitive world economy that is driven by science and technology ... We cannot allow young people to be denied an appropriate science education simply on ideological grounds.'"
If they keep their faith out of my schools, I'll keep my science out of their churches. Seems like a fair trade.
Science and religion are not mutually exclusive. Rather, they go hand-in-hand and betters our understanding of both. Who says God didn't use the mechanisms of evolution to "beta test" the earth? Jesus Christ was and is a Creator (and we've inherited this trait) and will always employ the laws of the universe to create life. Never will He break a law of the universe, ergo everything He has made is explainable by science. This is why we have the study of science in the first place!
I am a Christian - a Latter-Day Saint to be precise - and members of the Church are strongly encouraged to study the sciences and other secular fields, because the Glory of God is Intelligence and we can better understand Him by better understanding the world around us.
SEO Copywriter. Just Say ON
However science is based upon proofs, empirical observation, and the scientific method, while religion is based on faith in things that cannot be known or measured.
Look up into the night sky - is that not proof enough of an Intelligent Designer? Everytime I forgive or feel forgiven, love or feel loved, that testifies to me there is a Divine Creator. Even you can't deny that in those moments, mortality seems more than just living sinews of flesh coexisting on a giant rock floating out in space.
There is no such thing as coincidence in this life. Everything is intimately interconnected in this universe, just as one byte of data is sibling to another byte of data in cyberspace (but I digress).
SEO Copywriter. Just Say ON