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NEWS ABOUT
EVOLUTION and
CREATION
SCIENCE DURING 2002
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Major developments during 2002:
 | 2002-JAN-7: USA: U.S. Supreme Court declines evolution case:
The Supreme Court decided to not hear a case involving the teaching of
evolution in a public school. Teacher Rodney LeVake sued his employer,
the Faribault School District in southern Minnesota. He believes that
God created the world recently, over an interval of six days. He wanted to teach students
"an honest look at the difficulties and inconsistencies of the theory
[of evolution] without turning my class into a religious one."
Lawyer Kay Nord Hunt, who defended the school district wrote: "This
court has never held that under the First Amendment, schools are the
mere instruments of the advancement of the individual agendas of its
teachers." The lawyer for the plaintiff, Wayne B. Holstad, told justices that
his client "was silenced, not for
anything he said in the classroom, but merely for holding a contrary
viewpoint and expressing a desire to say certain things that the school
district deemed out of step with its officially imposed orthodoxy."
This action by the Supreme Court lets stand the dismissal of LeVake's
lawsuit by the Minnesota appeals court. 1 The case is
LeVake v. Independent School District No. 656, 01-665. |
| 2002-JAN-18: WA: Senate bill to suppress evolution received first
reading: Senator
Harold Hochstatter (R - 13th legislative district) has introduced a
bill calling for the suppression of the teaching of evolution in
Washington state public schools. He bases this argument on the
Declaration of Independence which "declares the self-evident truth
that all men are created....Both the United States Constitution and the
Washington state Constitution were instituted to protect rights endowed
by the Creator." He concludes that:
 | "8. The legislature finds that the teaching of the theory of
evolution in the common schools of the state of Washington is
repugnant to the principles of the Declaration of Independence and
thereby unconstitutional and unlawful." |
| "9. All textbooks and curriculum that teach the theory of
evolution shall be removed from the public schools forthwith and
replaced with textbooks and curriculum that teach the self-evident
truth of creation." 2 |
You can send an E-mail to Senator Hochstatter from a form at:
http://www.leg.wa.gov/senate/members/ |
|
2002-MAY-10: VA: Christian college refused
accreditation: Patrick Henry College in Northern Virginia aims
its services at home-schooled children. The college teaches creation
science as truth. According to its "Statement of Biblical
Worldview,"
it requires that evolution,
'theistic' or otherwise, will not be treated as an acceptable theory."
Its faculty is chosen on the basis of their belief that God created the
universe in six 24-hour days. The college was denied accreditation by the
American Academy for Liberal Education.
According to the Academy, the College failed to meet two standards:
| One standard requires that: "Liberty of thought and freedom of speech are
supported and protected, bound only by such rules of civility and order as
to facilitate intellectual inquiry and the search for truth." |
| Another standard mandates that "The general education
requirement ensures a basic knowledge of mathematics and the physical and
biological sciences." |
Patrick Henry College President Michael Farris is reported as saying: "I
think what they are saying is that because we teach creationism we've
introduced what to them is faux science into our courses." 3 |
| 2002-MAY-20: MA: Stephen Jay Gould: The New York Times
reported that "Stephen Jay Gould, the evolutionary theorist at
Harvard University whose research, lectures and prolific output of
essays helped to reinvigorate the field of paleontology, died yesterday
at his home in Manhattan. He was 60....The cause was cancer, said his
wife, Rhonda Roland Shearer. One of the most influential evolutionary
biologists of the 20th century and perhaps the best known since Charles
Darwin, Dr. Gould touched off numerous debates, forcing scientists to
rethink sometimes entrenched ideas about evolutionary patterns and
processes." 4 |
References:
-
"Supreme Court won't hear case on teaching evolution,"
Associated Press, 2002-JAN-8, at:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,42404,00.html
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"Senate Bill 6500," at
http://www.leg.wa.gov/pub/billinfo/
- Art Moore, "College rejected for teaching creationism:
Accrediting group: 'Biblical worldview' inhibits 'basic knowledge',"
WorldNetDaily at:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/
- Carol Kaesuk Yoon, "Stephen Jay Gould, Evolution Theorist, Dies
at 60," at:
http://www.nytimes.com/
Copyright © 2002 by Ontario
Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2002-MAY-21
Author: B.A. Robinson
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