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Maybe because evolution is so dang important to stupid leftwing Marxists...

It is and should be important because unlike creationism, there is science to back it up but I see the religious like to ignore fact for fantasy because it's just easier to write 'god' in the blank and call it a day.

Wrong. Evolution has zero evidence for origins. It takes way more faith to believe in evolution theories than creation theories, especially when laws of nature point to creation. But keep trying to explain away God.

Quoting IhartU:

Quoting cammibear:

Maybe because evolution is so dang important to stupid leftwing Marxists...

It is and should be important because unlike creationism, there is science to back it up but I see the religious like to ignore fact for fantasy because it's just easier to write 'god' in the blank and call it a day.

What would be taught? Literal 6 day creationism? What about us theistic evolutionists? What about those who believe in the alien creation stories?

Why can't we teach it all? Because there isn't enough time in the day to teach EVERYTHING so that NOBODY gets offended.

Quoting littlesippycup:

Why can't we just teach it all? It could be a semester class that briefly covers everything in a factual manner.

I am a Home Schooling, Vaccinating, Non spanking, Nightmare Cuddling, Dessert Giving, Bedtime Kissing, Book Reading, Stay at Home Mom. I believe in the benefit of organized after school activities and nosy, involved parents. I believe in spoiling my children. I believe that I have seen the village and I do not want it anywhere near my children. Now for the controversial stuff: we have traditional gender roles, we're Catholic, I'm Libertarian, he's Republican, we're both conservative, and we own guns (now there's no need to ask, lol). Aimee

You're right. Let's just get rid of science class! Who needs it? After all, those same scientists saying evolution, on some level, is fact are the same ones we rely on for most of the facts in science books.

Quoting cammibear:

Wrong. Evolution has zero evidence for origins. It takes way more faith to believe in evolution theories than creation theories, especially when laws of nature point to creation. But keep trying to explain away God.

Quoting IhartU:

Quoting cammibear:

Maybe because evolution is so dang important to stupid leftwing Marxists...

It is and should be important because unlike creationism, there is science to back it up but I see the religious like to ignore fact for fantasy because it's just easier to write 'god' in the blank and call it a day.

I am a Home Schooling, Vaccinating, Non spanking, Nightmare Cuddling, Dessert Giving, Bedtime Kissing, Book Reading, Stay at Home Mom. I believe in the benefit of organized after school activities and nosy, involved parents. I believe in spoiling my children. I believe that I have seen the village and I do not want it anywhere near my children. Now for the controversial stuff: we have traditional gender roles, we're Catholic, I'm Libertarian, he's Republican, we're both conservative, and we own guns (now there's no need to ask, lol). Aimee

THE WEDGE STRATEGY

CENTER FOR THE RENEWAL OF SCIENCE & CULTURE

INTRODUCTION

The proposition that human beings are created in the image of God
is one of the bedrock principles on which Western civilization was
built. Its influence can be detected in most, if not all, of the
West's greatest achievements, including representative democracy,
human rights, free enterprise, and progress in the arts and
sciences.

Yet a little over a century ago, this cardinal idea came under
wholesale attack by intellectuals drawing on the discoveries of
modern science. Debunking the traditional conceptions of both God and
man, thinkers such as Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud
portrayed humans not as moral and spiritual beings, but as animals or
machines who inhabited a universe ruled by purely impersonal forces
and whose behavior and very thoughts were dictated by the unbending
forces of biology, chemistry, and environment. This materialistic
conception of reality eventually infected virtually every area of our
culture, from politics and economics to literature and art

The cultural consequences of this triumph of materialism were
devastating. Materialists denied the existence of objective moral
standards, claiming that environment dictates our behavior and
beliefs. Such moral relativism was uncritically adopted by much of
the social sciences, and it still undergirds much of modern
economics, political science, psychology and sociology.

Materialists also undermined personal responsibility by asserting
that human thoughts and behaviors are dictated by our biology and
environment. The results can be seen in modern approaches to criminal
justice, product liability, and welfare. In the materialist scheme of
things, everyone is a victim and no one can be held accountable for
his or her actions.

Finally, materialism spawned a virulent strain of utopianism.
Thinking they could engineer the perfect society through the
application of scientific knowledge, materialist reformers advocated
coercive government programs that falsely promised to create heaven
on earth.

Discovery Institute's Center for the Renewal of Science and
Culture seeks nothing less than the overthrow of materialism and its
cultural legacies. Bringing together leading scholars from the
natural sciences and those from the humanities and social sciences,
the Center explores how new developments in biology, physics and
cognitive science raise serious doubts about scientific materialism
and have re-opened the case for a broadly theistic understanding of
nature. The Center awards fellowships for original research, holds
conferences, and briefs policymakers about the opportunities for life
after materialism.

The Center is directed by Discovery Senior Fellow Dr. Stephen
Meyer. An Associate Professor of Philosophy at Whitworth College, Dr.
Meyer holds a Ph.D. in the History and Philosophy of Science from
Cambridge University. He formerly worked as a geophysicist for the
Atlantic Richfield Company.

THE WEDGE STRATEGY

Phase I.

Scientific Research, Writing & Publicity

Phase II.

Publicity & Opinion-making

Phase III.

Cultural Confrontation & Renewal

THE WEDGE PROJECTS

Phase I. Scientific Research, Writing & Publication

Individual Research Fellowship Program

Paleontology Research program (Dr. Paul Chien et al.)

Molecular Biology Research Program (Dr. Douglas Axe et
al.)

Phase II. Publicity & Opinion-making

Book Publicity

Opinion-Maker Conferences

Apologetics Seminars

Teacher Training Program

Op-ed Fellow

PBS (or other TV) Co-production

Publicity Materials / Publications

Phase III. Cultural Confrontation & Renewal

Academic and Scientific Challenge Conferences

Potential Legal Action for Teacher Training

Research Fellowship Program: shift to social sciences and
humanities

FIVE YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN SUMMARY

The social consequences of materialism have been devastating. As
symptoms, those consequences are certainly worth treating. However,
we are convinced that in order to defeat materialism, we must cut it
off at its source. That source is scientific materialism. This is
precisely our strategy. If we view the predominant materialistic
science as a giant tree, our strategy is intended to function as a
"wedge" that, while relatively small, can split the trunk when
applied at its weakest points. The very beginning of this strategy,
the "thin edge of the wedge," was Phillip ]ohnson's critique of
Darwinism begun in 1991 in Darwinism on Trial, and continued in
Reason in the Balance and Defeatng Darwinism by Opening Minds.
Michael Behe's highly successful Darwin's Black Box followed
Johnson's work. We are building on this momentum, broadening the
wedge with a positive scientific alternative to materialistic
scientific theories, which has come to be called the theory of
intelligent design (ID). Design theory promises to reverse the
stifling dominance of the materialist worldview, and to replace it
with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions.

The Wedge strategy can be divided into three distinct but
interdependent phases, which are roughly but not strictly
chronological. We believe that, with adequate support, we can
accomplish many of the objectives of Phases I and II in the next five
years (1999-2003), and begin Phase III (See "Goals/ Five Year
Objectives/Activities").

Phase I: Research, Writing and Publication

Phase II: Publicity and Opinion-making

Phase III: Cultural Confrontation and Renewal

Phase I is the essential component of everything that comes
afterward. Without solid scholarship, research and argument, the
project would be just another attempt to indoctrinate instead of
persuade. A lesson we have learned from the history of science is
that it is unnecessary to outnumber the opposing establishment.
Scientific revolutions are usually staged by an initially small and
relatively young group of scientists who are not blinded by the
prevailing prejudices and who are able to do creative work at the
pressure points, that is, on those critical issues upon which whole
systems of thought hinge. So, in Phase I we are supporting vital
witting and research at the sites most likely to crack the
materialist edifice.

Phase II. The pnmary purpose of Phase II is to prepare the
popular reception of our ideas. The best and truest research can
languish unread and unused unless it is properly publicized. For this
reason we seek to cultivate and convince influential individuals in
pnnt and broadcast media, as well as think tank leaders, scientists
and academics, congressional staff, talk show hosts, college and
seminary presidents and faculty, future talent and potential academic
allies. Because of his long tenure in politics, journalism and public
policy, Discovery President Bruce Chapman brings to the project rare
knowledge and acquaintance of key op-ed writers, journalists, and
political leaders. This combination of scientific and scholarly
expertise and media and political connections makes the Wedge unique,
and also prevents it from being "merely academic." Other activities
include production of a PBS documentary on intelligent design and its
implications, and popular op-ed publishing. Alongside a focus on
influential opinion-makers, we also seek to build up a popular base
of support among our natural constituency, namely, Chnstians. We will
do this primarily through apologetics seminars. We intend these to
encourage and equip believers with new scientific evidence's that
support the faith, as well as to "popularize" our ideas in the
broader culture.

Phase III. Once our research and writing have had time to
mature, and the public prepared for the reception of design theory,
we will move toward direct confrontation with the advocates of
materialist science through challenge conferences in significant
academic settings. We will also pursue possible legal assistance in
response to resistance to the integration of design theory into
public school science curricula. The attention, publicity, and
influence of design theory should draw scientific materialists into
open debate with design theorists, and we will be ready. With an
added emphasis to the social sciences and humanities, we will begin
to address the specific social consequences of materialism and the
Darwinist theory that supports it in the sciences.

GOALS

Governing Goals

To defeat scientific materialism and its destructive moral,
cultural and political legacies.

To replace materialistic explanations with the theistic
understanding that nature and hurnan beings are created by
God.

Five Year Goals

To see intelligent design theory as an accepted alternative in
the sciences and scientific research being done from the
perspective of design theory.

To see the beginning of the influence of design theory in
spheres other than natural science.

To see major new debates in education, life issues, legal and
personal responsibility pushed to the front of the national
agenda.

Twenty Year Goals

To see intelligent design theory as the dominant perspective
in science.

To see design theory application in specific fields, including
molecular biology, biochemistry, paleontology, physics and
cosmology in the natural sciences, psychology, ethics, politics,
theology and philosophy in the humanities; to see its innuence in
the fine arts.

To see design theory permeate our religious, cultural, moral
and political life.

FIVE YEAR OBJECTIVES

1. A major public debate between design theorists and Darwinists
(by 2003)

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