Here are some references to the Darwin Day web site:
1. phttp://fp.bio.utk.edu/darwin/frmain.html
Home page: "Celebrate Darwin Day with the University of Tennessee
Knoxville...On February 12th of 1997, the 187th birthday of Charles
Robert Darwin, we celebrated the legacy of this most accomplished
naturalist, writer and evolutionary biologist." More evidence that
Darwinism is a religion!
2. http://fp.bio.utk.edu/darwin/1998/provine_abstract.html
Abstract of Keynote address by Dr. William Provine, Professor of
History and Biology from Cornell University, in which he claimed
that: Naturalistic evolution has clear consequences that Charles
Darwin understood perfectly. 1) No gods worth having exist; 2) no
life after death exists; 3) no ultimate foundation for ethics
exists; 4) no ultimate meaning in life exists; and 5) human free
will is nonexistent." Also of interest is Provine's allegation that
"a small group of powerful naturalist evolutionists have taken
control of our schools. They want to stifle discussion of evolution
in the classroom...by preventing free discussion of all views in the
biology classroom." It is interesting that the Darwin Day page does
not have Provine's full lecture. Eugenie Scott of the NCSE is
worried that the public might find out about Provine's views. Phil
Johnson regards Provine as an ally!
3. http://fp.bio.utk.edu/darwin/letterhome.html
'Defining Evolution: An Open Letter" home page: "In response to a
recent decision by the National Association of Biology Teachers
(NABT) to change its official statement defining evolution [deleting
"unsupervised" and "impersonal"-SJ] , Dr. Massimo Pigliucci drafted
a letter which has been circulated to members of the scientific
community. In it, the undersigned encourage members of the NABT to
reconsider this change."
4. http://fp.bio.utk.edu/darwin/openletter.html
The open letter: "Read the open letter to the NABT, NCSE, and the
AAAS concerning the alterations to their statement on evolution."
The open letter is "to the National Association of Biology Teachers,
to the National Center for Science Education, and to the American
Association for the Advancement of the Sciences" regarding "recent
changes in the wording of the NABT's definition of the word
"evolution".
5. http://fp.bio.utk.edu/darwin/replyletter.html
Professor Phillip Johnson's reply to the open letter. Professor
Johnson's Reply: "In December 1997 I participated in a televised
debate on creation and evolution, on William F. Buckley's "Firing
Line." Throughout the debate, the members of the Evolution team
insisted that "evolution" in no way denies that God is our creator.
The team leader, Barry Lynn, went so far as to quote John 1:1: "In
the beginning was the Word" in order to suggest that the Word may
well have been "EVOLVE!" Other members of the evolutionist team
[Eugenie Scott, Kenneth Miller, and Michael Ruse] either furthered
the impression that divine supervision is an acceptable concept in
evolutionary science, or did nothing to dispel it. This tactic made
it difficult for our opposing team to clarify the issues, and so may
have been successful in the short run. I knew that it would
eventually backfire, however, because all the leading Darwinists
(Gould, Dawkins, Maynard Smith, Lewontin, Futuyma, Ayala, Provine --
the whole bunch) insist that evolution is an undirected, purposeless
process. As the Open Letter puts it, the only God consistent with
neo-Darwinism is one who perfectly mimics an unsupervised,
impersonal process. When the textbooks say that "evolution is a
fact," that is what they mean." (I have posted the full text of
Johnson's reply in a separate message).
6. http://fp.bio.utk.edu/darwin/response to johnson.htm
Massimo Pigliucci's response to Johnson. "A response to P.E.
Johnson by Massimo Pigliucci Mr. Johnson agrees with us that the
only god compatible with evolution (in fact, with the scientific
view of the world in general) is one that either does not do
anything at all (except perhaps starting the universe), or whose
behavior is essentially impossible to distinguish from natural
laws."
7. http://fp.bio.utk.edu/darwin/scott reply.htm
A response from Eugenie Scott, of the NCSE. "In February of 1998,
Massimo Pigliucci and three colleagues sent to a list of friends and
associates an "open letter" addressed to the National Association of
Biology Teachers (NABT), the National Center for Science Education
(NCSE) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science
(AAAS). Someone forwarded the letter to an email list, and from
there was spread widely throughout the Internet. At the time of
this writing, approximately 100 individuals have joined with
Pigliucci et al as signatories. Their letter argues that the
National Association of Biology Teachers erred in deleting two words
("impersonal" and "unsupervised" as descriptors of evolution) from
its 1995 position statement "The Teaching of Evolution". The letter
accused NABT of responding to "pressure from the Christian
fundamentalist movement." A further claim was made that the two
words accurately described evolution, and should have been retained.
In addition to NABT, the letter was sent to NCSE because of my
involvement (as an interested NABT member) in discussions with
NABT's Board of Directors at the time the decision to drop the two
words was made in October of 1997...I have discussed elsewhere the
Board's initial rejection of the suggestion to drop the two words,
and the subsequent decision to indeed, modify one tenet describing
evolution in the Statement on Teaching Evolution. Suffice it to say
that upon reflection, the Board decided that since the two words in
question were unnecessary, and even redundant, and had been
understood as making claims about theological issues beyond the
realm of science, with teachers likely suffering as a result, the
words could be dropped without changing the scientific accuracy of
the statement."
More public divisions within the evolution camp. More "grist for
creationist mills" (Gould S.J., "Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes", 1983,
p262)!
Steve
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Stephen E (Steve) Jones ,--_|\ sejones@ibm.net
3 Hawker Avenue / Oz \ Steve.Jones@health.wa.gov.au
Warwick 6024 ->*_,--\_/ Phone +61 8 9448 7439
Perth, West Australia v "Test everything." (1Thess 5:21)
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