Check out Doonesbury in the Saturday, 17 Dec, Funnies

[Thomas G. Lammers]

At 08:29 AM 12/19/2005, Richard.Zander at MOBOT.ORG wrote:
 >>Creationists and intelligent designers are not impressed with this comic.<<

It doesn't matter.  Neither viewpoint is science by definition.  That is a
fact, easily demonstrated.

I do not care what people *believe*.  Folks have every right to believe in
their hearts what their faith tells them.  That is no concern of mine.  I
have never insisted that a student BELIEVE what I tell them about
evolution, merely that they understand it.  It is noteworthy that I have
NEVER had a religious student complain about my emphatic teaching of
evolution, presumably because I make it clear that I respect their beliefs,
even if I do not share them.

I only insist that things be correctly labeled and that religion and
philosophy not be palmed off as science.  (I am *so* grateful to Pat
Robertson for making it abundantly clear that ID *is* religion, with his
jeremiad against Dover PA.)  I will not tolerate dishonesty and
misrepresentation in the classroom.  The ID and Creationism folks should
consult their Bibles for that part about "Thou shalt not lie" and "Thou
shalt not bear false witness," before claiming their philosophies meet the
criteria of objective science.

Our dean has been active in a drive to gather 10,000 signatures from
Christian Clergy who repudiate the conflation of religion and science.  An
excerpt from a recent e-mail follows, which contains a link that may be of
interest:

"Soon after the Grantsburg [Wisconsibn] School Board rescinded their motion
[to force inclusion of Intelligent Design in the curriculum], we began the
massive task of gathering signatures of 10,000 Christian clergy on a letter
asserting that religion and science need not be in conflict.  The goal was
to demonstrate to the American public that the very loud fundamentalist
voices demanding that Christians must choose between the two were not
representative of the broad Christian community.  If you go to
<http://www.uwosh.edu/colleges/cols/religion_science_collaboration.htm>http://www.uwosh.edu/colleges/cols/religion_science_collaboration.htm,
you'll see that we have reached our goal and have acquired more than 10,000
such signatures.  The clergy signing the letter come from all states and
most territories of the country as well as from a host of Christian
denominations."

And FWIW, I thought the Doonesbury strip was pretty lame, too.

Tom Lammers

Thomas G. Lammers, Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Curator of the Herbarium (OSH)
Department of Biology and Microbiology
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901-8640 USA

e-mail:       lammers at uwosh.edu
phone:      920-424-1002
fax:           920-424-1101

Plant systematics; classification, nomenclature, evolution, and
biogeography of the Campanulaceae s. lat.

Webpages:
http://www.uwosh.edu/departments/biology/Lammers.htm
http://www.uwosh.edu/departments/biology/herbarium/herbarium.html
http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Resort/7156/lammers.html
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"Today's mighty oak is yesterday's nut that stood his ground."
                                                               -- Anonymous