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[dextrous]

Ruchir,
Until and unless you understand/acknowledge what a "theory" is in science, it is not possible to have a debate with you.

I know what theory mean in science. I was talking about your believability rating.

You misunderstood my intention in assigning believability rating to religious mythology. Of course, Christians will side with the Bible, Hindus will side with the Gita, etc. The end result would be equivalents of Islamic madrassas all over the globe.

[ruchir]

Wicketview:

You believe in evolution. You want to be open minded about how the first life forms emerged on the earth.

Great. I don't have issues with how you choose to think of a phenomenon which no one agrees on.

True.

1. As I have said, I have no issues with people who, today, want to believe that a higher power placed life on earth.  I would feel that neither this nor other controversial scientific theories should not be taught ... because the answer is we do not know much about this.  And it is important that children learn that we do not know everything.

Agree. However, I personally have nothing against scientific theories being taught in school.


[/quote]2. Could you show a link etc. where this parents' movement was? Because, most movements (likely the ones Dex and CP refered to) are ones where they argue for also teaching a replacement of evolution. Note the word replacement, where-as you are not talking about replacement. [/quote]

I saw an interview on TV, of parents from PA who said they had not problem in the alternate theory of how life started on earth being taught in a separate class. I can't find a URL for you but I will try.

[WicketView]

Ruchir,

Do you know what is usually taught when they teach evolution in school here? I really don't know, but I would expect, that they will not get into any of the ideas about how life started ... that would certainly be the sensible thing to do. I find it hard to believe that they actually teach such things ... school syllabi are and should concentrate on stuff that people agree on. If a kid asks about this ... there should be a discussion ... and it is important to emphasize that this is not understood, and that does not imply that the rest of the stuff is wrong.

However, the point I would like to emphasize follows from your response about watching this being said by some PA parents, and you are not sure if you  could find a link. While, I entirely believe that you watched these interviews, this cannot be a major movement but a bunch of scattered people who think this way. Contrast this with the number of people claiming that evolution is simply wrong, or that evolution and a replacement of evolution ( eg. intelligent design) should be taught simultaneously
 side by side, because 'we don't know which is correct' or 'because evolutoin is "just a theory"' is huge! Just google intelligent design or Teach the controversy etc. and see how many people are writing about this. These people (I refered to them in my initial comment, not you) are invested in this idea mostly because of their faith, and this is a problem with
Republicans ... because a significant set of people are Republicans, because the party is perceived to be partial to it. In turn, the party does not want to lose this votebank and is reluctant to crackdown on anti-evolutionists. This is what CP or Dex are talking about, and not the very marginal movement you are refering to.

[ramshorns]

After thinking about rogue leaders like Reagan, Bush(Sr) and Bush(Jr) and his pimp Cheney and what they did to America and the world in general I feel America should not be a two party system primarily.  It should be a one party system and by default it should be the Democratic party that should be governing the country.   I think they can always come up leaders like Kennedy, Clinton and Obama.   They are really good good men and really want to do good for the people across the world.   A stark contrast to someone like a Reagan or a Bush.