{"id":1885,"date":"2013-06-05T14:31:53","date_gmt":"2013-06-05T18:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=1885"},"modified":"2013-06-05T19:30:32","modified_gmt":"2013-06-05T23:30:32","slug":"methodists-and-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1885","title":{"rendered":"Methodists and Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

United Methodists of the Alabama-West Florida Conference convened in Mobile, Alabama, this week<\/a>. Among the topics discussed were a handful of petitions about science and evolution. These petitions to their 2016 General Conference would have requested the following:<\/p>\n

One would have removed language endorsing reconciliatory programs between religion and science. Another would have removed language stating that scientific descriptions of evolution did not in conflict with theology. A third petition would have added language supporting the teaching of creationism along with evolution in the public schools.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, an antiscience faction was attempting to radically change how United Methodists overall officially address matters of science. Fortunately, all three petitions failed, but only after “lively discussion.” There are a few quotes in the linked story, but it would be nice to see the entire debate. There is a webpage where video is available<\/a>, but I can’t get any of the videos there to play. I keep getting error messages. I imagine that the one to view is “Conference Business Session, Tuesday, June 4, 2013, 9:00 a.m.” Let me know if any of you can get it to work.<\/p>\n

EDITED TO ADD: I got the video to work. You can skip ahead to about 49:15. That’s where this whole discussion starts. I recommend that you stick with it all the way through. The debate over the third petition is the best and really brings out some good speakers worth listening to if for no other reason than to understand how some of the attendees think these issues through. Oh, and one speaker calls Richard Dawkins a fool. Gotta love it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

United Methodists of the Alabama-West Florida Conference convened in Mobile, Alabama, this week. Among the topics discussed were a handful of petitions about science and evolution. These petitions to their 2016 General Conference would have requested the following: One would … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-up","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":425,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=425","url_meta":{"origin":1885,"position":0},"title":"Another lawmaker, the same old lawyer, and a theory","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"An Associated Press article popped up on the Orlando Sentinel website this evening. 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The new guidelines reflect mainstream scientific views of evolution and represent a political defeat for advocates of ``intelligent design,'' who had helped write the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1000,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1000","url_meta":{"origin":1885,"position":2},"title":"Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Greatest Menace VII: Causing the Nation to Fall!","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"(This is the seventh part in the Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Greatest Menace series. For an introduction to the series, go here.) \u00c2\u00a0Non-scientific theories The April 22, 1980 meeting of the Hillsborough County school board was a marathon one. 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