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Rights and Liberties

The Christian Right's Got a New Stealth Tactic to Smuggle Creationism into Science Class

By Sandhya Bathija, Church & State Magazine. Posted August 27, 2008.


A new law in Louisiana allows teachers to bring in "supplemental textbooks" about evolution, the origins of life and global warming to science class.
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In the 21 years Patsye Peebles taught biology in Louisiana public schools, she never received one complaint from parents for teaching evolution.

"The bottom line is that I never questioned their faith," she said.

Whenever she had a student who brought up creationism, she always made it clear that science is science, and religion is religion.

"I wanted them to understand," Peebles said, "that science has to be testable and proven with evidence."

Whether they agreed with evolution or not, Peebles wanted her students to become what she calls "biologically literate citizens." Now she worries that a new Louisiana law, which would encourage teachers to question evolution, will push the state's education backward. 

"My whole curriculum was based on evolution, I integrated it into everything I taught," said Peebles, who testified against the law in a state Senate hearing and serves as a regional coordinator for the National Association of Biology Teachers.

"Now this muddies the waters and keeps students from having a really good education," she said. "When they go to college, they will be at a disadvantage because they will not have a good understanding of science."

Already, more than half of the state's eighth-graders lack basic competence in science, according to recent national test scores.

But despite pleas from scientists, civil liberties activists and educators like Peebles, Gov. Bobby Jindal signed Louisiana Senate Bill 733 into law. The new statute will allow teachers to introduce into the classroom "supplemental textbooks and other instructional materials" about evolution, the origins of life, global warming and human cloning.

The "Science Education Act," as it is known to the law's proponents, is the first such "academic freedom" bill to make it into the law books. The Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based think tank that promotes intelligent design, is coordinating the promotion of similar bills throughout the country -- this year in states including Florida, Alabama, Missouri, Michigan and South Carolina.

"These bills are full of creationist code language," said Barbara Forrest, a professor at Southeastern Louisiana University. "The phrase 'academic freedom' has been used by creationists for decades."

Forrest is co-author of Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design, a 2004 book that exposed the theocratic agenda of the Discovery Institute and other creationist organizations. She is leading the Louisiana Coalition for Science, a network of individuals and groups who organized opposition to SB 733.

Measures like Louisiana's new anti-evolution law are key pieces of the Religious Right agenda. Americans United for Separation of Church and State and its allies believe the Science Education Act is another attempt to force religion into public schools. AU has warned that lawsuits will result if Louisiana introduces religion into classrooms.

The major force behind the law in Louisiana is the Louisiana Family Forum (LFF), a Religious Right organization that actively promotes creationism. The LFF, which is a state affiliate of James Dobson's Focus on the Family, suggested the measure to its sponsor, Sen. Ben Nevers (D-Bogalusa).

In the past, Nevers repeatedly tried to push through legislation promoting creationism. In 2001, he voted in favor of a measure declaring Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution to be the cause for racism.

Nevers also introduced a resolution encouraging schools not to purchase textbooks that "do not provide students with opportunities to learn that there are differing scientific views on certain controversial issues in science."

Though he insists the new law he sponsored is not intended to promote creationism in public schools, Nevers was caught telling the Hammond Daily Star otherwise.

"[The LFF] believe[s] that scientific data related to creationism should be discussed when dealing with Darwin's theory," Nevers told the newspaper. "This would allow the discussion of scientific facts. I feel the students should know there are weaknesses and strengths in both scientific arguments."


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See more stories tagged with: science, christian right, louisiana, bobby jindal

Sandhya Bathija is a communications associate at Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

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Let's call out the exorcist
Posted by: hurricane hugo on Aug 27, 2008 12:47 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
to drive out the creationist demons.

Oh, wait - he's the governor...doh!

jdfu!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» He is on the shortlist Posted by: shortpantz
When exactly...
Posted by: -matti on Aug 27, 2008 1:31 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...did Public School Curricula become a "national issue"?

Its because of Federal funding I guess, huh?

Well screw the Federal funding then. If some morons in Louisiana want to spend a lot of time and money to turn their children into morons as well, I say let them do it!

This issue doesn't seem to affect people outside of certain regions of the country.

I suggest that it would be rational for those that find themselves the local cultural minority on this issue -or any other- to contemplate moving to more hospitable regions.

The U.S. allows freedom of movement, perhaps we should use it.

As for someone like myself -who already lives in such a place- why exactly am I supposed to be concerned that people in some other place choose to educate their children differently from how I would?

Is the debate between those who believe what a religious tome (or more accurately its preachers) and those who believe what a scientific theory (and its tests) tell us about the distant past of the World meant to be so quarrelsome that it divides the People?

What a strange idea.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: When exactly... Posted by: bcgirl125
» RE: When exactly... Posted by: paulaH
» RE: When exactly... Posted by: Dboy
» RE: When exactly... Posted by: Xynyx
» RE: When exactly... Posted by: athurlow
» RE: When exactly... Posted by: Libsrule
» RE: When exactly... who cares. Posted by: wolfgangmo
Creationism
Posted by: Col. Jackleg on Aug 27, 2008 2:18 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The only thing I am aware of that has been created is the dumbass evangelical movement hellbent on defying the Constitutional ban on establishment of any "religion." Apart from this goofball Louisiana development, we'd all better watch out for the emergence of Coeur d'Alene South, because a helluva lot of these nutcases are home-schooling their offspring and will pressure public officials for like-minded lunacy in perpetuity. God save America, "blessing" it is an outrage!

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» That's "Evilgelical Movement" Posted by: BobKincaid
» RE: That's "Evilgelical Movement" Posted by: mercury613
Neo-Darwinism is dead
Posted by: nemonemini on Aug 27, 2008 2:26 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Neo-Darwinism is dead. So what did the promoters of Darwin propaganda expect? It is not clear how the Louisiana law will play out, and no doubt creationists will abuse it. But anyone else who is tired of the NCSE boilerplate promoted by this article and Alternet might also use this law to get a different perspective on the false promotion of rigid Darwinian natural selection hype. Two can play this game: why not a double expose of creationism/ID and Darwinism? The science promoters of Darwin propaganda are suppressing the views of many scientists who don't criticize the theory of Darwin as indadequate.

Stuart Newman on Neo-Darwinism, from Darwiniana

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» RE: Neo-Darwinism is dead Posted by: Harris20
» RE: Neo-Darwinism is dead Posted by: nemonemini
» RE: Be careful what you wish for Posted by: nemonemini
» You sir are a liar. Posted by: wolfgangmo
» Smells like superstition Posted by: LMNOP
» RE: Smells like superstition Posted by: nemonemini
» RE: Smells like superstition Posted by: meeneecat
» Spencerism Posted by: Tom Tele
» Agreed Posted by: EvilMessiah
» RE: Agreed Posted by: nemonemini
» RE: Agreed Posted by: EvilMessiah
» RE: Agreed Posted by: nemonemini
» RE: Agreed Posted by: EvilMessiah
» RE: Neo-Darwinism is dead Posted by: greenknight
Fifth Column
Posted by: Orinoco on Aug 27, 2008 4:13 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It would make no sense for Louisiana to pass this law unless there were already in place in the Louisiana school system teachers ready and willing to use this 'supplemental material' and school administrators willing to purchase it.

Are there any surveys regarding how many Louisiana science teachers buy into this crap? Believe me, they are there, or this whole thing would be pointless.

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Fundies are at it again...
Posted by: Godfather89 on Aug 27, 2008 5:43 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Well one thing The Theory of Evolution is not the root to Racism anywhere. Racism has been around since before evolution was discovered. What I will say is that Social Darwinism has founded Eugenics which some of the most brutal men had used to wipe out certain races of people, but racism itself has been around since long before that.

Secondly, only a fundie or a literalist would believe the creationist hogwash, and I am disgusted that the people are trying to enact a law that dumbs down the education system further.

I couldn't even say that the creationists just want people to decide for themselves since this law replaces one with the other.

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This bit's really great--
Posted by: shikejian on Aug 27, 2008 6:09 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"One of the smallest prokaryotes (H-39 strain of mycoplasma, a bacterium) consists of 640 proteins whose average length is 400 amino acid bondings.Under ideal conditions, the odds of this many amino acids coming together in the right order are approximately the same as winning the Power Ball Lotto every week for the next 640 years. How could this have happened accidently [sic]? The step from inanimate organic compounds to a living organism is beyond man's ability to create."
Uhhhhhmm...who said man created anything?

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» RE: This bit's really great-- Posted by: greenknight
Fun with creationists
Posted by: rob-bot on Aug 27, 2008 6:15 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If you get in such a discussion with a friend or co-worker who believes in intelligent design, let them lead you down the path with explanations of the flaws in the evolutionary theory, and how only an intelligent being could have brought about life in all its complexity. Then when they ask if you see their point, reply with " So you're saying that life on earth resulted from genetic engineering experiments by advanced beings from outer space?"

I actually did this and the response was instant and total rage. Try to have a camera ready to record a priceless moment.

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» That kind of stuff is ALWAYS fun! Posted by: BobKincaid
» RE: Fun with creationists Posted by: davidg
» RE: Fun with creationists Posted by: Alexender Hamilton III
» can't you read,? Posted by: Tom Tele
I'm puzzled????
Posted by: Spiritgirl on Aug 27, 2008 6:56 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I realize that these born again people are opposed to knowledge of anything other than what is in the bible (even that is selective), but "creationism/intelligent design" as a theory cannot be proven!

For those of you that don't know the difference between theory and faith! A theory is something that can be tested and either proved, or disproved. Science works to explain the natural world that we live in and on. Creationism/intelligent design is not a theory, any more than God is a theory - either you believe in God or you do not! Science never set out to disprove God, in fact the early scientists belonged to the church - does no one remember Galileo Galilee - oh, that's right no learning there!

These religious wing-nuts are equal in their intolerance of learning to the early christian church fathers that condemned Galileo! And their insistence that everyone else become dumbed down to their level is an abomination against a civil society, against learning for learnings sake, and against the very God that they profess they follow, whether they want to see it that way or not!

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» RE: I'm puzzled???? Posted by: theoldguy
» RE: I'm puzzled???? Posted by: Freticat
» RE: I'm puzzled???? Posted by: jleman
Origins
Posted by: vasumurti on Aug 27, 2008 6:58 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Students today are being indoctrinated to believe science and religion are incompatible. Religion, we are told, is the shadow of the past: the last vestige of a dark, gloomy age, in which the masses were subjected to the fear of spirits, ghosts, devils, God, and other imaginary beings by ecclesiastical authorities seeking to maintain political control. Science, however, supposedly provides humanity with empirically verifiable knowledge -- understanding the world through quantifiable observation, analysis, reduction and reason.

Current theories in astrophysics cannot account for the formation of galaxies. General relativity contradicts quantum mechanics: these theories cannot be integrated on a sound mathematical basis. The equations needed to explain planets condensing from clouds of gas and dust have not yet been solved, and the origin of the solar system itself remains a mystery.

Evolution is mostly speculation. The physical evidence from the past is fragmentary; of the one billion species believed to have existed, 99 percent did not leave fossils. In the deliberate breeding of species, there are limits to the changes one can make. When pushed beyond a limit, species become sterile and die out or revert to their standard design. We can induce changes in existing forms via breeding, but cannot generate new complex structures.

If this cannot happen by man’s conscious efforts, why should it happen by blind natural processes? No satisfactory evolutionary models have ever been made.

In an article on animal rights entitled "Just Like Us?" appearing in the August 1988 issue of Harper's, Ingrid Newkirk, Executive Director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), said:

"You cannot find a relevant attribute in human beings that doesn't exist in animals as well. Darwin said that the only difference between humans and other animals was a difference of degree, not kind. If you ground any concept of human rights in a particular attribute, then animals will have to be included. Animals have rights."

Many in the animal rights movement still base their ethical system upon the Darwinian theory of evolution. This will have to change, as Darwin's theory is being demolished. Michael Cremo & Richard Thompson's Forbidden Archaeology (1993) is a step in that direction. This controversial book shocked the scientific community and became an underground classic.

The book's premise is that evolutionary prejudices held by powerful groups of scientists act as a "knowledge filter" which has eliminated evidence challenging accepted views, and left us with a radically altered understanding of human origins and antiquity. Forbidden Archaeology shocked the scientific world with its evidence for extreme human antiquity. It documented hundreds of anomalies in the archaeological record that contradicted the prevailing theory and showed how this massive amount of evidence was systematically "filtered" out. This is how mainstream science reacts (almost like a religion) to any challenge to its deeply held beliefs.

In biology, Hoyle and Wickramasinghe calculated the probability of proteins forming from the random interaction of amino acids -- the building blocks of life. They found the odds were one out of ten to the 40,000th power. Given these extreme odds, it is hard to imagine the self-organization of matter without the deliberate intervention of some kind of higher power(s) or intelligence(s).

All life is thus precious and sacred. Dr. Francis Crick has admitted, "the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle." Future scientists and science teachers would do well to approach the study of the phenomenal world with this kind of reverence.

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» RE: Origins Posted by: john mont
» Cowardly idiot Posted by: leafsong1
» RE: Origins Posted by: jroth420
» Um, what? Posted by: balance
» I have some Good News for you! Posted by: Illiteratilumen
» I always love it ... Posted by: EvilMessiah
» How vs. Why Posted by: suprmark
» Sadly... Posted by: LeaderofMen
» RE: Origins Posted by: jleman
Gee, the notion that folks paying for their child's education should have a say in that content?
Posted by: ABetterFuture on Aug 27, 2008 7:04 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Blasphemy! Next time, those same folks will be prattling on about "no taxation without representation"!

Yeah, it's ridiculous to teach the philosophy of creative-alter-id in any scientific context. I think, however, that your pals Bush and Cheney have done quite enough trampling of our rights to justify taking away more parental input on education...

...At least until the Obiden adventure takes over, and wipes out what's left of our rights to privacy and association outside draconian government regulation. Meh, maybe they'll go more slowly about it than the McCain train to hell.

One can hope for the best, eh?

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A lack of faith
Posted by: solrev on Aug 27, 2008 7:07 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I am a Christian and I fail to understand what this argument is all about. Suppose we let every school teach creationism, what would you teach? All I know about the creation comes from the first two books of Genesis. That should take about a half-hour to teach, class dismissed. ID shows a real lack of faith, to prove that God exists or worse to prove that God is intelligent, how insulting to God is that? Damn, Jesus warned me there would be a lot of born again pagans. These born again pagans need to go back to Sunday school and stop chanting in public.

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» RE: A lack of faith Posted by: Richard House
LA was a HICK state to begin with. The system in that state has already collapsed.
Posted by: maxpayne on Aug 27, 2008 7:27 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I guess this is only another symptom. I hate to say it but the state has already turned out uneducated people a long time ago. Add to it, ultra-sellouts in both parties to make matters worse. This Christian is ASHAMED of the uber-rightwing corrupt MISleadership and calls them non-Christians.

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Creation theory is flim-flam
Posted by: luzmejor on Aug 27, 2008 7:47 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The motive for this scheme is control over an undereducated population.

Most people know that "creationism" is not science, but a way of teaching children that they should be afraid of learning.

When people are ignorant, they and their votes can be controlled by charlatans like Bobby Jindal and focus on Family types.

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MORE CONTROL AND PROGRAMMING
Posted by: VZEQICVA on Aug 27, 2008 8:12 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Fact is, the kids shoud be taught to read, basic math, facts about money management (their own) and what they need to get a job and get through life. Scientific stuff is very exciting to children. It's a shame to ruin a natural curiosity just to satisfy a group of biased and uninformed adults. Science has no blinders. It shouldn't. It keeps on happening. To attempt to rein it all in and edit what children have access to is wrong. Thanks, ANNA

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What about other creation myths?
Posted by: lepidopteryx on Aug 27, 2008 8:13 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If we're going to allow the teaching of Genesis as an "alternative theory," then we also need to teach the "theory" that the earth sits upon the back of a giant tortoise. Or on the shoulders of a Titan.
While we're at it, our medical schools need to teach the "theory" that disease is caused by evil spirits, and that meat spontaneously generates maggots.

I live in Louisiana, and I am SO glad that my high school biology teachers taught science and not religion. I'm glad that my daughter had science teachers who actually taught science as well. I hope that by the time I become a grand-parent, school systems will have come to their senses and stopped adding religion to science classes. If not, I may offer to help my daughter home-school any children she may have - assuming that either of us are still living in this benighted state.

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Deception and the most deceived are those who zealously believe they are not
Posted by: jhubbard on Aug 27, 2008 8:35 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I wonder when the Relgious Right will wake up to the fact that using DECEPTION in order to get your way, or to create reality as you want it to be, is the main tool of the great deceiver, the flesh!

Whose puppets are they and whose agenda are they pushing? My web site at jeroldhubbard.com (home page) explains how DECEPTION IS THE SELECTIVE FORCE IN PLACE FOR LIVING ORGANISMS.

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Barbara Forest's Political Hype
Posted by: island on Aug 27, 2008 9:07 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The Christian Right's Got a New Stealth Tactic to Smuggle Creationism into Science Class

If this was true, then you'd be able to get these bills shot down in court like you did in Dover, but you cannot do that because the wording of these bills strictly prohibits the teaching of religion, creationism, "creation science", "creation facts" and ID, so your claim carries no more weight than a bogus lie.

How can you expect to gain the support of anyone that isn't in your "choir" of antifantics when you lie, embellish, mislead, and distort the truth just as much as the creationists do?

This issue is political on both sides, and regardless of what either side righteously claims via ideologically distorted science that either, willfully ignores evidence that appears to support the creationists position, or, on the other side of the coin, wrongly leaps to the conclusion that evidence that can indicate that there is higher purpose in nature, necessarily requires an intelligent agency.

This culture war will never end, and nobody on either side of the debate ever modifies their position. It's always a matter of who has the vote and scientists are not even close to being immune from the influence of their ideological belief systems.

Evolutionary theory suffers equally from the adverse effects of both sides, as does physics and cosmology, and in spite of much theoretical righteousness from the left.

Let the chorus of denial begin...

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» origins of life? Posted by: suprmark
Is creationism really Christian?
Posted by: tim_s_eb@yahoo.com on Aug 27, 2008 9:56 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I have read the bible and consider myself a Christian, albeit not a fundamentalist one. When I read the New Testament, to me it says that one should follow Jesus's example by acting more like a truly loving hippie guru. We are to have a big heart of giving and high morals that always encourages love, peace and respect for all humanity. The fundamentalist Christians on the other hand are mixing the KKK attitude with old Europe racism and anti Islamic fervor and hatred with the Old Testament literal commands and get all crazy. They feel very threatened by science, intellectualism and anyone not believing in the literal bible.

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» Just sayin' Posted by: balance
» which Christianity? Posted by: Tom Tele
The Christian Right damn sure isn't right
Posted by: jeffrey7 on Aug 27, 2008 10:04 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The truth is christianity is only one piece of the Creation puzzle. They have a small piece of it and the other faiths hold the others. Besides christian's have'nt had that great of history on this side of the world. They have authorized genocide,family busting and indoctrination into a faith that killed off it's principle teacher,then took the dead guy on a stick as their icon. Truth is Jesus' message was that we never die because we are children of the Creation and that's an eternal
energy that has no gender bias. Unlike it's followers. But as long as their icon is a dead guy,that's what they will bring to the world...death. Just look at their new leader George Bush,he's the biggest Christ killer of them all. If there's any truth to the 'rapture' them we can rejoice that the real problem makers on Earth will be gone and we can get back to living instead of dreading
what those crazy christians will do next.

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Forward into the past...
Posted by: BlueSun on Aug 27, 2008 10:53 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In the 1920s, the USSR turned to a wack agronomist, Trofim Denisovich Lysenko, to try to undo the disastrous results of the failures of agricultural collectivism.

Lysenko and the Soviet leadership rejected evolutionary genetics as bourgeois science. Lysenkoism had no actual science or scientific evidence supporting it, but was drawn from pre-Darwin Lamarkist theories.

So, until the '60s, Lysenkoism was the only officially approved alternative to the 'discreditied bourgeois pseudoscience of the fascists.' The immediate result is that Russia for decades failed to reap the agricultural benefits that a true understanding of biological science could have brought to them. The long-term result is that Russian biological science languished for 40 years or more and fell far behind that of the West, a gap that has still not been completely closed.

Creationism is to evolution what Lysenkoism was to genetics, basically a replacement of true science with ideological nonsense based on superstition or ideology, rather than on facts, experimentation, and validation.

As the rest of the Western world rushes forward into the amazing science of the 21st Century, it seems that America is trying to return to the superstition and ignorance of the Dark Ages.

What's next? Are we to teach astrology along with (or instead of) astronomy? Replace chemistry with alchemy? Close our graduate schools of meteorology and economics and replace them with classes in Tarot Card reading and casting the I Ching? What about closing medical schools and teaching faith healing and prayer circles instead?

If a particular religion wants to teach its adherents the Judeo-Christian mythology, that humans descended from a couple created by a supernatural being in a universe he also created in six days; or the Bakuba creation myth where Mbombo, the white giant, vomited forth the sun the moon and the stars, then vomited a second time to eruct forth trees, animals, people, and all living things; or the Zoroastrian creation myth where the good god Ahura Mazda created 16 idyllic lands for his humans, while the evil god Angra Mainyu polluted these lands with evil and plague and sin; or the Navajo belief that the "Holy Supreme Wind" was created by mists of lights and animated the myriad "Holy People" in the three lower worlds. Insect people were the first life, and they fought with each other, ascending through the second and third world to the forth world we know today, where they were transformed into humans. There, First Man and First Woman were created from ears of white and yellow corn; I have no problem with these being taught to their adherents in their own houses of worship or schools. But when any of these groups attempts to force its superstitions on the rest of the community, they have crossed over the line.

I don't care if you worship a man who has been dead two thousand years through acts of symbolic cannibalism or strip naked, paint yourself blue, drape your shoulders with fresh chicken guts, and howl at the full moon every month.

But don't come trying to teach my children to do that.

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» Lenny Bruce asked Posted by: Ignatz deFyre
» RE: get the jew Posted by: bitsfick
» Stripping Out Science Posted by: LeaderofMen
Um, what?
Posted by: balance on Aug 27, 2008 11:11 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Where are you pulling these assertions from? I just learned exactly how galaxies and our solar system formed, in my astronomy class! Basic 101 stuff. It's hardly a big mystery. It's not even controversial or complex advanced stuff!

Someone didn't get a very good science education, and believes the ID folks unquestioningly when they say science can't even figure these things out! Try reading an astronomy book. Seriously.

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Dumbing down of America is by design
Posted by: PakiBoy on Aug 27, 2008 11:31 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This promotion of anti-intellectual nonsense coupled with endless hrs of entertainment from sports to sitcoms is designed to do only one thing:
Keep Americans dumb and ignorant.

This way elites can bail-out their friends in the investment banking while making it far more difficult for the middle-class to file for bankruptcy.

This way elites can give away tax dollars to big pharma while making healthcare far more expensive for the public.

This way, elites can scare the shit out of dumb Americans by invoking one bogeyman after another, so as to divert the tax dollars to the military-industrial complex.

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