DEvolution in America

[Lord Mord]

Shryke,

Of course, your right. English is a terrible patriarchal language designed to oppress women.

Do you think so? I wasn't prepared to credit the framers with an overt design; the design, if you prefer that word, could simply have been as subliminal in their minds as it has been in the generations that have followed.

And French? My God, they classify inanimate objects by sex! A table is female, obviously to denote it's enslavement to the whims of people. It must simply stand there and take it without complaint, and is then discarded when it's no longer needed.

That sounds fair to me.

It seems we've found a whole new area of blatant sexism. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

Well, it's not really new, and I think you know that, because I don't think I'm the first one in your life to bring attention to it.

You seem to feel some warmth on this topic. Have I offended you?

[Dornish]

Maybe but that's off the point in a public school environment.

Intellectual honesty is off point in education? I suppose my main point was that if a statement is literally correct, then it isn't an opinion so much as a fact.

ETA: snarky quip withdrawn

You seem to feel some warmth on this topic. Have I offended you?

Doubtful, if he's anything like me he just finds the semantic quibbling about supposedly sexist verbiage in a language to be asinine.

I think that's taking it a little bit too far. What would you call a lady's man, a person's person? That would make a He-man an It-person. Little kids would be afraid of the boogieperson. They'd look up in the sky and see the person in the moon. Guys would say come back here and fight like a person. And we'd all sing "For It's a Jolly Good Person." That's the kind of thing you would hear on "Late Night with David Letterperson!"

[Shryke]

Doubtful, if he's anything like me he just finds the semantic quibbling about supposedly sexist verbiage in a language to be asinine.

Pretty much.

[HT Reddy]

Female Christians on the board do not speak for the whole of Christian women.

Well, true, but surely they come closer than you or I to being qualified so to do?

[Watcher]

Intellectual honesty is off point in education? I suppose my main point was that if a statement is literally correct, then it isn't an opinion so much as a fact.

You are misunderstanding the argument. The establishment clause in the First Amendment has been interrupted that people acting as authorities of the government, in this case a teacher, cannot endorse a religious viewpoint. This is why public lead prayers before football games, before class or some other official school function has been banned. The teacher crossed the line when he called Christianity a

superstition. At that point he established a religious viewpoint and in his role as leading a classroom that is illegal.

If the teacher would've simply said something like "the known facts doesn't support the Biblical story of creation" he would've been stating a fact and stayed within the law. The issue isn't that he called the kid on his bullshit about creationism, the problem is he give an opinion on Christianity as he did so.

[CiaranAnnrach]

Just because someone can, and should, have the freedom to define what Christianity means for themselves, it does not follow that they have the right to impose that meaning onto others, or that their judgment of others for being not true Christians is of merit.

Alittle late on the reply, but this was the point I was trying to get you to admit. Nobody has the right to tell someone else who a "true Christian" is, as opposed to everybody. In this, we are agreed.

[Dornish]

You are misunderstanding the argument. The establishment clause in the First Amendment has been interrupted that people acting as authorities of the government, in this case a teacher, cannot endorse a religious viewpoint. This is why public lead prayers before football games, before class or some other official school function has been banned. The teacher crossed the line when he called Christianity a

superstition. At that point he established a religious viewpoint and in his role as leading a classroom that is illegal.

If the teacher would've simply said something like "the known facts doesn't support the Biblical story of creation" he would've been stating a fact and stayed within the law. The issue isn't that he called the kid on his bullshit about creationism, the problem is he give an opinion on Christianity as he did so.

OK, I missed that he called the faith itself a superstition which is a bit more dicey. Calling the creation myth superstition would be completely factual and IMO acceptable, if tactless.

[Joanna vander Poele]

He's a pot head. If you'd shot him in the head, no court would have convicted you.

A little late, but Shryke, the classmate is actually a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who will probably never smoke pot in her entire life.

But still, I do feel a little incredulous whenever I speak to her now.

[AverageGuy]

Helping Blauer Dragon out, because I did think it was a funny video, Genesis explained scientifically.

[Nymeria Sand]

This doesn't have anything to do with evoution, but on a related topic, the Christian right in Texas is at it again:

Christian right aims to change history lessons in Texas schools

One of the panel, David Barton, founder of a Christian heritage group called WallBuilders, argues that the curriculum should reflect the fact that the US Constitution was written with God in mind including that "there is a fixed moral law derived from God and nature", that "there is a creator" and "government exists primarily to protect God-given rights to every individual".

Written with God in mind? Really? Hmm, I guess that's why the word "God" isn't mentioned ONCE in the Constitution.

Barton says children should be taught that Christianity is the key to "American exceptionalism" because the structure of its democratic system is a recognition that human beings are fallible, and that religion is at the heart of being a virtuous citizen.

Another of the experts is Reverend Peter Marshall, who heads his own Christian ministry and preaches that Hurricane Katrina and defeat in the Vietnam war were God's punishment for sexual promiscuity and tolerance of homosexuals. Marshall recommended that children be taught about the "motivational role" of the Bible and Christianity in establishing the original colonies that later became the US.

I guess Marshall isn't aware that the people who founded the colonies were a bunch of nutters that no one else wanted. And as for saying that stuff about Hurricane Katrina and Vietnam, that's just asinine.

Just another attempt by the right to brainwash our kids. They were partially successful in hijacking the science curriculum in favor of creationism...and now they want history as well. We need to stop these fools before we become a theocracy, which is the furthest thing from what the Founding Fathers intended.

[Annelise]

This doesn't have anything to do with evoution, but on a related topic, the Christian right in Texas is at it again:

Christian right aims to change history lessons in Texas schools

Written with God in mind? Really? Hmm, I guess that's why the word "God" isn't mentioned ONCE in the Constitution.

I guess Marshall isn't aware that the people who founded the colonies were a bunch of nutters that no one else wanted. And as for saying that stuff about Hurricane Katrina and Vietnam, that's just asinine.

It's the arrogance that stands out to me. I'm not well versed in Christian teachings but to me, humility is decidedly absent in that Tower of Babel they're trying to build.

[TrackerNeil]

This doesn't have anything to do with evoution, but on a related topic, the Christian right in Texas is at it again:

The God Squad is nothing if not persistent. They failed (mostly) to change the science curriculum, so now they are focusing on history, and after that I imagine they'll try to find a way to say that math is a Christian science.

[LCOTNW]

The God Squad is nothing if not persistent. They failed (mostly) to change the science curriculum, so now they are focusing on history, and after that I imagine they'll try to find a way to say that math is a Christian science.

Let me tell you a little story about the multiplication of the loaves and fishes..... It's not in the book of "numbers" but it is mathy nonetheless.

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

Just remind them that the Pope celebrates Math every Thunday and maybe they'll leave it alone....

[Watcher]

The God Squad is nothing if not persistent. They failed (mostly) to change the science curriculum, so now they are focusing on history, and after that I imagine they'll try to find a way to say that math is a Christian science.

as long as they've been trying to change how science is defined it's a wonder they took so long to start to redefine history.

[TheLoneliestMonk]

the way they were trying to change science WAS redefining history. errr.. prehistory. whatever.

[Hereward]

Just remind them that the Pope celebrates Math every Thunday and maybe they'll leave it alone....

:stunned:

May God have mercy on your soul.

[BloodRider]

From:

Christian right aims to change history lessons in Texas schools

Barton says children should be taught that Christianity is the key to "American exceptionalism" because the structure of its democratic system is a recognition that human beings are fallible, and that religion is at the heart of being a virtuous citizen.

I think there is a good case to be made for Science being a large contributer to "American exceptionalism". Furthermore, I would lay a great deal of America's recent decline at the foot of Christianity - Thats a litle too broad for me so lets put a fine point on that. IMO, Fundamental Christianity and its combination with politics, and its love of willful righteous ignorance takes the lions share of the crappy situation we Merkins are now in.

[Revan]

and people say that I'm blind :)

[Xray the Enforcer]

Just remind them that the Pope celebrates Math every Thunday and maybe they'll leave it alone....

:rofl: