Reflecting on another Darwin Day (Metlakatla: house, rent, lease)

[User 2]

Originally Posted by cobolt

Yes, yes and YES!!! I laugh everytime

While it is all laughable nonsense, ...the seriousness of the results of the attempts to impose their beliefs on others these people keep promoting is not a laughing matter.

What with the 'religious wrong's' inroads into the present administration and the intentional marginalization of science's role in public policy, we need to be attentive to what damage can be done.

They want much more than just to teach your kids that evolution is false, they want to suppress science in favor of a religious interpretation of all facets which might effect public policy formulation.
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[Nephler]

Originally Posted by User 2

What with the 'religious wrong's' inroads into the present administration and the intentional marginalization of science's role in public policy, we need to be attentive to what damage can be done.

"God told me to strike at al-Qaida and I struck them, and then He instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East."
George W. Bush

[User 2]

...that's only the most overt act, nephier

...there are other facets of the damage that will also take a few generations to root out.
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[cobolt]

yeah...it's the stuff unseen that's the problem.

[User 2]

First up in the things we may have to live with for a long, long time is the gift of a radicalized Supreme Court. *

While it's easy to say that it will take a generation to mend, the truth is a generation might not be enough. *

Of the sitting Supreme Court justices, two of them are Reagan appointees from the mid-80s. *

(One of them is an appointee of Gerry Ford who has been in his robe since 1975 .......thank you, Justice Stephens, and hang in there). *

That means that we could still be dealing with Alito's snarling rants when Malia Obama is facing off against senior senator Hillary Duff. *

Even a couple of back to back Democratic administrations might not be enough to patch the tears put into the Constitution by the "strict constructionists," as the three youngest members of the court are Roberts, Alito, and Thomas.

Moving beyond the court, there's the perennial targets of the Republicans: the people, their pocketbooks, and the planet.

tip of the hat to Devilstower...

Read more:

Simplytrue - Citizen Journalists News & Tech » George W. Bush


George Bush Wire (Page 10) - Topix


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[Alice2]

I do not believe that science and 'religion' have to be in conflict at all. Evolution obviously takes place, but whether man descended from an ape or a critter from which both men and apes descended isn't quite proven -- there's a pretty big jump from ape to man, so some of the evolution 'science' is simply theory and ought to be taught as such.

Belief in God, or in an Intelligent Creator of the Universe, does not contradict evolution. Darwin in fact believed in God.

People have to find in their own hearts what they believe but to deny children exposure to the concept of religion or of God (not necessarily the same thing, mind you) is depriving them of something very important to their spiritual development. Indoctrinating them into a belief system is another matter entirely, and if this is to be done it is the discretion of the families they come from not the school system.

[Metlakatla]

there's a pretty big jump from ape to man, so some of the evolution 'science' is simply theory and ought to be taught as such.

There has been some interesting inroads into that since you were in public high school.

"Missing Link" Human Skull Found in Africa, Scientists Say

Among others.

"Spirituality" is by it's very nature is precisely something a child should NOT be exposed to in a schoolroom setting, if that is what you are trying to suggest (sorry but your wording is making your intent rather unclear). You seem to be advocating some sort of "New Age" exposure within a school setting so as not to deprive the children of exposure to religion but keeping it watered down enough so that it wouldn't be pushing any particular agenda.

[User 2]

Originally Posted by Alice2

Darwin in fact believed in God.

....there are all kinds of people that claim Darwin 'believed' in God.

That's not correct, in any sense.

In his younger life, he was brought up in a religious environment, but his questioning of God began early and his 'disbelief' grew as his life progressed.

The creationists are responsible for pushing this myth as some kind of support for their view, ...what better argument could they have but to claim Darwin himself believed in God?

Trouble is, he described himself as Agnostic at best.

Please read the numerous very well researched biographies and published papers of Darwin before you repeat myth about the man.

You wouldn't want people to mischaracterize your own life, so don't suppose you are free to do such to others.

Especially as a ruse to push some agenda that Darwin was not in support of.
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[Alice2]

No, I'm not pushing an agenda, I just don't think the subject of religion should be sanitized clear out of the educational system as if children could be tainted by being exposed to the topic. People having religion shoved down their throats have made this a rather knee-jerk type reaction in people, and Ithink it is a shame for kids to not have this dimension of human existence presented to them so that they may ponder it themselves as they are growing up.

I was never too certain I believed in God as a kid, but I sure did spend time wondering about it, if only sitting there in church wondering how come all these grown-up people could believe in God when I was not too sure he existed.

I believe in God now, but I came to it in my own way in my own time and it's not attached to any religion or the Bible or any other book.

The other part of your post I can not respond to tonite, but will let you know if I can look into it and verify it -- I once had, and think I still do (in a box not here in my possession) a copy of Darwin's Origin of the Species and the Descent of Man all in one volume, and I believe it was in there I first read that he in fact believed in God.

[coffeehound]

I don't really understand creationists, myself, but I have a hard time believing they comprise a really powerful force in AK public life. Most everyone I know (even those wacky conservative homeschoolers) is familiar with the general concept behind evolution-- changes in allele frequency over time driven by natural selection, or whatever.

Guess it gets dicier when it comes to human origins, though, though I can't say I actually understand the mentality at work there. Maybe they feel threatened in other ways and adhere a little too tightly to a literalist Bible interpretation as an antidote for creeping lefty secularism?