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As if our public educational system hasn't already devolved into a wasteland of stupidity, now 4 states want to make our kids even stupider.
If we don't stand up and make our voices heard... if we don't band together and stop this madness... we are subject to the whims of religious right lawmakers and literally doomed for generations. This is clearly unconstitutional!
It's time to stop being afraid of what the religious majority will think of us. I'm "godless" and proud of it. You should be too!
I'll be contacting Rob Boston at the Americans United for Separation of Church and State to see how I can help fight this stupidity.
As if our public educational system hasn't already devolved into a wasteland of stupidity, now 4 states want to make our kids even stupider.
If we don't stand up and make our voices heard... if we don't band together and stop this madness... we are subject to the whims of religious right lawmakers and literally doomed for generations. This is clearly unconstitutional!
It's time to stop being afraid of what the religious majority will think of us. I'm "godless" and proud of it. You should be too!
I'll be contacting Rob Boston at the Americans United for Separation of Church and State to see how I can help fight this stupidity.
As a side note, there is a lot of crossover between those who:
1) Demand that such egregious, anti-science nonsense dilute an otherwise meaningful biological curriculum, and
2) Complain about poor test scores amongs public school students, using them as evidence against the usual boogeymen (teachers unions, government in general, education in general, etc.)
You're right, dammit! We have to get organized, someone has to step up and get this fight started.
Therefore I am announcing today, my candidacy for President of the Atheists. I seek the office not for the prestige or personal honor, or even the salary, rather I wish only to serve the needs of American atheists across the nation.
So vote for me, because I never lie, I'm always right, and I understand everything.
ps....automatic pick of any cabinet position to first poster to second my nomination.
You're right, dammit! We have to get organized, someone has to step up and get this fight started.
Therefore I am announcing today, my candidacy for President of the Atheists. I seek the office not for the prestige or personal honor, or even the salary, rather I wish only to serve the needs of American atheists across the nation.
So vote for me, because I never lie, I'm always right, and I understand everything.
ps....automatic pick of any cabinet position to first poster to second my nomination.
Seconded!
And I'd like to be Secretary of the Interior of the Red Light District, if you please.
As if our public educational system hasn't already devolved into a wasteland of stupidity, now 4 states want to make our kids even stupider.
If we don't stand up and make our voices heard... if we don't band together and stop this madness... we are subject to the whims of religious right lawmakers and literally doomed for generations. This is clearly unconstitutional!
It's time to stop being afraid of what the religious majority will think of us. I'm "godless" and proud of it. You should be too!
I'll be contacting Rob Boston at the Americans United for Separation of Church and State to see how I can help fight this stupidity.
Logline, I have to admit to you that when I moved to America I knew obviously that creationism was something that people in believed here. But I honestly thought that it was a belief held by a few minority unenlightened groups. I was totally unprepared for this statistic: In U.S., 46% Hold Creationist View of Human Origins
"46% of Americans hold creationist view of human origins"
Can this really be true? I only came across this statistic a few weeks ago.
Now I have no problem at all with teaching religion in schools - from a historical and social perspective -the same way you learn that the Scandinavians believed in Norse Gods etc or that people used to believe the earth was flat - in fact Christianity has been around for 2000 years so its much more important than that in a historical sense. I wouldnt worry about indoctrination - it wont happen as long as the information is handled correctly.
In the UK we were all taught RE as a compulsory subject, but we learned about all religions, so in the end we produced a ton of atheists! (only about 10% of the population attend church)
Maybe a move into schools is what is needed here too? Religion taught by teachers with rational minds instead of religious enthusiasts? Just a thought. Education seems to be the way forward in my view.
I'd have a big problem with creationism being taught as though it were the actual truth though, if this is what the report is actually suggesting? Its 2013 - its time people got real.
If this is what is actually being put forward why not create a petition? We'll all sign it.
"46% of Americans hold creationist view of human origins"
Can this really be true?
Daaaang. Sure hope not. But who knows?
Quote:
I'd have a big problem with creationism being taught as though it were the actual truth though...
Sadly, the proponents of the teaching of creationist nonsense alongside science in public schools don't want to just insinuate into the mix the idea that creation is one possible viewpoint. No, they want, ultimately, to promote the idea that the specifically Judeo-Christian creation myths are real and historically accurate.
Imagine the reaction of these people if someone was endorsing the teaching of Hindu, or Hopi Indian, or Greco-Roman creation stories as if they were literally true!
Louisiana governor (and retired exorcist) Bobby Jindal has signed an aggressive charter school bill that will transfer millions in tax dollars to religious academies run by evolution-denying, homophobic, climate-change-denying Christian extremists. Mother Jones's Deanna Pan went for a dig through these schools' official texts and discovered that Louisiana's publicly funded education system will soon tell some of its luckiest students that the KKK "achieved a certain respectability" by fighting bootleggers; "the majority of slave holders treated their slaves well;" dragons might be real; "dinosaurs and humans were definitely on the earth at the same time," and many other fun facts.
The more writers were constrained by confusing demands and conflicting requests, the more they produced unreadable mush. Texas, you may not be surprised to hear, has been particularly good at making things mushy. In 2011, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative education think tank, issued an evaluation of US history standards for public schools. The institute was a longtime critic of curricula that insisted that representatives of women and minorities be included in all parts of American history. But the authors, Sheldon Stern and Jeremy Stern, really hated what the Texas board had done. Besides incorporating “all the familiar politically correct group categories,” the authors said,
the document distorts or suppresses less triumphal or more nuanced aspects of our past that the Board found politically unacceptable (slavery and segregation are all but ignored, while religious influences are grossly exaggerated). The resulting fusion is a confusing, unteachable hodgepodge.
HOW MANY of us who have kids are actively raising our children more or less as atheists? I know I am, and I know that IF they were teaching this crappola in our public schools, my kids are at least smart enough to say " That is not right". My kids are being raised to understand that evolution is not a theory as misinterpreted by religiousites, but as a scientific principal and fact. We have all the evidence we need to demonstrate and explain a thoery like evolution which makes perfect sense, and ee have NO scientific evidence for "god".
HOWEVER, I am interested in the accuracy of that aforementioned survey, as my experience has been that the academic world within sectors which actually further mankind (Such as medicine, applied science, psychology and technology) there is more like 2% creationists. I also noticed that Oklahoma is one of the states on that list, and I worked 9 months in Oklahoma in the mid 90's so I am not too suprised there.
The OP is correct, we need to oppose things like this, but the first place we need to be doing it is at home. Our children see us as rolemodels and teachers, and we as parents have a responsibility to teach our kids how to think, how to use reason and how to explore. My experience has been that people who do have some degree of intellegence and explore creationism vs evolution almost always follow evolution because they can see that the facts and the reasoning points to that. the others follow creationism, either out of fear, lack of understanding (Intellegence) or failure to truly understand evolution.
And honestly, the few creationsits that I know personally, in real liffe, are not the brightest people around. None of them have anything past a high school education, and none would be mensa material.
As I stated before in this forum, "separation of church and state" is NOT in the constitution of the United States but IS in the constitution of the former USSR. I think you have your constitutions mixed up.
As if our public educational system hasn't already devolved into a wasteland of stupidity,
I agree, it's been headed that way since the early 1960s
we are subject to the whims of religious right lawmakers and literally doomed for generations.
no, actually for the past 30 or so years the "religious right" has been subject to the whims of the "atheistic left" Just look at all of the recent lawsuits against christianity and all of the organizations that have sprung up to remove any symbol of religion from the public place
I'm "godless" and proud of it.
Good for you. Let others be proud of what they are and not have to suffer your wrath.
Four US states considering laws that challenge teaching of evolution
Why does this scare you if, as you believe, evolution is emperically correct? All the creationists want is equal time to present their views. If your views (evolution) are so unchallengable then this will be evident, won't it? You may counter and say "that's what religious schools are for". Well, true but religious schools are not funded with taxpayer dollars. If we had a true voucher system in this country they would be. But if they want to send their children to a religious school, they have to pay for it AND still fund the secular schools. Why not teach BOTH sides of the argument and let them decide? Or give the religious leaning a chance to opt out of funding secular schools and have a true voucher system.
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