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To run a business or even an engineering department, no.
What the hey? I'm not the one saying that! I have not made one post that asserts that. (Responding as Cleonidas was responding to me [above] and you responded to her as if I think Texas is teaching evolution and who knows what else.)
Allow me to correct-I meant creationism, not evolution.
I agree, and I'm Catholic as well (nominally at least). Catholics never struck me as the literalists that the Baptists and Pentacostals are. I never understand how people can believe everything in the Bible is to be taken literally when one book will completely contradict another book.
I went to a Baptist school for my senior year of high school back in the '80s. When we got our brand new geography textbooks, the teacher told us to mark out the introductory paragraph because it referenced the Big Bang Theory. When I told her I believed in evolution and the Big Bang theory, or at least that I was open to the ideas and still could believe in God, she told me that the Earth is only 7,000 years old and the Bible was written by God so every word was true.
We have those people here, but I believe the vast majority aren't like that.
Hey, hey, now... I grew up in non-SBC Baptist schools in a non-SBC Baptist family and never experienced anything like that. Won a couple of science fairs in middle school though...
See, it works like this: Jewish people do not recognize Jesus as the messiah, protestants don't recognize the pope as the head of the church and Baptists do not recognize eachother in the liquor store.
Seriously though, another tenet of the Baptist faith is that every congregation is completely autonomous and under no obligation or direction from any organizational body. In other words, every single Baptist church is going to be very different and will essentially have the disposition of the pastor and the congregation... Unless they are affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, which is more of a political platform than anything else these days.
I go to church and bible study afterwards, but no one is getting anywhere near my kids with the 6,000 year old earth lesson. I've met and had discussions with people who seriously refused to accept that humans are apes, that mammals descended from synapsid reptile ancestors, that there was a lot more time between the first dinosaurs and the last T-Rex than there was between the last T-Rex and the first modern humans... But I'm sure they didn't get that way because of the Texas educational system.
I'd say the public school should not teach any creation myths, and they don't at my kids' school. If they teach the myths, they teach them as myths or religious teachings in English (Greek Mythology) or Social Studies (religions of the world).
Yea, that's why I think comparative religion would be a good class to teach. It could touch on the main current religions, newly developing ones, extinct ones and discuss atheism and agnosticism. Put them into context of the human race, not just a part of the human race living at a particular zipcode. For example, most people in the world are not Christians.
The religious right wanting to teach all the "alternatives" would love this idea of course. So the plan is, "ok we'll teach creationism in the new comparative religions class."
Yea, that's why I think comparative religion would be a good class to teach. It could touch on the main current religions, newly developing ones, extinct ones and discuss atheism and agnosticism. Put them into context of the human race, not just a part of the human race living at a particular zipcode. For example, most people in the world are not Christians.
The religious right wanting to teach all the "alternatives" would love this idea of course.
There's a thread on the religion forum about this right now. Did you not take such a course? I did in Jr. high, I don't remember if it was 7th or 8th grade; it was not an elective. My kids also studied world religions in high school.
I work for a school district and I'm in and out of classrooms all day long. I've heard some of this being taught in class and respectfully call the teachers out on it. It's amazing how those teachers stick to what's said in the book even if they don't agree with it. They have to teach it because that's what's in the book.
America is falling behind in education and this is one reason why. If we are going to compete globally we need to take it seriously instead of looking the other way while this kind of stuff goes on. Otherwise we'll become a third world theocratic society and no one wants that. Well, no one with any sense that is.
I say in the past we did much better. with tradition nation was founded on. But I agree let individual states decide as constitution gave the states. Some want more anti-religion; others want to keep tradition of religion and not whatever turns you on.
I went to a Catholic school. We learned about Darwin and evolution in Science and Genesis in Religion.
In religion we discussed their compatibility and to this day I still remember it.
One day in the biblical sense can equate to thousands of years if not more.
In the Bible each "day" represented a span of evolution.
And in the Bible the last creation by God was man.
And this was a Catholic school, not afraid to teach both and not afraid to discuss and find how they could coexist in your mind.
It's the extremists at either end that cannot accept both.
The Catholic religion teaches that evolution is not necessarily in conflict with the Genesis account, and it is completely fine for believers to accept it.
I have absolutely no problem with science books teaching evolution, but I do have a problem with them teaching it with no proof. Showing that each species has evolved over time is not proof for evolution from one species to another. Talking about similarity in DNA is also not proof as we have no idea why DNA is so similar.
There's a thread on the religion forum about this right now. Did you not take such a course? I did in Jr. high, I don't remember if it was 7th or 8th grade; it was not an elective. My kids also studied world religions in high school.
The Catholic religion teaches that evolution is not necessarily in conflict with the Genesis account, and it is completely fine for believers to accept it.
I have absolutely no problem with science books teaching evolution, but I do have a problem with them teaching it with no proof. Showing that each species has evolved over time is not proof for evolution from one species to another. Talking about similarity in DNA is also not proof as we have no idea why DNA is so similar.
Yes, why does every living being on this planet have DNA as its genetic information (or RNA for the few). Its a big mystery. Its like they all came from a single common ancestor or something ridiculous like that.
If you believe that there is a God, and that he intends for things to happen, directs them, or just sets them in motion, then clearly evolution was his tool for the diversity of life. What a spectacular, intricate, brilliant fantastic mechanism He created - its genius! He gave us dinosaurs with feathers - but we only just found them recently, his miracles are slowly revealing themselves. He gave whales hand bones when they would never grip or walk again in the sea, and made them breathe air because they came from land ancestors - not like the fish who breathe the oxygen in the water. He set up a mechanism that would lead to new dominant species as the environment changed dramatically. So, so clever.
Plus, how could evolution not happen once he'd set up self-replicating molecules that encode information but sometimes mutate? If genes (singular and in combination) can control shape, color, size, length, and more and more as is increasingly being understood, and occasional mutations occur in the DNA passed onto to each generation (no-one denies that), how is it possible that what turns out to be advantageous mutations (and the accompanying physical and physiological changes) not be carried forward. (This is a numbers game of course, any one individual with an advantageous characteristic could simply get run down by a woolly mammoth for example before they bred). The only way it could not happen if is something magically stopped it.
Except it's not silly. Many textbooks are written for Texas and sold nationwide, because Texas and California are the biggest markets
When this goes to print, feel free to panic.
*hint - it's not going to happen*
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