Posted on 12/28/2005 3:49:52 AM PST by PatrickHenry
US. District Judge John E. Jones III's decision to bar the teaching of ''intelligent design'' in the Dover, Pa., public school district on grounds that it is a thinly veiled effort to introduce a religious view of the world's origins is welcome for at least two reasons.
First, it exposes the sham attempt to take through the back door what proponents have no chance of getting through the front door. Jones rebuked advocates of ''intelligent design,'' saying they repeatedly lied about their true intentions. He noted that many of them had said publicly that their intent was to introduce into the schools a biblical account of creation. Jones properly wondered how people who claim to have such strong religious convictions could lie, thus violating prohibitions in the book that they proclaim as their source of truth and standard for living.
Culture has long passed by advocates of intelligent design, school prayer and numerous other beliefs and practices that were once tolerated, even promoted, in public education. People who think that they can reclaim the past have been watching too many repeats of Leave it to Beaver on cable television. Those days are not coming back anytime soon, if at all.
Culture, including the culture of education, now opposes what it once promoted or at least tolerated. The secular left, which resists censorship in all its forms when it comes to sex, library books and assigned materials that teach the ''evils'' of capitalism and ''evil America,'' is happy to censor any belief that can be tagged ``religious.''
Jones' ruling will be appealed and after it is eventually and predictably upheld by a Supreme Court dominated by Republican appointees (Jones was named to the federal bench by President Bush, who has advocated the teaching of creation), those who have tried to make the state do its job for them will have yet another opportunity to wise up.
This leads to the second reason for welcoming Jones' ruling. It should awaken religious conservatives to the futility of trying to make a secular state reflect their beliefs. Too many people have wasted too much time and money since the 1960s, when prayer and Bible reading were outlawed in public schools, trying to get these and a lot of other things restored. The modern secular state should not be expected to teach Genesis 1, or any other book of the Bible, or any other religious text.
That the state once did such things, or at least did not undermine what parents taught their children, is irrelevant. The culture in which we now live no longer reflects the beliefs of our grandparents' generation.
For better, or for worse (and a strong case can be made that things are much worse), people who cling to the beliefs of previous generations have been given another chance to do what they should have been doing all along.
Religious parents should exercise the opportunity that has always been theirs. They should remove their children from state schools with their ''instruction manuals'' for turning them into secular liberals and place them in private schools -- or home school them -- where they will be taught the truth, according to their parents' beliefs. Too many parents who would never send their children to a church on Sunday that taught doctrines they believed to be wrong have had no problem placing them in state schools five days a week where they are taught conflicting doctrines and ideas.
Private schools or home schooling costs extra money (another reason to favor school choice) and extra time, but what is a child worth? Surely, a child is more valuable than material possessions.
Our children are our letters to the future. It's up to parents to decide whether they want to send them ''first class'' or ``postage due.''
Rulings such as this should persuade parents who've been waffling to take their kids and join the growing exodus from state schools into educational environments more conducive to their beliefs.
Most public schools are so bad I recommend that parents either home-school or private-school their children if at all possible. Leftist, multicultural, and anti-American indoctrination are just a part of the problem. The child will simply not be taught what they need to know. As an example- the amount of time and energy my husband and I have spent supplementing and 're-educating' our kids would have been better spent teaching them correctly in the first place.
After reading this piece by a Christian conservative columnist, I just have to wonder: WWDDD (What Would Dr. Dino Do)? If Kent Hovind wants to make the big bucks, he should open up a chain of ID schools and lead an exodus from the public school system.
A win-win for everyone. Public schools could teach real science without interference, Dr. Dino could teach for tuition, and Christian parents would be happy to pay for the replacement of science courses with religious beliefs.
"In the origin of species debate, not only do the evolutionist deny the holes in their explanation, they deny the right to question these gaps."
Nonsense. Evolutionists are always questioning their theories. ID simply isn't a scientific claim; why compound the imperfection of the Theory of Evolution with the horse manure that is ID?
There is a trick to this. Move to a location that has the best public schools in your state. Your child gets an excellent education and you don't pay the stupid tax (private school tuition on top of subsidizing the public school with tax dollars). Not happy with the best in your state? Move to the best school district in a state that has better schools. Works every time.
Public schools often harm children. My son was taught "whole language" reading. It left him unable to read and the damage took years to fix.
$10,000.00 per student per year to attend schools established by the government for the promotion of atheism. Sounds good to me.
"Move to the best school district in a state that has better schools. Works every time."
Except when they bus your kids about an hour a way in order to promote *diversity*.
I will add Cal Thomas to my 'Sane-list' of pundits such as George Will and Krauthhamer.
By definition, the best school district will not bus your kids to promote diversity. And to reiterate, if the best school in your state isn't good enough, relocate to a state that has better public schools. Works every time.
When I've heard their intentions and lengthy explanations of their reasons for doing so, from their own mouths, I'd say that my assessment of them is accurate. And it's more than just a personal anecdote, it's a cultural trend, thanks to the Culture of Death, where children are an unacceptable inconvenience to the pursuit of materialism and hedonism.
I've seen that. If one neighborhood school is doing well compared to others, the school board will re-draw the lines, so that the students from the successful school will be spread around to the failing schools, and vice versa, thus "improving" the failing schools and destroying the successful school.
This argument only seems to make sense to creationists. There are atheists who believe in evolution, but they are atheists for other reasons.
Science gets accused of this every time it finds natural processes responsible for something previously attributed to the will of gods -- disease, floods, storms, earthquakes, crop failures.
" By definition, the best school district will not bus your kids to promote diversity."
It happens though. You move to a nice, expensive area, with an excellent local school. Then the government says that your child has to go to the rundown school on the other side of town, to promote diversity. You either accept that or send your children to private schools.
"And to reiterate, if the best school in your state isn't good enough, relocate to a state that has better public schools. Works every time."
Accept when they don't let your kids go to the best schools because they want to promote *diversity*.
Public schools, like science and its definitions, are for everybody, not just atheists.
I tend to agree with you.
So long as my tax dollars are taken to fund government education I am responsible in part for the results. Sadly the results have been quite expensive known as cradle to grave dependents.
Well, move to a state like Utah or Vermont where there isn't diversity.
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