Posted on 07/11/2008 8:06:50 AM PDT by rhema
Truly great news! Thanks for posting this!!!
Hallelujah! The dogmatists are on the run. Were you impressed by the scare tactics and loaded words used to support the idea that high school students are so dumb and pliable, they must be indoctrinated into lily-white evolutionary truths lest their pure minds get corrupted by evil religious ideas? Were you attracted by the tender vitriol of their hate speech?
This is how you make freedom look dangerous. You characterize the ones calling for freedom as evil. Those sneaky, creepy (05/22/2008), creationists are just angry they lost at Dover. So in retaliation, they look for new ways to set brush fires and wreak havoc on civilization (cf. 11/30/2005). Thus black is white and white is black. (Be sure to throw in a few big lies wherever needed, like defining ID incorrectly, mischaracterizing the Supreme Court ruling [it does not prevent teaching creation science but only laws that require teaching creation equally alongside evolution], and claiming there is no controversy among evolutionists; see 03/07/2008. Also, keep holding up the Dover decision – an ACLU-plagiarized ruling by one unelected judge in one Pennsylvania school district – as the standard of jurisprudence for the entire world.)
Evolution, of course, is so “scientific” that it is the only contender for a science class ( 06/03/2008). And of course, evolutionists have no bias or agenda (06/21/2008, 04/13/2008). Why, those evolutionists, they are so smart, and so logical (04/14/2008, 03/12/2008) they know for a fact that people have bacteria ancestors (03/20/2008, 02/22/2008). They only tell the honest truth (03/06/2008). Their math is so good they get the whole universe out of nothing (01/15/2008). Yes, we must protect students from challenges to those natural truths. Nothing supernatural about their miracles. And they just lo-o-o-o-o-ve the people of Louisiana (04/09/2008). They would never do legal maneuvering and play politics to sneak around the will of the people (02/20/2008).
The dogmatists can’t win through the democratic process and town hall or through open debate on the evidence, so they use the courtroom and special-interest PACs. To enforce their will on the people, they get unelected judges to tell us what science is, and get the ACLU and Americans United for “Separation of Church and State” (a misleading slogan, more properly United Against Academic Freedom) to slap parents, teachers and students with budget-busting lawsuits (intimidation, e.g., 01/06/2007). Who has been setting those brush fires? No wonder the people at the Louisiana hearing were wearing stickers, clapping, cheering and standing in the aisles. No longer will they have to stay after class with Ben Stein, covering the chalkboard with “I will not question Darwinism.”
Let’s keep the pressure on Barb till she emigrates to a country she would really enjoy – Cuba. There, she can stand and clap for little Elian Gonzalez – you remember the little boy denied freedom in America and captured at gunpoint and shipped to Castro’s evolutionary heaven? Now, eight years older (high school age) and sufficiently indoctrinated with the consensus view, Elian is a proud young member of the Communist Youth Brigade (see New York Times). He promised he will never let down the murderous Castro dictators. Enough to make Forrest clap, cheer and stand in the aisle! Sufficiently programmed, Gonzalez will have all the academic freedom he wants to be a good, loyal communist on an island where alternative views are systematically excluded. Maybe he can debate (with his professional academic freedom) controversial topics like whether an annual pro-communist rally should be held on Fidel’s birthday or on Raul’s. See? We’re only trying to alleviate the anxiety that is wearing Barbara Forrest down. Why not take your services to a place where they would be appreciated?
After reading the anti-ID smear piece on New Scientist, take a refreshing intellectual shower. Read John West’s piece on National Review celebrating the fact that neo-Darwinism is no longer a protected orthodoxy in Bayou country. He explains what academic freedom is really all about. If you agree, get to work against the Darwin-only-Darwin-only DODOs in your state.
Next headline on: Education • Evolution • Origin of Life • Intelligent Design • Politics and Ethics
Not a very auspicious return, eh?
Populism is NOT conservative, nor did the founding fathers have any kind words for it either, which is why they set up a republican system of checks and balances to protect us against the swinish (and fickle) multitude.
Also, just wondering,
do you consider people like Cynthia McKinney and Ma(r)xine Waters
to be of that particularly smart, elite class of folks that are so much more enlightened than the rest of us dumb people raising families,
that they should be able to make the decisions for those families?
No.
If you want to argue science then become a scientist. Theories and evidence are incredibly difficult things to master.
While theories are ALWAYS tentative, it's a terrible mistake to think they aren't useful and better than their predecessors...so children and others must be taught as much as they can absorb by QUALIFIED people who understand what science is all about.
“We all come from God” is far from self-evident and, to non-believers like me, is, at best, complete nonsense, and, at worst, blatant propaganda for a type of thinking I don't like.
I think both of them are far more qualified than their constituents, those who elected them. Just as they're supposed to be.
I've never met McKinney but I have had some dealings with Maxine Waters. I don't agree with her, I don't like her, but I'd say she's more knowledgeable about government and smarter about most things than the majority of the citizenry.
I have a masters in science from RPI. Blow me.
I was testing my new HTML skills. I figured out what the problem was...but thanks for your concern.
More likely from a “firm” which advertises on FOX. You know, “Get a degree in 30 days while sleeping.” Think that’s harsh? You don’t realize how much ignorance your original post to me revealed.
Let’s just say I consider them, charitably, about as able to make decisions for others as a... zuchini.
This is damn well why gov’t, and people like this, SHOULD NOT have the power to make decisions for me and my family.
Considering that you ARE a lib, you probably believe that I should just submit my family to folks like these “greater wisdom”.
The subject of this thread is the teaching of evolution. It's become a problem because its an area where science calls into question some basic religious dogma. You want to discard the science on the grounds that you have the right to teach your kids whatever you wish (spare me the fig leaves, obfuscation, and legal mumbo-jumbo).
Lets say I agree with that. Where does society draw the line? If I subscribe to a religion which forbids the teaching of reading, language, mathematics, English do I have the right to ask the schools not to teach them? What about laws? Do I have the right to disobey them if my religion or culture are in conflict? We've already been through that with the Mormons and polygamy. The issue was settled by force. Ditto slavery and the South.
Basically, what you're demanding is priority for your religious beliefs. That can't be allowed in a pluralistic society like ours. Evolutionary science is just like any other part of science, its our best estimate of the workings of nature. Our best, not our final word, and certainly not nature itself. It's in the best interest of your kids, our kids, all kids to understand science, the scientific methods, the latest scientific findings. You'll have to adjust your religious beliefs to that reality.
"Folks like these?" What does that mean? These folks were elected by the people according to the rules of the game. Their actions are governed by those rules as interpreted by others folks (judges) who obtained their positions in a similar way.
Do you think you have the right to disobey anytime you disagree with them? Or dislike them? I don't. We have police and armies to deal with such disobedience.
You don't find fault with the system when those in power do things your way, do you? In fact, you extol it as the best system in the world.
Disgusting.
That’s what it always comes down, to, isn’t it, lib?
You’re willing to KILL ME if I don’t allow your values to be shoved down my throat and if I choose to raise my children in a way that you disagree with.
You don't have the slightest idea of what being a good citizen is, do you?
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