Texas may start teaching against Evolution in high schools...

[0ni0n]

...creationism ....(is) how a certain segment of the population believes the world began, not the fundamentals of said religion.

Will you have problems with school teaching Islam, Buddhism, or Judaism in biology class?

[Tomk]

Political stunt.

It would be a nightmare for them if it went through. They would have to teach all of the heathen religions too. That would be funny.

Edit: beaten by an Onion

[Dimmauk]

And this is why Texas is officially the shittiest state in America. Fuck that redneck piece of shit state. Fuck you super Texas fanati-fags that think your state is anything more than an inbreed waste of resources and land that gave america nothing but Waco massacre and the Bush administration.

But seriously, lolTexas.

Incoming shit storm of Texans.

I agree that this is stupid, but to condemn an entire State because of what some dumbass lawmakers are trying to do is just retarded. Coming from you I'm not surprised.

Show me in the Constitution where it specifically says "Separation of Church and State", and as said in the article a large percent of the population finds the theory of evolution to be taught. Also, I have a lot of friends that are teachers here in Texas, and most of them just breeze through the whole subject in less than a day because of the drama.

Teaching creationism isn't trying to convert people to one religion or another, it's teaching how a certain segment of the population believes the world began, not the fundamentals of said religion.

Its not the Science teachers job to teach what a certain segment of people beleive.

[Plow]

I don't think it's that terrible to point out that intelligent design is not an entirely scientific theory at this point.

Don't get me wrong, I agree completely. I don't think any of the teaching should be religious based at all.

I'm just pointing out that it shouldn't be taught as a scientific law when it's not, either.

[MarkM.]

Will you have problems with school teaching Islam, Buddhism, or Judaism in biology class?

No, because it teaches what is viewed as how people believe the world was created. I was actually taught this where I went to school. And also, Judaism and Islam pretty much fall in line with Christianity on how the world began...

[Dimmauk]

Will you have problems with school teaching Islam, Buddhism, or Judaism in biology class?

They should teach all religions creation stories in biology class. I'm worried we will lose good teachers cause they wont teach this bullshit.

[MarkM.]

Don't get me wrong, I agree completely. I don't think any of the teaching should be religious based at all.

I'm just pointing out that it shouldn't be taught as a scientific law when it's not, either.

This is pretty much what I was going for, Plow said it better than I did.

[0ni0n]

No, because it teaches what is viewed as how people believe the world was created. I was actually taught this where I went to school. And also, Judaism and Islam pretty much fall in line with Christianity on how the world began...

How about Scientology and Mormonism? And you were taught to think for yourself and disregard the scientific knowledge in the last 500 years in biology class?

[Tristam]

Don't get me wrong, I agree completely. I don't think any of the teaching should be religious based at all.

I'm just pointing out that it shouldn't be taught as a scientific law when it's not, either.

You're right, it's not a law, it's more powerful and has better explanatory power than a law, which is why it's a scientific theory.

Also if you want to teach grade school kids the finer points of evolutionary biology and where the interesting questions still exist, that's pretty much impossible to do without a very very strong (college level) background in the sciences.

[Tristam]

No, because it teaches what is viewed as how people believe the world was created. I was actually taught this where I went to school. And also, Judaism and Islam pretty much fall in line with Christianity on how the world began...

Nothing in anything you've said is science, why should it be taught in science class and not sunday school?

[Norellicus]

The article is pretty ambiguous; if the curriculum is simply challenging the undisputed fact of the Darwinian principles, then it's what it should be. What Texas should not be doing is saying "Evolution is wrong, we were created by a single all-powerful deity, lolscience".

Darwin's theories are so full of holes and assumptions it's shameful to even think they're considered the gold standard by which modern biology is held to. And intelligent design aside, it's have to be the most amazing coincidence ever for a single atomic cataclysm to generate a bunch of self-reliant, self-redundant organic systems like us.

The bibles doesn't even say the world is less than 10,000 years old and specifically states that the world existed before Genesis 1:2

That's a matter of interpretation. The system of time we use today wasn't created until 1582, so trying to retroactively apply concepts of time to any period before that is sketchy at best, and carbon dating has no practical frame of reference that we ourselves didn't come up with, so it's not necessarily reliable either. The 7 "days" of creation could have been millennia as easily as 7 24 hour periods. Since Genesis was clearly imbued upon the Bible's first authors and not a firsthand eyewitness account, it's hard to say who's perspective we're actually getting of it; not to mention the countless translations the texts have gone through over the years, from Arameic to Greek to Latin to German to English.

[Tristam]

Darwin's theories are so full of holes and assumptions it's shameful to even think they're considered the gold standard by which modern biology is held to. And intelligent design aside, it's have to be the most amazing coincidence ever for a single atomic cataclysm to generate a bunch of self-reliant, self-redundant organic systems like us.

Darwin's theories were incomplete (he had no knowledge of genetics), and of course he got alot wrong, but he got some very important things correct and even touched on sexual selection, which is why he is honored with the theory (that and science rewards primacy). Edit: and they're not any sort of gold standard, we've gone so far beyond what Darwin (and others) discovered that it's literally absurd to be having this "debate" about teaching evolution.

Also, I find it amazingly coincidental that you and I are both posting on this message board. Can you imagine? Out of all the atoms and people in the universe that of all possible things you and I could be posting on a message board at this very instant at this space in the universe? The odds of this very thing happening simply boggle the mind, in fact they are so unlikely I suggest that you in fact do not exist.

[Norellicus]

Don't patronize me. To simply accept the idea of how our organic structures came about eschews all accepted laws of physics and entropy. So either we've always existed (albeit as single-cell organisms), or something started the process. I'm willing to accept it if it was just a huge accident, it's not impossible; just improbable.

[BerenTebogo]

Starting a petition to teach Protection from the Dark Arts in public high school Biology classes as well.

I mean we're just making this shit up as we go along right? Should at least pick up a patronus (sp?) charm or two.

[JigglyJam]

I believe the world is flat, I demand that this viewpoint be taught in geography class.

[Tristam]

Don't patronize me. To simply accept the idea of how our organic structures came about eschews all accepted laws of physics and entropy. So either we've always existed (albeit as single-cell organisms), or something started the process. I'm willing to accept it if it was just a huge accident, it's not impossible; just improbable.

I'm not patronizing, you state that life and biological organization is coincidental, when everything we know about it states quite firmly that it is not. Nothing about the origin of replicators and then life suggests that it goes against physics or entropy, in fact we can come up with some very good ideas (and evidence) while staying quite nicely within the natural laws. There is a very very big difference between improbable, and coincidental.

[Yeager]

I also want my kids to learn how to turn water into wine in home economics class, for me to drink of course.

[Dimmauk]

They should teach what really happened, Aliens mixed their DNA with apes as an experiment, and made Humans. This is why there is no missing link. I bet the Aliens were glad God made apes on Earth for them.

[Zhais]

I have nothing wrong against them presenting 'creationism' or 'evolution' as ways of thought or opposing arguments (even when one is undoubtedly wrong >_>)... but not one at the direct expense of another.

If you are going to encourage critical thinking, you teach both ideas fully without pointing out holes, and encourage the students to think for themselves.


Or, in the end, just don't fucking teach religion in a biology class.

[Yeager]

Or, in the end, just don't fucking teach religion in a biology class.

/thread