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"Creationist textbooks are garbage" as expected
- Thread starter NotTheGuyYouKill
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StealthGoblin
Banned
Woah Woah Woah. Advanced? I'd argue the UK is more advanced due to its secularism. I'll give you powerful, but advanced, nope. There are other countries who are a lot more advanced in schools of thought than the US as a whole.
Stuff like this would be lambasted in the UK. By the vast majority of the populace.
NullPointer
Member
But what about Uranus?
It's like it's trying to give me brain cancer.
PastorOfMuppets
Banned
Is there a sociological reason that can explain why while all other Western countries have seen a decline in the importance of religion in daily life, America has swung the opposite way?
Freshmaker
I am Korean.
We never had a bunch of Holy Wars?
A political party that centers on identity politics made it a major part of their platform.
it hasn't. America is becoming gradually more secular thanks to demographics - but our Federation of States contains noisy and influential retards.
NullPointer
Member
Fear will keep the local systems in line.
Devolution
Member
God is the very definition of ego in some religions. "We're so special." We're a fucking dust mite in God's vast closet of shit. Get over yourselves.
NullPointer
Member
I still say things would be a lot simpler and better if we just straight-up revered the Sun.
A cosmology textbook would do.
A cosmology textbook would do.
Devolution
Member
It's more regional than to make it a sweep across the country. My generation in the regions I live in are barely religious.
speculawyer
Member
I don't think anyone knows but ironically, it may be our lack of a state religion. A state church like the Church of England is so pathetic that people reject.
NullPointer
Member
As an American its as darkly hilarious as seeing some crazy surgical mishap x-ray util you realize that circular saw is actually stuck up your own colon.
Manmademan
Member
Even before this, you can trace things back to the red scare.
Atheism was equated with Communists and the Soviets, and Christianity with Democracy and America. This wasn't a one party thing, either. It's this era that inserted "in god we trust" on the money etc as a reflection of that.
Since then the republican party (which promotes a fictional version of 1950s era values as "real america") has REALLY latched onto this view that America is and always has been fundamentally christian- largely to pander to evangelical christians who tend to congregate in the south. As someone else noted, the northeast and pacific northwest aren't particularly religious at all.
It certainly seems that way to the casual outside observer.
Lately America's cultural relevance appears to have been reduced to religion, the entertainment industry and war.
Complistic
Member
This has to be a joke.
Yep, much for me too. It's like having that saw up into my sigmoid colon. I'm literally so full of shit but there is no exit to the anus so I'm stuck with it, eventually suffering from toxicity. :/
Manmademan
Member
Hmm..I dunno, Obama is still extremely popular abroad as a world leader and symbol of "america."
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
Well that was one way to kill my neurons.
How dare you forget our contribution to culinary excellence:
I forgot fast food!
That too, we do have a pretty permanent hard-on for Obama.
StealthGoblin
Banned
He seems retrograde to what most people conceive as 'America' though. He doesn't come across as a religious, gun-toting, war-mongering nutter. He isn't a symbol of America at all. He is a symbol of 'thank fuck that other dick didn't get in'. Obama would have won a landslide victory in the UK. We are talking 90%+.
The existence of matter evolved? The fuck?? Don't you mean the existence of organisms?
So I know that creationists constantly confuse evolution with abiogenesis, but confusing the process of evolution with the origin of matter?
The problem with shit like this, and part of the reason why it's just so damn hard for anyone to take it seriously, is that they don't even understand what they are arguing against.
Manmademan
Member
You're missing the point. No, Obama isn't a religious, gun toting, war mongering nut- he's a reminder that we used to elect people better than that before George W Bush, (really, that's a very recent thing..none of the presidents before him were this bad) as well as the walking personification that "the american dream" isn't complete bullshit.
A minority son of an immigrant growing up to become president of the united states? The dude was drawing tens of thousands in europe before he was even elected in 08.
The first amendment doesn't protect the freedom for teachers to teach children lies and half truths that fit a political agenda.
In the private sector? Sure, go nuts with your 6,000 year earth. As a society, we need to denounce these organisations who are intelllectually handicaping thousands of children and retarding their educational development by giving them the burden if "christian science". Getting backlash from brainwashed parents is one thing, but if it can get kids to the point where they asking questions and digging deeper into the scientific method and why it is more viable than "christian science", they can at least be saved from the vicious ignorance cycle. If there is any confrontation on this issue, it is worth any backlash, because it is completely absurd to condone or simply dissaprove from a distance the immorality of fillings kids heads with garbage.
In the public sector, these kinds of books should be banned. No organization funded by taxpayers should spend public money to purchase political and religious propaganda. Even if you argue that a school should not ban books (again, first amendment doesn't protect public school teachers from freely teaching BS) , the curiculum must be upheld to a certain standard, and teachers must be accountable if they feed false or misleading information to children. Creationism does not even come close to that standard, and has no place in a school.
StealthGoblin
Banned
My point is that he isn't seen as a symbol of 'America' at all. He seems counter to what most foreign countries perceive as American values. He's popular in Europe because he doesn't fit the European view of 'America'.
The default European view of America is 'Gun-toting, bullying, irrational religious nut-job'. This is how it is right now.
Obama therefore, is refreshing.
Republicans really have destroyed America's image. The fact that the most recent election was as close as it was (by European standards) really does emphasise that America is one hell of a messed up place.
Giants: what if?
Europe dumped most of their religious nuts to America.
UnluckyKate
Member
How did the egyptians and other civilization before them build pyramids and such without Jesus or god ? what is the christian saying about this ?
My favorite one is where they do a mock-up of the X-Files, and they replace Scully with some dinosaur suit guy called "Scaly". And it's all overacted to a hilarious point. Too bad there are actual kids out there learning with that kind of material.
Whats sad is some religious parents think that further education from say going to college or universities is bad and that its bad for their kids. Reminds me of the US Governor or whatever that said that kids shouldnt get higher education since its evil or some shit.
Some people man...
Some people man...
speculawyer
Member
The whole idea of creationism has been baffling to me. If the righties want to incorporate religion in public schools, aren't there better, more subtle ways to go about it? I mean, trying to pass off what's basically a bunch of Bible stories in a science class seemed like a pretty easy way to get shot down.
Glad someone else noticed this... that table is so much more painful than it even seems at first glance.
That was the idea behind the Intelligent Design movement as far as I understand: secularise the religiously inspired young earth creationism into these pseudo-scientific forms, then acting like there is a genuine scientific debate between evolution theory and ID, leading to both sides needed to be represented in the classroom.
Fuck me lol I can't even begain to understand how someone could believe this.
Yeah that's what ID is for. In this day and age you wouldn't see this textbook in a public school class room (at least not likely). These people have lost so many battles that they have had to go into the Intelligent Design ruse which uses the same arguments, but doesn't say Christian God. Hell the ID "god" could be aliens... but they would not be satisfied with that. I wouldn't be either because I would like education int he science class room to be based on evidence. After the ID lost an important court case in 05 these people have had to put forth bills asking for things like "teaching the strengths and weaknesses of evolution" which are getting some headway with conservative governors and school boards. Of course they don't ask to teach the weaknesses of gravity and other things that don't contradict their particular religious dogma.
I think it is fine to expect different rights to pertain to parents in different situations. In a religious country I would have an expectation that devolving the choice of education to parents would enhance the rationalism of the populace. In a secular democratic country, leaving it up to parents would do the reverse I think. It does not have to be a one size fits all solution. In a democratic system parents can still influence curriculum, all they have to do is vote, use their freedom of speech, and get off their arse if they care about it. Willingly giving your children false information, information that can be shown to be false, especially under the guise of science, is penalising that kid for life. The smartest kid in the world will struggle to rejoin mainstream science after 18 years of creationism. Is it impossible for them? Of course not, but handicapping your child like that is abominable.
I'm sure there are those on the Creationist side who knowingly and purposefully conflate evolution with the Big Bang in an effort to make the scientific view seem absurd. Ray Comfort for example does this constantly as a one sentence way to get to "Atheists believe in nothing".
But if you think about it from an average Creationist's standpoint the appearance of matter, solar system, the existence of life, and the diversity of life did all emerge from the same "event" and source. Going from that position to considering one (or indeed several theories) they can't comprehend and don't even want to understand, it is easy to see how they can easily and erroneously conflate evolution, abiogenesis, cosmology and the Big Bang.
Given how dismissive Creationists can be of science it sure is frustrating trying to correct their falsely held beliefs. And downright infuriating when someone like Ray Comfort continues to peddle his misinformation and flawed arguments when he has been shown the error in them countless times.
And that's the real damage here. By creating feelings of fear and guilt while engendering mistrust in science and the scientific method itself, what is established in a single Creationist summer camp could take years of schooling to undo, if it is ever undone at all.
Rhomega Beta
Member
And what, pray, would be the policy for conjoined animals ?
Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSDb7iBTg70
Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZqh12MKOcE
Enjoy. Grab some popcorn, sit back, and relax. You're in for over 2 hours of grade A entertainment. He has another great 2 hour seminar on the science of young Earth creationism and how evolution is a lie, too. Great stuff. It's like this book, but in video form, and with a guy much more up his own ass. This guy ended up going to prison for tax evasion and for building a biblical dinosaur theme park without proper paperwork.
A big thing that bugs me about these kinds of religious people is that they give credit to an imaginary being for no good reason. Why does the universe need to be created? If god doesn't need to be created, couldn't it be that the universe has just always existed in some form or another? I find that god takes away from how amazing the world is and from the accomplishments of mankind.
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