Jesus Arm-Wrestled Dinosaurs
A recent ABC poll reports that 16% of U.S. science teachers are Creationists, and worse, one in eight of them admit to teaching Creationism as a kind of valid science in their classrooms .
There is such a thing as too much tolerance. Those of us born after 1980 were raised on a sugary diet of time-outs, love-ins, and diversity seminars. We are encouraged to discuss our feeling and always, always value the beliefs of our fellow citizens. As a result, America is a padded multicultural nation where every creed, ideology, and puny belief basks beneath the gentle rays of Credibility. After all, it's better to accept everything than risk excluding someone, somewhere.
Liberty's eagerness to clutch even the most retched, mutated gimp of a philosophy to her bosom sometimes results in absurd declarations getting absorbed into the national dialog. We begin to treat utter bullshit like truth.
This policy of tongue-kissing intellectual opponents who hold beliefs different than the status-quo is usually acceptable, oftentimes remarkable, and definitely essential in a democracy. Though, lurking in the shadows is the inevitable backlash of this institutionalized tolerance.
Institutionalized tolerance makes it taboo to condemn the practice of teachers teaching Creationism in the classroom. This intellectually bankrupt curriculum needs to be condemned because believing in a creator doesn't make it true. It's not true because no one can prove it's true. Belief is the opposite of science, which is knowledge attained through study or practice. Students can study the behavior of bacteria, plants, and animals, but God -- along with all deities -- belongs in the philosophy and religious studies classrooms.
Any other handling of religion vs. science is dangerous. The two must remain separate so we can continue to enjoy learned doctors and engineers, and not suffer from the constant paranoia that the lady operating on our brain, or the dude fixing our plane's engine, is a Jesus Kid who never went to college.
Some argue that Creationism is a legitimate spiritual alternative to the intellectual argument of Science. Except, the two aren't a ying-yang presentation of reality. Creationism is a theory. Science is real. The majority of sane individuals in this country have a duty to condemn crazy, fringe beliefs instead of incorporating them into educational curriculum lest we rear an entire generation of dumbasses, who have no idea which nations fought which wars, but they're pretty sure Jesus arm-wrestled dinosaurs and punishes gay people for being too fabulous.
The media is guided by this same kind of corrupt tolerance where the absurd global warming debate has entered its awkward period. The smart people in the room are exasperatedly eying each other with their palms up, wondering what else can we do to convince these assholes?
But instead of presenting the science accurately and dutifully broadcasting our looming planetary doom, the media warps reality and for every legitimate scientist permitted on-air wailing time, there waits a showcase of peanut gallery idiots and cons, claiming all the science is wrong. Of course, many of these so-called neutral experts who dismiss global warming as a hoax work for the oil industry, but no matter. Remember: everyone gets to have their shot at the one Truth even if they're lying.
Dangerous doses of blind tolerance allow Creationism in the classroom and con men on the airwaves, just as an overdose of tolerance allows the GOP presidential candidate, John McCain, to parade around with a lunatic like John Hagee, whose latest crazy blathering included the sentiment that Hitler was only fulfilling the will of God.
Of course, all of this is only important if Americans value sane, rational discussion. In order to preserve a community of civil debate and steady intellectual evolution, certain theories and beliefs must fall by the wayside.
Education weeds out intruders like myths and rumors. The separation of politics from religion ensures that no religious hacks can get their grubby, swollen nubs on children and brainwash them into believing the sexist, racist, evil things uttered by the likes of John Hagee.
Otherwise, all ideas are treated as equals. Bad ideas like Creationism are taught as truth in the classroom. Bad ideas like global warming being a hoax are broadcast by the media. A bad idea like a religious zealot parading around with a GOP presidential candidate goes underreported by the mainstream media.
And in America, not all ideas should be treated as equal.
Follow Allison Kilkenny on Twitter: www.twitter.com/allisonkilkenny
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How dare you doubt that God has always exited! I know that God has always existed because some guy in a funny shirt told me! I wonder what God was doing before "he" created everything? If there isn't anything then how could their be god, after all isn't God something? If God is everything why would "he" need to create anything?
As for everything existing in its current form who do we explain different breeds of dogs or cattle?
The belief in ANY god creator is an anachronistic relic from mankinds infancy based upon the fear of death and the unknown. Like any child the human race has "grown up" over time and should put away this magical belief system in favor of a more "adult" view on the universe and existance.
I have a question: If God created the Earth and universe and everything else, who created God?
Isn't it a bit daffy to claim that all of existence was created by a deity but yet the one single thing not created by something else is the Creator?
And how many churches are funding scientists to figure this one out? I think this would be the greatest discovery of all- how God came to be. But yet nobody is doing it.
That bring us back to the chicken and egg question.
Exactly!
I just thought that since Creationists use this argument against the Big Bang, the same should be applied to God. God and the Big Bangf are essentially the same thing- the 1st cause.
Enough is enough. We have a constitution in this country that says you can't teach religious dogma in public schools, especially when what you're teaching is demonstrably false and conflicts with any kind of mainstream scientific view of the history of our world. These teachers need to be replaced and FAST if we're going to maintain any kind of intellectual and economic competitiveness in this century.
How does that make creationism any different than any other religious belief? You can pick and choose which ones you think are harmful enough to not tolerate till the cows come home, but at the end of the day they're all wrong.
Let's put an end to tolerance of any sort. If there's nothing wrong with something there isn't anything to be tolerated and if there is then we shouldn't stand for it being espoused and given a place alongside things that are true.
People on the correct side of fact and history do not need the tolerance of others and it's time to stop appeasing those who are not on the correct side because it might hurt their feelings. It's time for the human race to get beyond this nonsense and we'll never get there by attacking insane bullshit but coddling other, equally insane bullshit.
Crationism is NOT a theory. Creationism is a belief, or at best, an idea. A theory is a hypothesis which can be repeatedly tested multiple times and result in the same result. A theory requires the scientific method to be legitimate. Creationism does not employ any form of the scientific method, so to use a scientific term like 'theory" to describe it not only gives it an unjustified hint of legitimacy, but it also blurs the definition of what a theory actually is for those not exposed to scientific principles.
Important distinction and eloquently expressed indeed.
Actually, you're wrong. Google "theory of gravity" and see what comes up. The proof that gravity exists is undeniable. But how it actually works is still not clear.
Mythology worked fine for the Greek & Roman empires. Look where it got them.
Now almost every religion including those practiced by indigenous people have their own myth of how humans come into existemce. So if you want to study science then it's science alone with logic and proven theory. Science show evolution and existence of dinosaurus long before mankind. The purpose of science is not to debunk creationism but to show evidence, it is up to us whether to accept what is discovered.
In science class you don't start teaching the theory of evolution by saying God does not exist and he did not create humankind. You start with Charles Darwin and his observation. Don't involve religion in school subjects except maybe for moral education, religious studies, social science and councelling. Otherwise you will confuse the students.
Proven theory? Isn't that an oxymoron? Once it's proven, it becomes fact and leaves the "theory" realm, doesn't it?
You are absolutely right.
It is an oxymoron, but not because of a distinction between "fact" and "theory." A "theory" in science has a presice meaning: a theory is an explanation of a set of related observations or events based upon proven hypotheses and verified multiple times by detached groups of researchers. A "theory" is accepted as true -- as "fact" -- by the scientific community as a whole.
However, a "theory" is never fully proven (which is why a "proven theory" is an oxymoron)-- it's too complex for that (as opposed to a scientific "law," which can be expressed by a single mathematical expression). Theories evolve with additional information and studies. But "theories" are rarely entirely replaced. Theories such as the theory of relativity, the atomic theory, the quantum theory, and, yes, the theory of evolution are well-document and are unlikely to be completely proven wrong, although new findings add to our understanding of these theories and fill in gaps.
Not just on a religious level, but on an overall spiritual level, humans have lost touch with "faith." They have misconstrued faith to be some "ok I'll tolerate sitting in this pew for an hour." They believe with what their eyes tell the brain. There is no more of that instinctive "gut" feeling. This is often why God is put on a backburner, because they can't see him. Hence the phrase, 'Out of Sight, Out of Mind."
However, on another spiritual level, humans rely too much on science and technology for even the simplest of tasks. My grandmother taught me how to tell whether it would rain the night before it would. The only time I rely on the weather channel is when I'm traveling to a place that I haven't seen the sky above its location. We had lost touch with the Earth. Perhaps it's because God only spent six days creating Earth and its inhabitants. Should he have spent more time, perhaps stuck around so Adam could have seen him and described him to us? Or perhaps his intelligent design was evolution! Yeah I probably busted a blood vessel in someone's brain on that one.
I guess the whole point is that yes science is good, but God is GREAT! I would teach both, open minds to possibilities that they will see the patterns of nature and God's mathematical message, while showing them how things could be improved upon through science and technology. :)
I think you just busted a blood vessel in your own brain. This is such a simple argument, I don't know why it engenders so much discussion and dissention. There IS NO CONFLICT between "Intelligent Design," Creationism, religion and science because the first three are based on FAITH and science is based on FACTS. THAT is why scientists object to having anything OTHER than science taught in their classrooms. Would you want evolution (or, even more heretical, EARTH SCIENCE) to be taught in Sunday School? It doesn't make any sense. Biological and evolutionary science is not about "belief," any more than math or chemistry are.
I got one of those "gut" feelings once. Then I vomited.
I betchya anything the origin of your grandmother's belief was due to some poor schlep who observed the world around him and measured his surroundings. Then he developed a hypothesis, which he then tested and revised or tweaked until it became a theory, which your grandmother used to prove to you when it will rain. Thus the scientific method in practise.
Don't believe me? Very well. Prove it. Find me a reference in the bible where God came down and told someone how to tell when it rains. Failing God, any of the seraphim, cherubim, etc., will do.
And if God is so great, how come we keep killing in his name?
Well, that would be the religious idea of free will.
Creationism may not be science, but it isn't "intellectually bankrupt" either. What IS intellectually baankrupt is to simply dismiss the views and beliefs of others.
The liberal slant against religion makes me want to vomit. The world would be a better place if liberals really were tollerant instead of just being tollerant of the things they agree with. Take the Texas Polygamy news story. News is now coming out that the state has way OVER ESTIMATED the number of underage pregnant mothers. In fact, many of them look younger than they are. One was even 27. And the phone call that started this whole mess? They've determined it was a prank call. Nice. Liberals were the first to jump and crucify them. That's liberal tolerance for you.
Now protecting Pilgrim style baby factories using underage girls is a considered "liberal intolerance".
Just because God is invoked every time some insecure faith based movement decides to set up shop to enable their pathetic tendencies doesn't make it anything other than creepy and border line evil.
Let's ask the Katrina victims that called out to "God" how that worked out. Our how about the arrogant football player that always points to the sky when he wins but NEVER when he loses.
Not to mention the way "Christians "were so thoroughly used during the past two elections for no other reason than that those that did the using knew how easily they succumb to fear and authority.
YOU'RE never going to convince those that can actually "see" and that are secure to look towards mutants such as that Texas cult in any other light than pure and unadulterated stupidity all "in the name of God"...
Lose the "liberal" tag. It's dated and way played out. Also I find it hard to believe that there is such a thing as a "liberal" investigation or police force in that big George Bush loving redneck state of Texas...
Then, put yer head in the bowl and let fly. Creationism, as it is pushed on the American education system is, if anything, intellectually dishonest--so bankrupt fits too. Creationists are welcome to their views, but what the scientific community, and other thinking people object to is the imposition of religious belief on the science classroom--that somehow the biblical account of creation is on an intellectual par with evolution. It is not and never has been--there is no scientific data to support it. And so-called "intelligent design" is just new wine in old bottles--yet another attempt by creationists to clothe their ideas in scientific trappings. The pity is that science still must engage with this nonsense in the 21st century.
The book of Genesis is not "intellectually bankrupt" -- it holds up beautifully as mythology and literature -- but "creationism," the passing off of a creation myth as actual science, validated by the application of the scientific method subject to replication, is.
Let me be clear: I grew up in the church. I understand the sincerity of creationists. But a public school is no place for the teaching of creationism -- there is nothing scientific about it; it's quite simply a matter of faith. All the scientific evidence available supports evolution. Only the absence of evidence supports creationism (I'm referring here to the argument I've often heard that because the theory of evolution has a few missing pieces -- we don't know when precisely certain creatures evolved, incomplete fossil records, etc. -- we can disregard it entirely).
As a teacher I once had explained, don't put your faith in a "God of the gaps," because you're sure to be disappointed as those gaps are filled. Your belief system, whatever it is, has to be based on more than just what is unknown.
Good post.
The point of the exercise in the polygamy case was that there was in fact child abuse being carried out and sanctioned by the "church" in question. How many cases of child sexual abuse are needed to be considered a crime? My guess is one.
The cornerstone of science is that there is a wrong and right way to interpret data. God, by definition, prevents the scientist from validating or invalidating His existence. Sort of.
Victor J. Stenger’s “God: The Failed Hypothesis” examines God in scientific terms and concludes that there is a strong scientific basis for the nonexistence of a Judeo-Christian-Muslim type God. To summarize: absence of proof is proof of absence.
So I say include God and Creationism in the science class room, not as a peer to proven tested theories like evolution, but as an example of how science can be applied to and debunk so-called “philosophic” arguments like God.
SOT
Too late. It's like a Zombie movie. The 'dumbasses, who have no idea which nations fought which wars, but they're pretty sure Jesus arm-wrestled dinosaurs and punishes gay people for being too fabulous' are spreading...
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