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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMissouri Republicans Introduce Bill Forcing Educators To Teach Creationism In Schools And Universiti
Missouri Republicans Introduce Bill That Forces Educators To Teach Creationism In Schools And Universities
Apparently its that time of year when every Republican controlled legislature introduces bills designed to force Christianity upon us. As I reported earlier on Thursday, the Indiana Senate introduced a bill that allows school boards to force teachers to teach creationism as science. Now Im disappointed to report that my home state of Missouri is considering a similar bill, except this one is far worse.
On January 10, 2012, the Missouri House of Representatives introduced a bill that would force educators to teach creationism in schools as an accepted science, despite the fact that an overwhelming majority of the scientific community rejects creationism as science. But this bill is worse than the Indiana bill. House bill 1227 or the Missouri Standard Science Act skips school boards and directly forces teachers to teach creationism. The bill goes even further than that, however. It not only requires that creationism be taught in elementary and high school, but also in introductory college science courses as well. It also requires textbooks to include creationism.
This bill seeks to violate religious freedom and is an attempt by Republicans to indoctrinate our kids. It forces teachers to drill an unfounded Biblical belief into the minds of students, even if it goes against their own religious beliefs. It also forces college professors, who have spent their academic careers in the science community, to teach an entirely rejected theory that has no factual basis in science as an accepted theory to impressionable college students. This can easily be construed as a church effort to convert non-believers and those of different faiths to Christianity.
The bill is wrong on so many levels its pitiful...
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/01/12/missouri-republicans-introduce-bill-that-forces-educators-to-teach-creationism-in-schools-and-universities/
TlalocW
(15,358 posts)I would have the state suing me so fast.
Today we're going to talk about creationism, class. The main gist behind it is what's known as Intelligent Design. For instance, if you had never seen a watch before but found one in a field, you would assume that it was designed and made by something more advanced than it (in this case humans) and not naturally occurring. This is known as irreducible complexity. Thus humans make watches, but something greater and more advanced makes humans, animals, and the rest of creation - they maintain that the various systems could not evolve on their own without a guiding hand. Now of course, there's a few flaws. Number one is that no matter how much you want to, you can't call this scientific theory. Number two is creationism contradicts itself by stopping at whatever made creation. There is nothing more complicated than what made the creator of reality although by its tenets there should be. Number three, creationists like to say that there are a lot of flaws in the Theory of Evolution but never stop to think about the flaws in their proposed system. And that will be what we mainly focus on today - the contradictions found in the main source book that can't even get its own stories right. The other problem with flaws is that like they say about scientists not all agreeing about Evolution, not all creationists agree with each other so we'll be spending a lot more time learning about what some creationists think who are outside the mainstream of Judeo-Christian creationists, which I'm sure the government of our state would like me to focus on, but that wouldn't be fair. So first, one of my favorites, the Aztecs. Now they believed that the blood of their gods bathed the Earth creating corn, and from this corn came from the first people. Thus the importance of blood sacrifice and corn in many meso-American cultures. Let's move on now to the Kahlarhi Bushmen... JIMMY! PAY ATTENTION! THIS IS SCIENCE! Now, the Bushmen...
TlalocW
Wait Wut
(8,492 posts)...right? Why is it they only wrap themselves up in the parts of the Constitution that allows them to be assholes? And, even if by some godless miracle they were able to pass this, how could they force college students, who PAY for their education, to take a course?
This is just idiotic and sickening. It makes our entire country look like a bunch of backwoods morons.
Magoo48
(4,659 posts)liberal N proud
(60,300 posts)They probably hadn't thought about that!
Telly Savalas
(9,841 posts)Proponents of intelligent design believe the world is so complex that there had to be a designer. Most of them believe the designer is God.
So if the world is so complex that there had to be a designer, it's pretty apparent that the designer itself would have to be remarkable complex itself to conceive of and execute the blueprint for the universe, which by the logic of Intelligent Design dictates that it too must have a designer, which would also have a designer, etc., and now you've got an infinite recursion.
If one argues God is the end point of the recursion, then one argues that an entity with the complexity of the universe can exist without a designer, thereby contradicting the basic premise of Intelligent Design.
Keep this bullshit out of my kid's school.
proud2BlibKansan
(96,793 posts)I'm teaching the Flying Spaghetti Monster theory as well.
JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)Most of their argument is an analogy. Objects don't just come into existence, some one designs and makes them.
But that analogy is too simplistic. Usually, one or a number of people "design" something ... and then still others "make it."
And so, given the VAST variety of life on earth ... it only stands to reason that there is more than one designer ... so "many Gods" or polytheism is more likely ... and the you also need those who "make" that which was designed ... which could be interpreted as many "angles" who do the biding of the many gods.
And so ... those who defend the "one Designer" view of "Intelligent Design" should be able to show how their "theory" (not religion, theory) refutes a "multi-designer" or polytheistic alternative.
Ask a creationist to provide the "scientific evidence" which supports a "one designer" theory over a "multi designer" theory, and watch their head explode!!!
The key in debating these folks is to take Evolution OFF the table. They can't really defend ID as a science, so they do little more than attack evolution. So through evolution away, and then debate the GAPS in the ID perspective.
The one above is my favorite ... it usually leaves them stuttering, and searching for a new topic of discussion, like sports or the weather.
gulliver
(13,142 posts)Have one, one-semester class called "The Origin of Humans." Make it for, let's say, eighth graders, like the old Constitution classes.
Then evolution could be taught right along side Adam, Eve, giant turtles, etc. There would be different teachers for each "explanation" and all teachers would be present during the entire course to answer questions the students might have. I'm sure the students would have very interesting questions and reactions.
Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)It doesn't belong in schools period.
gulliver
(13,142 posts)It needed an emoticon though. The right would never go for the "compromise." They want creationism taught like it is factual. The last thing they want is evolution taught side-by-side with creationism. The reason the compromise would need to be one class is so that certain schools couldn't make one "explanation" optional.
General Zod
(680 posts)But no! The wingnuts will never, ever give up on this, no matter how many times they get smacked down.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitzmiller_v._Dover_Area_School_District
sakabatou
(42,082 posts)CanonRay
(14,036 posts)what a bunch of looney toons.
Charlemagne
(576 posts)Missouri schools score the lowest and their universities lose grants will they blame it on the liberals and unions?
Why did I even have to ask that. Of course they will.
MadHound
(34,179 posts)If the bill makes it out of the legislature, highly unlikely, then the governor will most certainly veto it.
But it is the silly season in the legislature, when all the RW yahoos introduce such bills, hope springing eternal.
proud2BlibKansan
(96,793 posts)You're the second person this week who mentioned a veto. But in MO that's not a given this session.
JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)First ... recall that the IDIOTS who want this nonsense taught in schools are the SAME IDIOTS who hate public school teachers. What kind of moron wants a teacher that they HATE to teach their kid religion? After all, as a crazy right wing parent, you have spent years INDOCTRINATING that child within a very narrow community. When you open this discussion up within a school setting, your children will be exposed to a broader world view.
Second ... the creationists have spent years trying to find tiny gaps in evolution, and then using those to claim ... "see, evolution doesn't work". If you try to teach creationism in school, that same examination of "gaps" can be placed on creationism. And Creationism doesn't just have gaps ... it has huge chasms and canyons which can not be bridged.
And so, if you place them next to each other ... compare what they predict, the absolute silliness of creationism will become apparent.
Sure, the crazies will attempt to teach it in a particular manner, but they won't be able to do that state wide ... I bet they can't even do it completely for a single school district or even single school.
Parents would engage, much like what happened in Dover PA a few years back ... a few nuts took over a local school board, the parents flipped out ... and a judge tossed Creationism OUT.
If it does show up in class, lots of the indoctrinated kids will see the creationism that their parents have taught them ripped to shreds. They won't be able to not question it.
DCBob
(24,689 posts)If religious conservatives take over this country it will get very very ugly.
lpbk2713
(42,696 posts)with bullshit bills like this? They know it's not going anywhere but it
is something they can tell their constituents they "tried" to get done.
starroute
(12,977 posts)That assumption may be right or it may be wrong. But if you assume that it's wrong, what you're doing isn't science.
What's more, once you assume that it's wrong, how do you decide which things have natural causes and which don't? Either you draw a lot of arbitrary dividing lines or you end up like those local shepherds who seem to get quoted any time there's an eclipse in some remote region saying that all things occur according to the will of God so how can humans presume to predict eclipses.
The bottom line is that creationism isn't science by any measure. It may cherry-pick the bits of science that it likes or it may reject science entirely -- but it doesn't share the premises of science, the methods of science, or the goals of science. And it doesn't belong in a science class.
B Calm
(28,762 posts)thus giving them another wedge issue and the dumb, ignorant voter a reason to vote republican and against their own best interests.
Same old never ending republican bullshit!
The Genealogist
(4,723 posts)Why is it that Republicans think it is constitutional not only to put religion in the science classroom, but in cases like this, to REQUIRE that science teachers do the job of churches? I know why. Teaching this pseudoscientific garbage is part of the RW attempt to establish a theocracy in this country. It also doesn't hurt that the RW gets a stupider batch of high school graduates either, for with this kind of trash science, students WILL NOT be getting a decent education. More people with less critical thinking skills means more underpaid, unquestioning, unthinking employees who can be cowed around and never challenge the 1%.
It is shit like this that makes me all too often ashamed to call myself a Missourian.
On edit: I have a call in to my state rep (luckily a Dem!) and I am going to get her view and express mine. DAMNIT I AM FUMING!
Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)Quantess
(27,630 posts)Trying their best to keep America poorly educated.