Good piece on Fred Flintstone creationist museums
One can seriously hope that the political tides are turning in this country. Of course, it’s never going to be as far or as fast as some of us (such as myself) would like it, but it’s a start. Yet unfortunately, this country has a really nasty anti-intellectual streak, and nine times out of ten, with it goes the term “Christian Fundamentalist”. And as I’ve told you ad nauseum, when the historical or scientific record doesn’t fit in with these peoples’ worldview, well, they make one up, and one way this manifests itself is with the proliferation of “creationist” museums. These museums are pretty fancy, big-money type deals, and if one were to just take a quick peek at them, thye look like many other science museums. Problem is, the exhibits teach a strict Biblical creationist notion… the earth is only 6,000 years old, the dinosaurs peacefully coexisted with man, Noah actually loaded two of each animal on to the ark, you get the point.
Anyways, to give you a better idea of how ridiculous these things are, there’s an excellent op-ed piece in the Kentucky Courier Journal (all the more noteworthy, because this is in the heart of the Bible Belt):
These kids are learning that despite a fossil record that clearly shows a progression of simple life forms becoming more complex life forms over billions of years (the first bacteria are believed to have established themselves approximately 3.8 billion years ago), they are taught that the first man was made from clay and that the first woman was made from the man’s rib. Instead of learning that the process of natural selection, over 3,800 millions of years, has changed populations of organisms into the approximately 10 million species (conservative estimate) that inhabit the Earth today, they are taught the “poof” theory of creationism.
It seems fraudulent to me that the hard work and knowledge of generations of truth-seeking scientists from Galileo to Sagan, from Darwin to Dawkins, is now being hijacked and twisted to teach our children that the sciences of paleontology, evolutionary biology, astronomy, geology, physics, etc., are not to be trusted, and that unquestioning faith in ancient texts is the only way to know truth. The Christian community, especially, needs to speak out against this injustice, and speak out loudly.
It is indeed scary that this is what constitutes “scientific education” for many homeshoolers, as the article points out. I’m not opposed to homeschooling by any means, but it does stress the importance of setting some sort of standards and accountability for them, which thankfully, we have in Vermont (much to the chagrin of Charity, who makes the false analogy that likens that accountability as being no different than the VT State Police accessing your prescription records). Thankfully, we don’t have the sheer amount of anti-science God-induced idiocy up here in the Green Mountain state, other than in isolated pockets.
But nevertheless, these kinds of things are very troubling, and will continue to make us the laughingstock of the civilized world. And also make us less competitive in terms of science on the world stage.
December 5th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Sorry to rain on your parade, JD, but it is quite simple to give a decent science education AND teach them creation.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
As newspapers go, the Louisville Courier-Journal was always a pretty good one. Definitely the best in the state.
December 5th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Sorry to rain on your parade, Charity, but if you’re teaching them a literal interpretation of Genesis as actually true, you’re wrong. Dead wrong. You might as well teach them about bigfoot and unicorns in your science class.
December 6th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
I wasn’t talking about who is right or wrong. My point was that requiring a certain science curriculum will not stop parents who want to teach creation from teaching it.
Before you go and have an aneurysm or something, I actually do not teach creation science. I use secular science materials.
But I will defend a parent’s right to homeschool with whatever methods and materials they want (including creation-based science materials) to the end.
December 6th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
So you’ll defend homeschoolers teaching children faulty science? Any other stupidity you’d like to defend?
December 7th, 2007 at 8:46 am
Your stupidity.
December 7th, 2007 at 8:53 am
The majority of what is covered in science education is not affected either way by this. For example, what is the difference between learning about the properties of light and learning about the properties that God made light have?
I have looked at some creation-based science books and there is little difference between them and the secular ones. Basically, they just sprinkle the word “God” at various intervals throughout the text.
As far as every day life is concerned for anyone who is not going into a science field, the science of origins does not come into play.
Anyone who does want to go into a filed of science will need some remedial courses if they have not been exposed to this stuff.
What are you afraid of? What are these dire consequences that you fear if a small percentage of children (less than 1%) are raised learning creation science?
December 7th, 2007 at 9:35 am
Where did you get 1% from? That seems a bit low, if supposedly 25% of he country are evangelicals, I’m sure more than 1% are homeshcooled, considering home many of them are afraid of their kids learning evolution.
I don’t “fear” anything, other than the fact that when anti-science ignorant people come into positions of power, they ruin things for us rational folk. So do those who believe in that ‘answers in genesis’ crap just tell their kids that God started evolution? They also believe dinosaurs and people coexisted, and the earth is only 6,000 years old, two things that are irrefutably false. I don’t understand how you can support people teaching ignorance in any way.
December 7th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Homeschooling, as a whole, is only between 1.5 and 2.5% of the population, depending on who you ask. There are no solid numbers because some states do not track that data. Out of that group, there are secular homeschoolers (a growing group) and Christian homeschoolers who do teach evolution. I would be surprised if the number of HSers taught creation only broke the 1% mark.
Not all evangelicals homeschool. I know that I live in the NE, so things are different here, but I go to the largest evangelical church in the state and hardly anyone there homeschools.
“I don’t “fear” anything, other than the fact that when anti-science ignorant people come into positions of power, they ruin things for us rational folk.”
Can you please name that person? The homeschooled person in a position of power?
And what about Bush? Was he homeschooled?
Let me know if I need to connect the dots, but I think I have made my case.
Now let me see if I have your position straight: It is ok to trample on the rights of all homeschooling parents because some of them might teach their children creation science, and those children might grow up to get elected into positions of power where there beliefs about creation will wreak havoc on mankind?
And you are the rational one?
December 10th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
I guess you’re right, it’s the religion that makes one stupid, not the homeschooling. Ya got me.