For those of you how are not as familiar with American cultural subcurrents as you should be, "scientific" creationism is a nasty appendege of the evangelical fundamentalism practiced across the country. It seeks to supplant the teaching of rational , tested, verified, and scientifically supported evolution in favor of a particular theological interpretation not even accepted by the majority of Christians.
Unable to make their case scientifically, it has become popular for local fundies to concentrate their efforts on electorally vulnerable school districts. One of the more recent battlegrounds has emerged in Pennsylvania, which just goes to show that simply because you live in a Blue State, that doesn't mean there aren't whackjobs next door. The Dover school board has ordered staff to teach "Intelligent Design", the "theory" that life is so organized that it could have arisen only through the actions of a creator. The complete story can be read here.
A complete refutation of this rubbish is really beyond the scope of this post, but for those of you more interested, please see Talk.Origins. They'll have all the information you could ever want on why ID and creationism is scientifically incorrect, and what's more, they'll have plenty of links to ID and creationist sites so you can compare yourself. Suffice it to say, ID has no basis in reality.
Sadly, another article on how the fundies are intent to run our ship aground would likely not have illicited a post from me. Rather, there was a particular quote I (and others) found amusing. Pastor and local school parent Ray Mummert, the face of the ID push in Dover, had this to say:
"We`ve been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture."
Oh no! Here comes Mecha-Godzilla! And it's smarter than ever!
2 comments:
You’re preaching to the choir as they say and do. This morning a 13 year old told me I was going to go to hell if I didn’t get with the program. Me and several billion others, plus like the song says all my friends are gonna be there too. There is all manner of silliness in that book but the basic ideas are good. Understanding love forgiveness and compassion. Just the day before yesterday I miraculously discovered that I was out of cell phone minutes. I think god made someone immaculately dropped a cell phone for me. However, that bitch shut it off around noon today so I am expecting another phone or at least to see the virgin mary in my cereal or something.
Well, that comment has just a hint of the schitzo to it, but thanks for reading nonetheless.
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