When wing-nuts attack!

Bottom line:

Spirituality = Good thing
Religion = Bad thing

Now the long version....

The BSC's are pushing the whole "intelligent design" thing again, this time in Texas. Chimpy is adding his 2 cents as well.

It's unfortunate the Christian freaks seem to have a whole lot more influence over the educational system than I thought. Oklahoma might have seemed an anomaly. Now it's happening in Texas. I suppose that shouldn't be surprising, after all, I believe Texas leads the nation in the total number of wife beating trailer trash. It's a big state.

From the NY Times:

HOUSTON, July 31 - When the school board in Odessa, the West Texas oil town, voted unanimously in April to add an elective Bible study course to the 2006 high school curriculum, some parents dropped to their knees in prayerful thanks that God would be returned to the classroom, while others assailed it as an effort to instill religious training in the public schools.

For those that read my blog regularly, I'm going to going on a very familiar rant that I've done many times before. Feel free to move on to the next post.

Now then.. still with me? It irritates me that they use the phrase "God would be returned to the classroom". All too often, the way the media phrases things makes it seem like the Christians are the victims who are reclaiming their rights. The fact of the matter is, most of the founding fathers were not Christians, the Constitution does not have the words "God" or "Jesus" in it. The establishment clause is there to protect our private religious activities and not force a religion, or any religion, on any citizen. The nation was not in any way founded on "Christian principals". Okay.. can we agree on that?

Even if this nation was founded on "Christian principals", would that mean we would want to force that into public life? We want the Islamic theocracies like Iran and Saudi Arabia to stop doing it. A Christian theocrazy in the United States would be just as bad.

So, agreeing on that, why does the media continue to portray the Christians as the oppressed people - when, in fact, it is the Christians who are trying to impose their superstitions on the rest of society? Could it be that the Christians are controlling the content of the media as well? Ya think?

I'm sure it has become apparent to the BSC's that they are not going to be able to simply start having bible study in public schools. They seem to be smart enough to know that if they change the labels of what they are pushing, they can achieve the same effect. It's no longer called "creationism", it's called "intelligent design". It is the same exact thing!

Elizabeth Ridenour, a commercial real estate broker who said she formed the nonprofit organization in 1993 after deciding that she had long been "duped" into believing the Bible could not be taught in public schools, said the course has stayed within legal limits. "Our teachers are not to say, 'This is the truth,' or that the Bible is infallible," she said. "They are to say, 'This is what the Bible says; draw your own conclusions.'"

They claim they are merely teaching the historical document that is the Bible, outside of any religious frame of reference. That's a pretty good spin - but total bullshit.

But a growing chorus of critics says the course, taught by local teachers trained by the council, conceals a religious agenda. The critics say it ignores evolution in favor of creationism and gives credence to dubious assertions that the Constitution is based on the Scriptures, and that "documented research through NASA" backs the biblical account of the sun standing still....

Some of the claims made in the national council's curriculum are laughable, said Mark A. Chancey, professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, who spent seven weeks studying the syllabus for the freedom network. Mr. Chancey said he found it "riddled with errors" of facts, dates, definitions and incorrect spellings. It cites supposed NASA findings to suggest that the earth stopped twice in its orbit, in support of the literal truth of the biblical text that the sun stood still in Joshua and II Kings.

"When the type of urban legend that normally circulates by e-mail ends up in a textbook, that's a problem," Mr. Chancey said.

That is the core essence of the problem, isn't it? They simply change the language of what they are trying to push - and what they are trying to push makes even a professor of religious studies laugh at them.

Are they doing it knowingly? Are they consciously trying to circumvent the Constitutional protections of the establishment clause in order to push their agenda of religious hocus pocus? Are they trying to install religious nut-baggery on a generation of children? Are they trying to get these kids to believe that religion is more real than provable science?

Are they trying to bring in more members into their cult for financial and power reasons?

You betcha - and that's what makes these religious freaks in the bible belt pure and unmitigated evil. They are changing the labels and lying about their motivations and the message they are trying to push, because they know most people don't want to have anything to do with it.

Most American kids do not want to be part of the kool-aid cult.

But now we have President Bush weighing in, and he thinks teaching myths and bullshit as the equivalent of proven science to be fine and dandy. That's not terribly surprising now is it? He is responsible for thousands of people dying because of a large number of myths.

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Monday he believes schools should discuss "intelligent design" alongside evolution when teaching students about the creation of life.

"I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," Bush said. "You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes."

Christian conservatives — a substantial part of Bush's voting base — have been pushing for the teaching of intelligent design in public schools. Scientists have rejected the theory as an attempt to force religion into science education.

Isn't that great how Chimpy puts science and theology on the same factual level? He's saying that evolution is a "theory". It's not.

The danger here, of course, is that this whole discussion involves the way people think. It is the fundamental issue, and it's why it makes scientists and engineers crazy when we read about it.

The Christians want people to have really bad logic skills. Every single day in this world, we have to make a lot of decisions, and those decisions should be based on logic. Most times, they are not. Most times, emotion or "belief" has an influence. In order for religion to have any relevance in the world, the masses must not be able to logically reason, because if they can logically reason - they have no reason to turn to religion, and there goes their tithe money, and they might have to get a real job - and not have power over other people's lives anymore.

This whole concept of equating religious dogma with provable science will have a very negative impact on the ability of young people to compete in an ever growing technical world. They will lack the skills to become an engineer or a scientist, or a lawyer, or any job where logic ability and sound reasoning skills is critical.

How much does a person let bias affect their decision making skill? That is the bottom line. For me, none. When I analyze a problem, the concept of "belief" never crosses my mind. For kids raised to believe that religious superstition is equivalent to provable science - they will not be able to do that.

Here's an idea. If you want to indocrinate your kids with a laundry list of lies, prejudices, shame, hate, and superstitions, send them to a private religious school. Don't bring the craziness to the rest of us.

The greatest danger to the world today, and for the foreseeable future? Religion - in all it's flavors. Have your own spirituality. Believe what you want to believe. Keep it out of public life, and for god's sake, please resist the urge to organize with like-minded people. It is the organization of masses of people, believing in improvable dogma, that leads to massive death and destruction.

So speaketh the High Priest of Gorak.