# Georgia Schools: Dinosaurs Now Called 'Jesus Horses' **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 12, 2004, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/georgia-schools-dinosaurs-now-called-jesus-horses/274372 "2004-11-12T13:51:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/georgia-schools-dinosaurs-now-called-jesus-horses/274372/101 "2004-11-15T00:34:39Z")
> [@Orbifold](#): > > Respect is more than just words. Not to **Bricker** if you’ve paid attention over the last couple years. “Respect” for him is simply avoiding anything that can be directly quoted to demonstrate him showing blatant disrespect. Him whining about respect is simply a bullshit facade so he can talk down at will to those vulgar libruls. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/georgia-schools-dinosaurs-now-called-jesus-horses/274372/102 "2004-11-15T01:24:20Z")
> [@irishgirl](#): > > Why can’t they teach evolution in the science class and creationism in the religious education class, like the rest of the world does? > > The only time religion ever entered my science classes in school was when the physics teacher pointed out that the “Big Bang” theory allowed for a single decisive moment of creation, and so was compatible with “Let there be light”. Because, by and large, public schools don’t have religious education classes. When they do, it is typically a comparative survey of religions. Instruction in any particular religious doctrine would be tossed out pretty quickly by the courts, I would think. I’m curiuos as to how the Irish state and the Catholic church co-exist, and how your school systems operate. I went to a Catholic grade school in the US, and in this country they are considered private and do not receive public funds. So parents fund them through tuition or church donation or both. What is the case in Ireland? Private schools that don’t receive Federal funding can teach whatever form of science or religious classes they want. ---
**Author:** ![SparrowHawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac8455/32.png) [@SparrowHawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SparrowHawk)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/georgia-schools-dinosaurs-now-called-jesus-horses/274372/103 "2004-11-15T01:33:26Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > No matter how equitable you tried to make this, there is no way a plan like this would last ten minutes in the US before someone sued the school district. (And rightly so, as it would be unconstitutional.) But we **had** a similar plan when I was in grade school back in the sixties. We had early “release time” on Mondays and it was specifically to accommodate religious education, although the school was not responsible for providing that part of it. What happened was that the Catholic kids got bussed off to Catholic education and the rest of us went and played kickball, 'cause the Jewish kids went to Hebrew school on Saturday and the Protestant kids went to Sunday School on Sunday. (We did not have any other kinds of kids at the time.) Not advocating one way or another, but it has been done. Seems kind of unnecessary, but it doesn’t seem unfair or unconstitutional to me. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/georgia-schools-dinosaurs-now-called-jesus-horses/274372/104 "2005-01-14T19:16:18Z")
As I expected, [Judge Cooper has ruled the stickers an unconstitutional violation of the separation of church and state](http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/cobb/0105/14evolution.html). (For the record, Judge Cooper is a Southern Protestant, who was appointed to the bench by another notable Southern Protestant. So can we ease up on some of the stereotyping that this story has engendered?) ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/georgia-schools-dinosaurs-now-called-jesus-horses/274372/105 "2005-01-14T19:49:58Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I suppose I simply have an ability to treat a person with respect even though the person is arguing a flimsy, unsupported, contrary to the Constitution, view. > > I have honed that ability here on the SDMB, arguing with liberals over the years. Indeed you have. No taunting or gloating from our **Bricker**. You’ve honed your ability to handle disagreement with respect to [a fine edge.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread/php?&t=284650) I would wager that none of the posters here have ever interrupted a church service to inform the congregation that creationism is a crock. Or tried to compel a pastor to place stickers on all the Bibles stating that the account of the Earth’s creation is merely theology, while evolution is the accepted explanation. The same courtesy in return as regards public schools would be greatly appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/georgia-schools-dinosaurs-now-called-jesus-horses/274372/106 "2005-01-14T23:04:19Z")
> [@Rashak Mani](#): > > You only see this kind of thing in the US… :smack: Serious question: which education systems/institutions in the world teach creationism (regardless of which religion)? ---
**Author:** ![infamousmom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d6d6ee/32.png) [@infamousmom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infamousmom)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/georgia-schools-dinosaurs-now-called-jesus-horses/274372/107 "2005-01-15T07:38:03Z")
Wouldn’t it be cool if all Bibles in “red” states had to carry a sticker that said: This book presents only one of many theories as to how supernatural beings interact with the material world. Since there is no proof that any supernatural being exists, all such theories must be considered equally valid–or invalid, as the case may be. The reader is encouraged to keep this in mind. ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/georgia-schools-dinosaurs-now-called-jesus-horses/274372/108 "2005-01-15T13:16:09Z")
> [@infamousmom](#): > > Wouldn’t it be cool if all Bibles in “red” states had to carry a sticker that said: > > This book presents only one of many theories as to how supernatural beings interact with the material world. Since there is no proof that any supernatural being exists, all such theories must be considered equally valid–or invalid, as the case may be. The reader is encouraged to keep this in mind. Now now, none of that one state, two state/red state, blue state nonsense. Blue states have churches too and some of them have loonies too. Seems to me there was a creationist/intelligent design drive going on in Michigan, which was a blue state. I like the idea though. Maybe we can work out a “tit for tat” deal. They want to slap a sticker on something. Okie dokie. We can slap a sticker on one of their books. Fair trade. > [@spoke-](#): > > (For the record, Judge Cooper is a Southern Protestant, who was appointed to the bench by another notable Southern Protestant. So can we ease up on some of the stereotyping that this story has engendered?) I think you’re just going to have to let the stereotyping go in this case. You have some dopers that see religion of any kind as pure drivel, and this story involves the religios nutters that tend to spoil everyone elses views of religion. Best to just view it as a few angries letting off some steam and not take it too personally. ---
**Author:** ![milroyj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@milroyj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/milroyj)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/georgia-schools-dinosaurs-now-called-jesus-horses/274372/109 "2005-01-15T19:16:19Z")
> [@Harborwolf](#): > > Now now, none of that one state, two state/red state, blue state nonsense. Blue states have churches too and some of them have loonies too. Seems to me there was a creationist/intelligent design drive going on in Michigan, which was a blue state. Maybe you were thinking about Pennsylvania? [http://cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/01/06/rights.creationism.reut/index.html](http://cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/01/06/rights.creationism.reut/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![butter\_pie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/georgia-schools-dinosaurs-now-called-jesus-horses/274372/110 "2005-01-15T20:12:22Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > No matter how equitable you tried to make this, there is no way a plan like this would last ten minutes in the US before someone sued the school district. (And rightly so, as it would be unconstitutional.) Religion in the schools is so fraught with controversy, is it any wonder most districts prefer to ignore it completely? Which is sad, if you ask me - religion is a legitimate field of study, and important to know about if you’re going to try to understand other cultures. This doesn’t have a whole lot to do with the thread, but reminded me of something funny that happened when I was in the 8th grade (age:14). I was in an English class and we were discussing Greek mythology for some story we were reading/studying, and the teacher went into explain one of the myths where Zeus had turned himself into a gold mist or something, and gone down to this trapped woman he was chasing after and impregnated her via this mist (sorry, I forget the names of the other characters.) Another female student, in all seriousness, raised her hand and began to _argue_ with the teacher “But Mrs. X, there has been only _one_ virgin birth.” The look on the teacher’s face was priceless as she spent ten minutes trying to explain to this girl that the Greek myths didn’t actually happen, while the girl kept protesting to the story. I think the teacher finally shut the discussion down when some of the other non-religious students started piping up that a lot of the stories in the Bible could be traced back to other cultures’ mythology, and it looked like the whole class might turn into one big argument. Same school, same grade, once I had casually mentioned I didn’t go to church to the astonishment of some classmates, and said that I didn’t really believe in God because I couldn’t see a reason to… they routinely drudged that up to use to taunt or pick on me for the rest of the year. That in itself didn’t really bother me then, and doesn’t now, but I think it’s safe to say that even if you tried to accomidate some sort of general religious education class in the US, it would be problematic at best. If it wasn’t ended for being unconstitutional, it would probably end up either self-destructing, or legally finding a loophole to turn into the Jesus Hour. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/georgia-schools-dinosaurs-now-called-jesus-horses/274372/111 "2005-01-15T21:28:03Z")
> [@jinwicked](#): > > Another female student, in all seriousness, raised her hand and began to _argue_ with the teacher “But Mrs. X, there has been only _one_ virgin birth.” The look on the teacher’s face was priceless as she spent ten minutes trying to explain to this girl that the Greek myths didn’t actually happen, while the girl kept protesting to the story. This reminded me of something that happened to me in grade school. I can’t recall which grade exactly or how old I was, but it had to 4th grade or younger. At this time, I still believed the Bible was literally true. The teacher was teaching us how different languages came be, and of course she explained it scientifically (at the proper level for us young 'uns). I raised my hand and said “But I thought we had languages because of the Tower of Babel?”. Oh, how I wish I could remember the teacher’s response, but it’s lost in my mind. She must have danced around it pretty well though, I don’t remember wondering about the dichotomy between the Sunday School stories and what she was saying anymore. ---
**Author:** ![litost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@litost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/litost)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/georgia-schools-dinosaurs-now-called-jesus-horses/274372/112 "2005-01-15T22:08:08Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > The belief is without merit, and I have no particular respect for it. > > That doesn’t mean I need to call you an idiot. I can treat you respectfully, while at the same time pointing out that your theory is utterly without basis in fact, and your plan for teaching it ungrounded in any sound policy. I have indeed found consistency in your beliefs where a lot of Dopers didn’t but your post above doesn’t go well with this: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=3214581&postcount=1](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=3214581&postcount=1) snippet: > [@Bricker](#): > > I’m not one for wild, lyrical ranting about goat-felching and the like, so please recall your favorite invectives and consider them incorporated by reference. I am amazed at the number of ignorant posters - or, \*\*possibly, idiotic posters \*\*- that come along and offer up some version of this sentiment: (bolding mine) ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/georgia-schools-dinosaurs-now-called-jesus-horses/274372/113 "2005-01-16T02:22:43Z")
> [@milroyj](#): > > Maybe you were thinking about Pennsylvania? > > [http://cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/01/06/rights.creationism.reut/index.html](http://cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/01/06/rights.creationism.reut/index.html) No, I live in Michigan. It didn’t get much coverage: a side article in the Detroit Free Press and another in a local alternative paper. It wasn’t exactly a large push. I just wanted to make known that this is more than just a “red state” issue. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/georgia-schools-dinosaurs-now-called-jesus-horses/274372.md?page=5)