No, no - this Supreme Court decision is well grounded in the text of the Constitution.
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.
Amazingly, the liberals agahast at my reaction don’t seem to have this facility themselves, and I don’t know why. Theoretically, liberals should be the ones to respect differences even while not agreeing that these differences should shape public education. Meam, nasty conservatives should be the hard-hearted ones.
It intrigues me that your definition of “respect” for an individual seems to only extend as far as not calling them names. I consider it “respectful” towards other people to recognize that my faith may not be theirs, that I have no clearer a view of eternal truth than they do, and that just because I believe something doesn’t make it scientific truth. And consequently I would like creationists to respect the rest of us by not demanding that we hobble children’s science education to accomodate their personal beliefs.
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”.
You only see this kind of thing in the US… :smack:
Why do these people even insist in putting creationism in a science class ? Besides its called Evolution THEORY… not evolution fact. Putting those stickers is stupid. What do they gain ? Is it just they are offended by Evolution ?
Bricker... my understanding is that the BBQ Pit is for cussing and swearing... not politically correct debate.
Pretty much. If evolution is true, then your dad was a monkey. And you weren’t hand-made by God. And the book that is the blueprint for your life is flawed from the start. That’s pretty offensive to a lot of people.
Gravity is “just a theory”, too - but the guardians of intellectual honesty in the Georgia school system (and Kansas, and Ohio) aren’t advocating equal time for the “Earth sucks” theory, are they? Come on now, **Bricker ** - this is religious advocacy in the guise of science, it has no place in our schools, and you damn well know better. You’ve become nothing more than the Republican **Reeder ** lately.
Absolutely. So can I, and I do. But I disagree that proponents of “creation science” are “simply mistaken.” There are controversies among scientists, and eventually one faction or another will be proven to be “simply mistaken.” Creationists wilfully blind themselves to fact, which is bad enough, but then they insist that our government teach their error as fact to our children in public schools. That is simply not acceptable.
Evolution is a fact as well as a theory. In the lexicon of science, a theory is a unifying principle that explains natural phenomena and is backed up by experimental evidence. Unfortunately, most non-scientists only know the common meaning of “theory” as mere supposition. Evolution explains so much in biology, from speciation to the rise of drug-resistant bacteria, that it’s amazing it wasn’t discovered earlier than it was.
Another common misconception-- you must have a “red state” education.
In fact, evolution was “discovered” before Darwin. It is the mechanism of Natural Selection that Darwin “discovered”. But you are right in the sense that, once someone explains it to you, you have to wonder-- what took us so long to figure that out? Of course, no one knew about “drug-resistant bacteria” until the 20th century either… And speciation isn’t something that’s easy to observe…
This really pisses me off. No, not the Georgia thing. The fact that even well meaning critical thinkers will say, “yeah, I’m OK with calling evolution a theory.” Usually they go on to say that it’s a well proven theory or whatnot, but the ignorance is already out there by then.
Evolution has not been a theory for a long, long time. It was a fact before Darwin ever stepped foot aboard the Beagle. It was a fact in Lamarck’s day too. That organisms can change from generation to generation was known by the Greeks, and probably predated that era too.
The Catholic church itself, the grandaddady of Christian religions, does not dispute evolution as fact. They don’t. Check out their web based information centers.
What is in dispute is what drives evolution. The Catholic church denounces Natural Selection in favor of God’s Plan. It the theory of Natural Selection that Darwin used to explain evolution. Natural Selection, people. Learn it. Love it. Evolution is a done deal.
Ahh, yes, moral relativism. Nothing’s true, it’s all a matter of opinion. Is that it? Or what? Because if you agree that the theory of evolution is the only reasonable conclusion of science, then why should we “respect” others’ efforts to cram something that’s not science into public school curricula?
I have the utmost respect for people who believe all sorts of bizarre things. I have no respect for people who try to force others - especially the captive audience of school students - to believe those same bizarre things. Jesus, Bricker, you’re one of the most knee-jerk conservatives I’ve ever been acquainted with. If you can come up with a reasoned defense of this sort of thing, go right ahead; if the best you can do is, “OMG you liberal demoncrats aren’t respecting others again even though you’re the party of tolerance LOL!!!11”, then you might wanna avoid these sorta discussions. You’re not advancing your views (which basically seem to be limited to “democrats=bad”) nor are you making yourself look any better.
Just to speak up for Bricker for a bit, although his posting style can be a bit abrasive, this is in part a response to the arrogant, condescending attitude he has had to endure on this board in the past few months from the Left, such as this caricature of his posts, "“OMG you liberal demoncrats aren’t respecting others again even though you’re the party of tolerance LOL!!!11.” However much you disagree with the man, his writing style is far more literate and nuanced than that illiterate parody. C’mon, Bricker posting “LOL”?
I can assure you that in person he’s a total sweetheart, with an affable, humorous personality.
C’mon, Bricker, after you’d heard for about the ten thousandth time that alien babies were eating reptile lawyers while riding Jesus horses, and it got into a few school curricula, you’d be calling people Jesus horses and worse.
Because it’s unconstitutional in the US to teach religious dogma in a public school, except in the broad academic sense (ie, this is what Catholics believe, this is what Buddhists believe, this is what Muslims believe, and we make no judgements on whether they’re right or wrong) and classes like that are quite rare in public schools, although a social studies or history class might devote a unit to studying religion. (My tenth grade world history class spent about a month on religious history.)
And that just isn’t enough for some people, who won’t be happy til we live in the United States of Jesus.
