# Kansas Board of Education now SUPPRESSING belief! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 14, 2006, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661 "2006-04-14T14:18:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661/21 "2006-04-14T18:25:12Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > In closing, as Orson Scott Card famously said, in reference to choosing between creation or evolution, “…whether you were created OR evolved, IT’S OVER!” > > In trying to be pithy, I probably stripped out too much context for that to make sense. > > In his _Secular Humanist Revival_ speech, Card asked the audience to write down their favorite scientific principle and he would read their submissions aloud from the pulpit. The technique was supposed to mirror “testimony” in a revival church. > > One woman wrote “I like that I can _choose_ whether I was created or evolved.” > > Card responded, “Now I am sorry, but you can NOT. Whether you were created OR evolved, IT’S OVER!” > > Card meant that you can NOT choose what already happened, regardless of your feelings – you were either evolved or created, but whichever occurred, it already happened and is now a matter of historical fact. Our ignorance of that fact, or our feelings about it, would not change it. > > He did not mean evolution has ended. > > Sailboat FWIW Card has pretty much recanted that speech. [Here](http://mooreslore.corante.com/archives/2005/06/06/second_secular_humanist_revival_meeting.php) is one guy’s take on it. From the link–bolding mine. > [@](#): > > Two decades ago, a saint came before us to preach the American values of a secular nation in the humanist tradition. > > His name was Orson Scott Card. He called his preaching the Secular Humanist Revival Meeting. He was a Saint of the Latter Day. > > And as time went on the warnings he gave came true. Religion crept into our science classrooms. Children were told how to pray by bureaucrats. Churches were corrupted by government money, corrupting themselves in the process. > > Now we are engaged in a great World War, a Crusade between the Christian and the Muslim world, bomb matched by bomb, atrocity by atrocity. > \*\* > And in that conflict, where are we? For that matter, where is Card? Gone to the other side, I’m afraid, writing plays and books where only those of the One True Faith find redemption, where only the Chosen are heroes, where action is motivated mainly by belief. \*\* ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2006, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661/22 "2006-04-15T08:32:57Z")
Everyone discriminates against the Pastafarians. ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2006, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661/23 "2006-04-15T15:45:46Z")
> [@FilmGeek](#): > > Agreed. I was fucking lost. So it wasn’t just me… Thank the [Flying Spaghetti Monster](http://www.emf.net/~estephen/cthulhu.gif) I thought I was losing my marbles. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2006, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661/24 "2006-04-15T20:42:46Z")
> [@Dob](#): > > Forget teaching evolution or creationism in Kansas school’s…teach some freaking writting classes!! Writting? ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2006, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661/25 "2006-04-15T21:01:12Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Writting? in Kansas _school’s_ ? ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2006, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661/26 "2006-04-15T23:03:28Z")
Not much to the point, but related: visiting California, I was really amused to see the Flying Spaghetti Monster as a metal sign on a car, next to a Darwin fish: > **[Flying Spaghetti Monster Plaque Car Emblem GONE](https://www.northernsun.com/n/s/2181.html)** > > FSM. Plaque is 5-1/2 I’m going to get one of those! ---
**Author:** ![Hung\_Mung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2006, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661/27 "2006-04-16T01:15:31Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Writting? If that’s what you kids are calling it these days… ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2006, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661/28 "2006-04-16T15:30:33Z")
> [@](#): > > State Board of Education member Connie Morris took exception Wednesday to a picture of a made-up creature that satirizes the state’s new science standards hanging on a Stucky Middle School teacher’s door. [Stuckey’s](http://www.stuckeys.com/) has expanded into the education field, now? Do they hand out pecan logs at graduation? ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2006, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661/29 "2006-04-16T21:53:35Z")
> [@Homebrew](#): > > Somebody needs to go back to j-school and learn to write a fucking story, even if it’s a stupid one. I think in this case they might need to go back a bit more than that, to elementary school perhaps. Their grammar is…broken. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661/30 "2006-04-17T02:03:17Z")
> [@Una Persson](#): > > You say that like it’s a bad thing…I could easily live in a semi-quiet corner of an Olive Garden, working via wireless laptop connection and having soup, salad, and breadsticks all day long. So long as I get unlimited refills. Whoa, whoa, whoa, who said anything about a wireless connection? Or a laptop? And may your breadsticks be forever cold, and you salad forever composed of naught but black olives and those pepper-thingies. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661/31 "2006-04-17T02:05:45Z")
That would work for me. I\* like\* olives and pepperoncini. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661/32 "2006-04-17T11:47:56Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > That would work for me. I\* like\* olives and pepperoncini. 😃 Me too…although I notice they’re putting fewer and fewer of both of the above in the salads, as Olive Garden continues its downward slide towards being another TGIMcScratchy’s. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661/33 "2006-04-17T14:33:38Z")
I love the Northern Sun. Viva the FSM! ---
**Author:** ![welby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@welby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/welby)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661/34 "2006-04-17T14:39:13Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > This is a blatant assault on the believers in the Invisible Pink Unicorn! Break out the placards! Protest! If it’s invisible, how do you know it’s pink? For that matter, how do you know it’s a unicorn? Life would be so much better if people would realize that I am the culmination of evolution, and you are all here to please me. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661/35 "2006-04-17T16:10:33Z")
There was no mention, was the teacher wearing an eye patch? Maybe a peg leg? ---
**Author:** ![ReuvenB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@ReuvenB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReuvenB)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661/36 "2006-04-17T21:53:29Z")
> [@welby](#): > > If it’s invisible, how do you know it’s pink? For that matter, how do you know it’s a unicorn? You have to have faith. Duh. I haven’t seen you post in a while, **welby**. Did you go somewhere? ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661/37 "2006-04-17T22:16:07Z")
> [@Dob](#): > > Forget teaching evolution or creationism in Kansas school’s…teach some freaking writting classes!! That article was horrible! It read like a bad “Three’s Company” episode…not that I know what good one read like… You might stand to look into a wri **t** ing class yourself, partner!!!111eleven FWIW, to me the article read like a transcript of a prepubescent Southern California girl’s phone call to her friend: “Oh my Flying Spaghetti Monster, Marcia said this and Jack said that and Susie said this to Jack and then Jack said the other thing to Marcia and could you believe Joe said this to Susie…” ---
**Author:** ![welby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@welby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/welby)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661/38 "2006-04-18T12:35:05Z")
> [@XWalrus2](#): > > You have to have faith. Duh. > I haven’t seen you post in a while, **welby**. Did you go somewhere? Yeah, I got busy and let my subscription lapse. I’ve been back for a bit though. ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661/39 "2006-04-18T18:22:50Z")
> [@welby](#): > > If it’s invisible, how do you know it’s pink? For that matter, how do you know it’s a unicorn? > > Life would be so much better if people would realize that I am the culmination of evolution, and you are all here to please me. We _know_ she is invisible because we cannot see her, we _believe_ she is pink. That is the mystery of our faith. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661/40 "2006-04-18T20:35:53Z")
> [@welby](#): > > If it’s invisible, how do you know it’s pink? For that matter, how do you know it’s a unicorn? > > Life would be so much better if people would realize that I am the culmination of evolution, and you are all here to please me. Of course it’s a unicorn, I mean it’s called the Invisible Pink UNICORN. What else would it be…duh. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-board-of-education-now-suppressing-belief/352661.md?page=3)