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Politics : To be a Liberal,you have to believe that..... -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (2124)	9/14/1999 8:48:00 AM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6418

accept our curriculum of sex education, condom distribution and homosexual enlightened textbooks. Are these really such major elements of the curriculum? Why do you find the ideas of understanding basic sexual biology, practicing safe sex, and accepting homosexuals as equals so horrifying? Can't have freedom of choice now can we? What we can't have is tax money subsidizing religious evangelism. Unless, of course, equal subsidies are provided to all religious and non-religious groups to press their ideas. I have no objection to parents choosing the schools they like, but it seems a bit much to ask the government to subsidize religious education. The whole evolution fuss seems a bit curious to me. Every broad-based scientific theory is subject to constant criticism, challenge, and refinement. We don't expect students to be brought up to date on all current challenges to the theory of plate tectonics. We are perfectly content to teach the basic outline of the generally accepted scientific model. When they get to the stage where they are considering majoring in geology, they are introduced to the current challenges and refinements that are in progress. But when we teach evolution, which is unquestionably the generally accepted scientific model, suddenly people are up in arms, simply because it challenges their favored mythology. The theory of evolution is far from perfect. Many flaws will be found, many clarifications made. But it is a whole hell of a lot better than the Biblical account, which is demonstrably false in virtually every detail. I haven't looked at the Johnson book, but I red several chapters of Behe's, at the house of a friend who cares about these things, and it struck me as farcical. His entire argument, concealed in a vast welter of admittedly fascinating detail, is simply that anything too complex to be explained by current scientific knowledge must be the work of a creator. The cavemen said the same thing, albeit less elegantly. There are cultures that believe that the world sits on the back of a giant turtle. Shall we teach that too? some people have imposed a false idea on us that religion is at one end of the spectrum while a bland kind of neutrality is at the other. The opposite end of the spectrum from teaching Christianity would be teaching my personal belief, which is that people invented God to explain natural phenomena, and kept Him around because human leaders found Him an effective billyclub with which to keep people threatened, docile, and subservient. I don't think either should be taught in school.

To: greenspirit who wrote (2124)	9/14/1999 9:57:00 AM
From: DJB	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6418

<<Why do you think liberals are so against the voucher program? Afraid all those christians will leave the Godless government schools and miss out on a decent secularist upbringing? Can't have freedom of choice now can we? Can't allow parents to decide which school is best for their kids can we?>> I am against the voucher system because I am against supporting religious schools with tax payers money. I was raised Catholic and my parents sent me and paid for Catholic grammar school and high school. They didn't complain that they had to pay taxes and tuition. So unless there are no parochial schools in your area you do have a choice. You just have to pay for it. <<Nowhere is this false notion more clear than in the creation-evolution debate. Ahhh, but we hear the cry from the left! "evolution is an undisputable fact!". "We can't ignore science".>> Guess what I was taught in that Catholic high school - the theory of evolution. But first of all we were taught that a theory is not necessarily fact. Once a theory is proven it is not a theory any more. This definition applies to all theories not just evolution. I was also taught that it was ok to believe that evolution took place as long as you believed God was behind it. I was told that in the bible it took God 6 days to create the earth but that a biblical day is not necessarily 24 hours. A day could have been millions of years. What was God's hurry? Does he have an appointment to make that he had to do it so fast? Of course not. God basically does not have much to do except watch over the universe. So what if it takes a few million years here or there. I don't mean to be sarcastic here but I think we need to get away from the literal interpretation of the bible. Erase Hate, Dennis