Exhibit A: Religion does get in the way of teaching science. - August 14, 2008
Posted on behalf of Katrina Charles, BA Media Fellow
And again we revisit the question: Does religion get in the way of teaching science?
For students at Calvary Baptist School, California, it certainly does, as Judge James Otero ruled that the University of California doesn’t have to accept their biology class as a suitable entry course. Calvary Chapel Christian School also had courses rejected in English (“Christianity and Morality in American Literature”), history (“Christianity's Influence on America”), government (“Special Providence: Christianity and the American Republic”) and an elective called “World Religions”.
The WSJ says there were "legitimate reasons for rejecting the texts - not because they contained religious viewpoints, but because they omitted important topics in science and history and failed to teach critical thinking.” (WSJ)
In an example from the LA Times, the English class was rejected in part because students read excerpts, not complete books.
The Questionable Authority blog provides some fascinating quotes from a biology text book for 10th grade from Bob Jones University Press, one of the textbook suppliers named in the ruling:
“The people who prepared this book have tried consistently to put the Word of God first and science second”, always a place for science in a science text book.
On scientific explanations of biblical events: “If the conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong, no matter how many scientific facts may appear to back them.”
On evolution: “The idea of all life forms descending from a common ancestor cell that originated from non-living chemicals is absurd.”
It also includes helpful ‘science’ on how God communicates with Man.
An LA Times blog cites textbooks teaching that the earth is about 10,000 years old, and from Biology: God's Living Creation, which advertises itself as “truly nonevolutionary”, a lesson on how dinosaurs walked the earth with people, and might have faced extinction via flood.
"No one is questioning the right of Calvary Chapel to teach what they want to teach. But what the case says is that when you do that, there may be consequences," says David Masci, from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in Washington, D.C., in the LA Times.
Comments
(physical reality) - (empirical reality) = faith
http://blogs.scienceforums.net/swansont/files/2008/06/index.jpg
Faith is destroyed if it works. If you have faith you can only be denied. Test of faith! In the whole of human history across the entire planet not one deity has volunteered Novocain. It is a telling omission.
Posted by: Uncle Al | August 14, 2008 03:35 PM
I think that Galileo's time is over. At least, it should have be over! In my opinion, there is always somethig wrong, when one is mistaking the paramount differences of methods in evaluating phenomena on diverse dimensions,e. g., reason and faith. Astonishing the statement: "On evolution: “The idea of all life forms descending from a common ancestor cell that originated from non-living chemicals is absurd.” Well! What do they tink, the Professos of Calvary Baptist School, California, about the no local realm in biological system, I discovered,whose information energy is simultaneous, between diverse subjects, even kilometers away, particularly if twin, demonstrating that all individuals are children of an identical MOTHER? Why they overlook such as Biology advances? See also www.nature.com, URLs NON LOCAL REALM and Quantum Biophysical Semeiotics IN NATURE.COM
http://blogs.nature.com/nature/journalclub/2008/06/seth_lloyd.html#comments
http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2008/06/weekly_round_up_39.html#comments
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080130/full/451511a.html?q=2#last-comment
http://network.nature.com/forums/harvardpublishingforum/1832?page=1#reply-4955
www.nature.com , http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080130/full/451511a.html
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080515/full/news.2008.829.html
http://blogs.nature.com/nature/journalclub/2008/07/peter_csermely.html#comments
Posted by: Sergio Stagnaro MD | August 14, 2008 04:22 PM
It is really very disgusting that America which boasts about its scientific advancements still harbours primeval beliefs such as creationism.Is it any indication that after reaching to zenith of science and technology progress the country is now preparing to somersault into the caves and wish to relive the past again !
Posted by: Dr.Arvind Mishra | August 15, 2008 01:23 AM