-V-
05/03/05, 01:53 pm
Progressives need to take the following news story much more seriously because more religion and less science in our schools is part of the conservative incubation process that eventually spits out short sighted, self-serving George W's into the world.
TOPEKA, Kan (Reuters) - Evolution is going on trial in Kansas.
Eighty years after a famed courtroom battle in Tennessee pitted religious beliefs about the origins of life against the theories of British scientist Charles Darwin, Kansas is holding its own hearings on what school children should be taught about how life on Earth began.
The Kansas Board of Education has scheduled six days of courtroom-style hearings to begin on Thursday in the capitol Topeka. More than two dozen witnesses will give testimony and be subject to cross-examination, with the majority expected to argue against teaching evolution.
Many prominent U.S. scientific groups have denounced the debate as founded on fallacy and have promised to boycott the hearings, which opponents say are part of a larger nationwide effort by religious interests to gain control over government...
Full Story: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=585&e=6&u=/nm/20050502/sc_nm/life_evolution_dc
I believe the seed of conservative/Republican philosophy is planted by the notion that we started out as distinct, privileged beings (Adam and Eve, a king and a queen). Children often come to believe that this superiority/hierarchy/entitlement can be extended to races, genders, religions, species, nations, etc.. Ironically, this blockheaded position categorizes them as one of the Neanderthals that they refuse to acknowledge ever existed.
These Neanderthals fear the adjustments, dare I say sacrifices and shared responsiblity, society might be obliged to take if all living things on earth were connected on a more profoundly integrated level.
If the Kansas Board of Education has it's way, their little Dorothy's will not be in Kansas anymore. They will all be living in the mystical world of Oz where the all powerful creator breathes fire and smoke from behind a curtain of religious doctrine. Of course, if they were to let their children peak behind the curtain they would not see the all-knowing Oz but a flawed, disingenuous little man who looked a lot like Jerry Falwell or their local Congressman.
If the religious right has its way, dinosaurs and half-man half-monkey creatures will be designated as "those of which we will not speak" (like in the recent movie The Village). What is it that they are afraid of if their children were to venture out into the vast forest of truth and enlightenment?
"Lions and tigers and bears, OH MY!" :eek:
TOPEKA, Kan (Reuters) - Evolution is going on trial in Kansas.
Eighty years after a famed courtroom battle in Tennessee pitted religious beliefs about the origins of life against the theories of British scientist Charles Darwin, Kansas is holding its own hearings on what school children should be taught about how life on Earth began.
The Kansas Board of Education has scheduled six days of courtroom-style hearings to begin on Thursday in the capitol Topeka. More than two dozen witnesses will give testimony and be subject to cross-examination, with the majority expected to argue against teaching evolution.
Many prominent U.S. scientific groups have denounced the debate as founded on fallacy and have promised to boycott the hearings, which opponents say are part of a larger nationwide effort by religious interests to gain control over government...
Full Story: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=585&e=6&u=/nm/20050502/sc_nm/life_evolution_dc
I believe the seed of conservative/Republican philosophy is planted by the notion that we started out as distinct, privileged beings (Adam and Eve, a king and a queen). Children often come to believe that this superiority/hierarchy/entitlement can be extended to races, genders, religions, species, nations, etc.. Ironically, this blockheaded position categorizes them as one of the Neanderthals that they refuse to acknowledge ever existed.
These Neanderthals fear the adjustments, dare I say sacrifices and shared responsiblity, society might be obliged to take if all living things on earth were connected on a more profoundly integrated level.
If the Kansas Board of Education has it's way, their little Dorothy's will not be in Kansas anymore. They will all be living in the mystical world of Oz where the all powerful creator breathes fire and smoke from behind a curtain of religious doctrine. Of course, if they were to let their children peak behind the curtain they would not see the all-knowing Oz but a flawed, disingenuous little man who looked a lot like Jerry Falwell or their local Congressman.
If the religious right has its way, dinosaurs and half-man half-monkey creatures will be designated as "those of which we will not speak" (like in the recent movie The Village). What is it that they are afraid of if their children were to venture out into the vast forest of truth and enlightenment?
"Lions and tigers and bears, OH MY!" :eek: