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04-03-04, 08:54 AM | #21 |
Join Date: May 2001
Location: New England
Posts: 10,018
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re: mazer.
when schoolchildren visiting the grand canyon are informed in us park service informational books and plaques that god created the canyon with “noah’s flood”, religious correctness has direct consequences for the education of our future citizens. that's just one example, and there are many more, how the oxymoronic creation-"science" lunatic fringe is influencing public policy with real and lasting consequences for this country ("creation" mythology is what it really is). it's no accident that muslims, once fairly liberal in their acceptance of outside beliefs (and the scientific ideas that came with them) had high standards of living and pretty decent technology. as their beliefs became stratified and monolithic they turned inward and dogmatic. anything that didn't fit a preconceived religious paradigm was rejected, often at knifepoint, until many of the areas lost their knowledge and devolved to their present states. this has happened often with great civilizations. could it happen here? why not? it can if we let it, and at this moment we have a president and a party hand picking judges and scientists doing all they can to make it happen. - js. |
04-03-04, 11:16 AM | #22 |
Earthbound misfit
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Moses Lake, Washington
Posts: 2,563
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I know the belief that Christianity will naturally tend toward extreme puritanism if left unchecked is popular these days, but I also know that it's still a minority viewpoint. And you may be right, it could get out of hand if we let it, but lucky for us the Consititution won't let it. Those Muslim nations lacked the sort of separation doctrine that has become more dogmatic in the U.S. than any religion ever could, so not only were Muslim fanatics allowed to erase soverignty they were also allowed to pervert religion. But I really don't see this as a science vs. religion issue. A benign conflict between religious and scientific writings has been artificially escalated into a conflict between religious and scientific people and it has accomplised nothing because neither side is totally right.
The problem isn't that schoolchildren are taught oxymoronic theories, it's that most schoolchildren don't actually know how to identify oxymorons on their own. We're debating how we should be indoctrinating children in school, but whether we tell them that God created man or that man evolved we're wrong because indoctrination is not education. If I suggested that both doctrines be left out of the classroom then I'd have both evolutionists and creationists against me, but to be honest I think both sides are no better than tobacco companies with their 'Hook 'em while they're young' philosophy. |
06-03-04, 06:50 AM | #23 | |
my name is Ranking Fullstop
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Promontorium Tremendum
Posts: 4,391
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here's an oxymoron for you: Environmental Protection Agency
Quote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/06/po...&partner=MYWAY this is a story is a neat little example of industry officials (who just happen to be large Bush campaign donors) helping to rewrite the rules that regulate them - akin to the fox guarding a the henhouse. the shame of it is (besides the obvious that we all get to breathe more crap) is that they basically whacked Christie Todd Whitman along they way. a principled Republican, Whitman did a good job as governor of New Jersey and by all accounts was a rising star, ultimately quit to fade away into the warm folds of her own disillusionment. |
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