School board approves measure allowing teachers to challenge

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Well, there is a difference between evolutionary theory and cosmology and the construction of houses. There is nothing in evolutionary theory saying that creatures won't try to create living conditions, perhaps even by manipulating their environment, but evolutionary theory does not directly create houses, the creatures that evolve create these structures. I think that's a difference worth getting at when dealing with that quote.

But why is a house or manipulated environment different from a cell wall which is a decidedly complicated and efficient structure far more sophisticated than a house with many more dynamic properties necessary for life?

Creationism is not taught as an alternative to evolution at any reputable educational institute for pretty much the same reasons that Holocaust denial is not taught as an alternative to real history. In short: one view has the weight of virtually all available evidence behind it, makes sense, and is consistent with our observations. The other is an ideologically-driven view held primarily by those on the fringe and postulates a massive conspiracy on the part of the mainstream scholars without attributing a realistic motive for involvement in such conspiracy.

Sand, I am not sure if there is a real difference, however, in the minds of the people who would make this argument, an agent-created structure is fundamentally different than a structure that naturally occurs.

Realistic motives: (1) indoctrination through the education system of the teachers (unintentional in the west, but intentional in the former Soviet Union, China, and North Korea as it logically leads to Atheism and a population of Atheists is easier to control by threats of bodily harm or loss in this life than those who believe there is more than this life.) (2) Peer pressure, a good force to keep people accepting the modern day dogmas and norms.

The postulation of a creator, however, cannot be included in any theory because it's not a variable that can be tested and can be either proven or disproven.

again: "A theory is a generalization based on many observations and experiments; a well-tested, verified hypothesis that fits existing data and explains how processes or events are thought to occur. It is a basis for predicting future events or discoveries. Theories may be modified as new information is gained. This definition of a theory is in sharp contrast to colloquial usage, where people say something is “just a theory,” thereby intending to imply a great deal of uncertainty."

Not realistic at all.

Here are the issues that I see.

1) All education is to a certain extent indoctrination. We teach our kids truths and values and frameworks that they cannot question or dispute, and force them to maintain that knowledge. I mean, should we argue that the theory of relativity is a means to force kids to accept relativism? Heck, one could easily point to outright bias in history and literature selection, how come evolution is so really so controlling.

2) There are Christian evolutionists. Catholic biologist Kenneth Miller is a well known example, but he is not the only example, as the Catholic church accepts evolutionary theory as do a lot of mainstream Christians. So saying "evolution ergo atheism" is not such a quick thing to assert.

3) Nothing says that atheists are easier or more difficult to control. They aren't as nutty as YECs but Marxian revolutionaries were atheists, and they certainly were a difficult group to control. Not only that, but given the single issue voting nature of most extremist Christians, wouldn't it be better to get everyone to be a YEC and then use illegal abortion and illegal gay marriage to keep them in line?

4) If this is a conspiracy, how'd they get most scientists to go along with it? I mean, no matter what one says about ID and creation, one has to accept that those ideas are a very small minority at this point in the field. So, who orchestrated this massive control over society? This massive purging all of the thousands of our honest biologists? I mean, we do have to account for the change in the field of biology within a conspiracy kind of view as well if we take your route.

At what point can we just dismiss creationists as cranks like the 9/11 truthers, the anti-vaccination crowd, racists, anti-semites, people who believe in aliens, people who believe Elvis is still alive, people who believe Tupac is still alive, Marxists, etc? After all, couldn't each of those groups come up with "realistic motives" in the same way you attempted to? Couldn't their motives be just as good or even better than the things you thought of? I would think so.

And those who believe in an afterlife are more willing to do whatever they're told without fear of death or consequence. Ask any good soldier or suicide bomber.

While most of them are very ill-informed and misinformed, any decent level of investigation into the domestic lines of 9/11 would reveal that there's a lot more that needed investigating that was intentionally ignored. From Jeb Bush confiscating and destroying the records of the Venice Sheriff's department's files on Huffman Aviation to Marvin Bush's work as head of security for the world trade center buildings up until a couple months before the attacks. Also the very contradicting reports on Mohammed Atta from being very devout Muslims to reports from his Floridian girlfriend (and other locals who aren't associated with the flight school) saying he was partying and doing cocaine, drinking heavily, and hanging with very wealth German nationals. And those people have been gagged against saying anything on the matter.

Mass or energy curves spacetime. The curvature of spacetime is gravity.

As the physicist John Wheeler put it. Mass tells spacetime how to curve. And spacetime curvature tells mass how to move.

Nobody really know why mass/energy curves spacetime. Only how.


ruveyn

Suicide bombers, certainly. As for soldiers, not all American soldiers are Christians. Also, soldiers in the U.S. military have to respect, at least show respect, for whoever their president - their commander and chief - is, even if they hate them because they risk court martial if they don't and it's a rather petty thing to do.

Now if the president were Adolf Hitler...

Ah yes, Adolf Hitler. Now if the president were Groucho Marx...

Then he would be just as respectable as either the current president or the last.


Speaking of education I have five hours to help my girlfriend with her assignments and also complete these:



And the companies I have researched so far have been UPS INC., Target Corp., Lockheed Martin, and McDonald's.



"When the cat's away, the mice do be dancing!"

First off:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law

^And I was so glad that we hadn't traveled that route yet. Oh well.

Second: It isn't so much one religion as it is religion as a whole and specifically the Judeo-Christian theistic religions (which takes up most of the world's population).

Who's going to value life less? The person with no afterlife or the person who is promised the best things imaginable if they do as they're told?

It's the valuing of this passing life that allows argumentum ad baculum to be most effective.

Oh, and by the way, I finished my final project for the business class just now.