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And some more....
No matter what the event may be, and whether you think it is good or bad, it never seems to matter to you if it is happening far away. Take Afghanistan for example; we are aware in some peripheral way that there is a spot of bother out there. If we hunt hard enough through the column inches of the newspapers we may even find that people are dying out there (despite President Tony’s best efforts). We may also have heard of Camp X-Ray, where prisoners from the conflict are being held. Perhaps we have heard in passing about human rights abuses, or that English prisoners are being held there. Yet none of it is really real, because it is happening over there. We can therefore safely forget about it and get on with the important business of our daily grind.
Sometimes however, we are given cause to regret paying so little attention to events over the sea and far away. Apathy gives way to anger, mockery turns to indignation, indifference to embarrassment. I’ve been given cause to feel like that recently. For many happy years I have sat in my chair and poured all manner of scorn on those evangelical Christians in the USA who believe firmly in Creationism. They have allowed years of scientific study to gently pass them by and remain cheerfully mired in the superstitions and fairy tales of times gone past, when the world was simpler and so were the people whom they wished to have influence over. When several counties in the south of the US began to pass laws stating that creationism was to be given equal weight in school’s to evolution, far from being utterly horrified at the world’s most powerful nation taking a giant leap backwards, I could scarce contain my laughter, to say nothing of the satisfying feeling that most Englishmen get when Americans do something laughable such as elect a chimpanzee as their president.
I would wade through reams of print to find the reasoning that led to these schools saying (with a straight face) that the world was created in 7 days. Naturally, their reasoning caused one to believe that if they were created in 7 days then it was definitely a rush job on the part of God. All sorts of pseudo scientific titbits (“carbon dating is only approximate”), circumstantial guesswork (“there is a lack of fossils from key periods in the evolutionary timescale”), and downright lies (“only God could have created the world, for he has provided us with the Bible to show us that he did this”) were trotted out to any reporter who could keep the mocking grin from his face whilst the interview was conducted. In short, I revelled in the opportunity to point and laugh and stare at a group of people whose wilful stupidity and willingness to be manipulated into believing such nonsense confirmed so many long held prejudices about the good folk of Southern USA.
Well, don’t I now feel like the idiot?
I live near Newcastle upon Tyne in the north east of England. In the eyes of some, the north of England can be equated to the South of the USA; we’re supposedly a bit rougher round the edges, our accents are funny, and in general we’re a little less sophisticated than those from the richer south. Like those people of Southern USA, there is also a general sense of pride in our region. I personally am deeply in love with the northeast. I love the nightlife in Newcastle, the fact that rolling hills and countryside is only a few miles away, that money goes further here, I love the honesty and friendliness that is so prevalent here. Since returned to the region a few years ago, I have become a born again Geordie. Which makes my shock, shame, and anger at the events in Emmanuel College, Gateshead all the greater.
Emmanuel college is the first school in the UK to go the same route as those unevolved souls in America who wish to teach our children that dinosaurs did not exist, that the world is only 10,000 years old, and that fossils are simply rock formations placed there by God himself. It is their stated intention to churn out classrooms full of children whose spirit of inquiry will be blunted by the bland assertion that God created everything, and anything that contradicts that is either flawed as it comes from the mind of Man, or treacherous because it was put there by Satan to deceive us. How can it be that the place which I love more than any other is opening itself up to mockery by exactly the sort of smug git who would do things like laugh about the stupidity of those far away from himself?
The college is, in a way, a victim of it’s own success. It is partly private and partly state funded. It has been praised for the high number of exam passes that it is producing. A sister school is due to open in Middlesborough. However, the private finance comes from a gentleman who is passionately evangelical in his faith. And, as with most tiresome evangelists, he wants to spread the good word as far as possible. Hence the faith based science syllabus, which he and many of the teachers at Emmanuel wish to smear all over their pupil’s minds.
Yet why should this be such a bad thing? After all, it’s not as if teaching of evolution is being abandoned altogether. It is merely being given equal weight to creationism as theories for how we all came to be standing here now. And isn’t it a good thing to give children the choice to make up their own minds? Well, to be blunt, no. Can you really imagine evangelical teachers giving unbiased information about evolution when their own beliefs conflict and when they have the opportunity to tell the Truth to a class full of blank slates? And what about homework or essays? If a pupil were to write that he or she had taken account of both theories and found that evolution was the more plausible, would he be given the same grades as someone who had seen the light and accepted that only God could have created such a perfect and holy world?
Neither do the teaching plans of Emmanuel College bode well for the governmental preference that is being shown to faith-based schools at the moment. They don’t require as much state funding and so save money. These schools tend to do better in the yearly exam result league tables, and good luck to them for doing so. Consequently, more parents wish to send their children there. What if they decide that they too wish to teach the true word of God rather than Darwin’s distasteful and blasphemous theory? Does the idea of a generation who are taught to dismiss certain lines of enquiry with the blanket answer “God did it” scare anybody else as much as me? If you want an extreme example, let’s revisit the Afghanistan conflict. The Taliban and other assorted religious fanatics who are trying to show us how good God is by trying to kill as many people as possible originated from faith based schools in Pakistan. It was in these schools that they received their education, their absolute intolerance of anything that falls outside the scope of their religious beliefs, and their unshakeable knowledge that anyone who disagrees with them is the enemy. Why were these schools allowed to proliferate? Because they didn’t require state funding and so saved money.
Of course, I’m not saying that Emmanuel college will be the training ground for warriors of a Christian Jihad, but I am saying that it will encourage exactly the sort of narrow-mindedness that will be music to the ears of a failing and flagging church. This will also give the lapdog Church of England a little more courage to yap at the government and make some demands of its own. The Church and the State were separated for a very good reason. Please don’t let it take the introduction of parliamentary bills calling for the abolition of abortion or removal of sex education from schools to remind us why that separation continues to be a good idea.
No matter what the event may be, and whether you think it is good or bad, it never seems to matter to you if it is happening far away. Take Afghanistan for example; we are aware in some peripheral way that there is a spot of bother out there. If we hunt hard enough through the column inches of the newspapers we may even find that people are dying out there (despite President Tony’s best efforts). We may also have heard of Camp X-Ray, where prisoners from the conflict are being held. Perhaps we have heard in passing about human rights abuses, or that English prisoners are being held there. Yet none of it is really real, because it is happening over there. We can therefore safely forget about it and get on with the important business of our daily grind.
Sometimes however, we are given cause to regret paying so little attention to events over the sea and far away. Apathy gives way to anger, mockery turns to indignation, indifference to embarrassment. I’ve been given cause to feel like that recently. For many happy years I have sat in my chair and poured all manner of scorn on those evangelical Christians in the USA who believe firmly in Creationism. They have allowed years of scientific study to gently pass them by and remain cheerfully mired in the superstitions and fairy tales of times gone past, when the world was simpler and so were the people whom they wished to have influence over. When several counties in the south of the US began to pass laws stating that creationism was to be given equal weight in school’s to evolution, far from being utterly horrified at the world’s most powerful nation taking a giant leap backwards, I could scarce contain my laughter, to say nothing of the satisfying feeling that most Englishmen get when Americans do something laughable such as elect a chimpanzee as their president.
I would wade through reams of print to find the reasoning that led to these schools saying (with a straight face) that the world was created in 7 days. Naturally, their reasoning caused one to believe that if they were created in 7 days then it was definitely a rush job on the part of God. All sorts of pseudo scientific titbits (“carbon dating is only approximate”), circumstantial guesswork (“there is a lack of fossils from key periods in the evolutionary timescale”), and downright lies (“only God could have created the world, for he has provided us with the Bible to show us that he did this”) were trotted out to any reporter who could keep the mocking grin from his face whilst the interview was conducted. In short, I revelled in the opportunity to point and laugh and stare at a group of people whose wilful stupidity and willingness to be manipulated into believing such nonsense confirmed so many long held prejudices about the good folk of Southern USA.
Well, don’t I now feel like the idiot?
I live near Newcastle upon Tyne in the north east of England. In the eyes of some, the north of England can be equated to the South of the USA; we’re supposedly a bit rougher round the edges, our accents are funny, and in general we’re a little less sophisticated than those from the richer south. Like those people of Southern USA, there is also a general sense of pride in our region. I personally am deeply in love with the northeast. I love the nightlife in Newcastle, the fact that rolling hills and countryside is only a few miles away, that money goes further here, I love the honesty and friendliness that is so prevalent here. Since returned to the region a few years ago, I have become a born again Geordie. Which makes my shock, shame, and anger at the events in Emmanuel College, Gateshead all the greater.
Emmanuel college is the first school in the UK to go the same route as those unevolved souls in America who wish to teach our children that dinosaurs did not exist, that the world is only 10,000 years old, and that fossils are simply rock formations placed there by God himself. It is their stated intention to churn out classrooms full of children whose spirit of inquiry will be blunted by the bland assertion that God created everything, and anything that contradicts that is either flawed as it comes from the mind of Man, or treacherous because it was put there by Satan to deceive us. How can it be that the place which I love more than any other is opening itself up to mockery by exactly the sort of smug git who would do things like laugh about the stupidity of those far away from himself?
The college is, in a way, a victim of it’s own success. It is partly private and partly state funded. It has been praised for the high number of exam passes that it is producing. A sister school is due to open in Middlesborough. However, the private finance comes from a gentleman who is passionately evangelical in his faith. And, as with most tiresome evangelists, he wants to spread the good word as far as possible. Hence the faith based science syllabus, which he and many of the teachers at Emmanuel wish to smear all over their pupil’s minds.
Yet why should this be such a bad thing? After all, it’s not as if teaching of evolution is being abandoned altogether. It is merely being given equal weight to creationism as theories for how we all came to be standing here now. And isn’t it a good thing to give children the choice to make up their own minds? Well, to be blunt, no. Can you really imagine evangelical teachers giving unbiased information about evolution when their own beliefs conflict and when they have the opportunity to tell the Truth to a class full of blank slates? And what about homework or essays? If a pupil were to write that he or she had taken account of both theories and found that evolution was the more plausible, would he be given the same grades as someone who had seen the light and accepted that only God could have created such a perfect and holy world?
Neither do the teaching plans of Emmanuel College bode well for the governmental preference that is being shown to faith-based schools at the moment. They don’t require as much state funding and so save money. These schools tend to do better in the yearly exam result league tables, and good luck to them for doing so. Consequently, more parents wish to send their children there. What if they decide that they too wish to teach the true word of God rather than Darwin’s distasteful and blasphemous theory? Does the idea of a generation who are taught to dismiss certain lines of enquiry with the blanket answer “God did it” scare anybody else as much as me? If you want an extreme example, let’s revisit the Afghanistan conflict. The Taliban and other assorted religious fanatics who are trying to show us how good God is by trying to kill as many people as possible originated from faith based schools in Pakistan. It was in these schools that they received their education, their absolute intolerance of anything that falls outside the scope of their religious beliefs, and their unshakeable knowledge that anyone who disagrees with them is the enemy. Why were these schools allowed to proliferate? Because they didn’t require state funding and so saved money.
Of course, I’m not saying that Emmanuel college will be the training ground for warriors of a Christian Jihad, but I am saying that it will encourage exactly the sort of narrow-mindedness that will be music to the ears of a failing and flagging church. This will also give the lapdog Church of England a little more courage to yap at the government and make some demands of its own. The Church and the State were separated for a very good reason. Please don’t let it take the introduction of parliamentary bills calling for the abolition of abortion or removal of sex education from schools to remind us why that separation continues to be a good idea.
Page:
Light wrote:
> Forest Fan wrote:
>
>
> Blah blah blah PLEASE pay attention to me! I'm significant! Really!!
>
>
> Well, words to that effect anyway...
Just answered the question, isn't that what you wanted?
> Forest Fan wrote:
>
>
> Blah blah blah PLEASE pay attention to me! I'm significant! Really!!
>
>
> Well, words to that effect anyway...
Just answered the question, isn't that what you wanted?
Hedfix wrote:
> Light wrote:
> Science looks at the evidence and formulates
> a theory. Religion forms the theory then looks for evidence to
> support it.
>
> Actually Science also forms theories then looks for evidence to
> support it.
A valid point. I should have said that GOOD science...etc. After all, scientists are as fallible as anybody else...
> Light wrote:
> Science looks at the evidence and formulates
> a theory. Religion forms the theory then looks for evidence to
> support it.
>
> Actually Science also forms theories then looks for evidence to
> support it.
A valid point. I should have said that GOOD science...etc. After all, scientists are as fallible as anybody else...
Another view to take is the more complex things get the more chance they have of being wrong or of having elements which are wrong. This I think can be applied pretty well to both Religion and Science.
Forest Fan wrote:
> Blah blah blah PLEASE pay attention to me! I'm significant! Really!!
Well, words to that effect anyway...
> Blah blah blah PLEASE pay attention to me! I'm significant! Really!!
Well, words to that effect anyway...
Light wrote:
> Science looks at the evidence and formulates
> a theory. Religion forms the theory then looks for evidence to
> support it.
Actually Science also forms theories then looks for evidence to support it.
I've a quote from one of Howard Marx's books:
"I became interested in confirmation theory: what evidence do scientists need to end up believing the things they do? A paradox arises when considering hypothesis of the general form 'All X are Y', for example, 'All ravens are black', togeather with what sort of evidence would tend to make the believable. One could begin by looking at a raven to see if it is black. If it is black, then this observation confirms the hypothesis to a limited extent. If one looked at thousands of ravens, and they were all black, then these observations would further confirm the hypothesis. 'All X are Y' is logically equivalent to 'All non-Y are non-X.' The two propositions 'All ravens are black' and 'All non-black things are non-ravens' state the same fact. Therefore, observations of non-black non-ravens would confirm the hypothesis 'All ravens are black' just as much as they would 'All non-black things are non-ravens.' This leads to the counter-intuitive conclusion that observations of such things as red noses, white swans, etc. confirm the statement 'all ravens are black'. Everyone knows, of course, that they do not."
> Science looks at the evidence and formulates
> a theory. Religion forms the theory then looks for evidence to
> support it.
Actually Science also forms theories then looks for evidence to support it.
I've a quote from one of Howard Marx's books:
"I became interested in confirmation theory: what evidence do scientists need to end up believing the things they do? A paradox arises when considering hypothesis of the general form 'All X are Y', for example, 'All ravens are black', togeather with what sort of evidence would tend to make the believable. One could begin by looking at a raven to see if it is black. If it is black, then this observation confirms the hypothesis to a limited extent. If one looked at thousands of ravens, and they were all black, then these observations would further confirm the hypothesis. 'All X are Y' is logically equivalent to 'All non-Y are non-X.' The two propositions 'All ravens are black' and 'All non-black things are non-ravens' state the same fact. Therefore, observations of non-black non-ravens would confirm the hypothesis 'All ravens are black' just as much as they would 'All non-black things are non-ravens.' This leads to the counter-intuitive conclusion that observations of such things as red noses, white swans, etc. confirm the statement 'all ravens are black'. Everyone knows, of course, that they do not."
Light wrote:
> And some more....
>
>
>
> No matter what the event may be, and whether you think it is good or
> bad, it never seems to matter to you if it is happening far away.
> Take Afghanistan for example; we are aware in some peripheral way
> that there is a spot of bother out there. If we hunt hard enough
> through the column inches of the newspapers we may even find that
> people are dying out there (despite President Tony’s best efforts).
> We may also have heard of Camp X-Ray, where prisoners from the
> conflict are being held. Perhaps we have heard in passing about human
> rights abuses, or that English prisoners are being held there. Yet
> none of it is really real, because it is happening over there. We can
> therefore safely forget about it and get on with the important
> business of our daily grind.
>
> Sometimes however, we are given cause to regret paying so little
> attention to events over the sea and far away. Apathy gives way to
> anger, mockery turns to indignation, indifference to embarrassment.
> I’ve been given cause to feel like that recently. For many happy
> years I have sat in my chair and poured all manner of scorn on those
> evangelical Christians in the USA who believe firmly in Creationism.
> They have allowed years of scientific study to gently pass them by
> and remain cheerfully mired in the superstitions and fairy tales of
> times gone past, when the world was simpler and so were the people
> whom they wished to have influence over. When several counties in the
> south of the US began to pass laws stating that creationism was to be
> given equal weight in school’s to evolution, far from being utterly
> horrified at the world’s most powerful nation taking a giant leap
> backwards, I could scarce contain my laughter, to say nothing of the
> satisfying feeling that most Englishmen get when Americans do
> something laughable such as elect a chimpanzee as their president.
The people before the fall of man, were not stupid or characterless or anything abnormal, they were simply INNOCENT. Creationism, I believe should be taught with equal weight; thus allowing the pupil to in due course make up their mind and therefore not feel isolated in the classroom if they choose Creationism over Evolutionism. "a giant leap backwards", is how you described the idea of equal education opportunities. By enabling the student to make their own mind up, you are allowing them more freedom and free-will, which I believe would be a firm step forward for the current education system.
>
> I would wade through reams of print to find the reasoning that led
> to these schools saying (with a straight face) that the world was
> created in 7 days. Naturally, their reasoning caused one to believe
> that if they were created in 7 days then it was definitely a rush job
> on the part of God. All sorts of pseudo scientific titbits (“carbon
> dating is only approximate”), circumstantial guesswork (“there is a
> lack of fossils from key periods in the evolutionary timescale”), and
> downright lies (“only God could have created the world, for he has
> provided us with the Bible to show us that he did this”) were trotted
> out to any reporter who could keep the mocking grin from his face
> whilst the interview was conducted. In short, I revelled in the
> opportunity to point and laugh and stare at a group of people whose
> wilful stupidity and willingness to be manipulated into believing
> such nonsense confirmed so many long held prejudices about the good
> folk of Southern USA.
God did not make the world in 7 days, BUT in 6 days. On the sixth day man was created and on the seventh, GOD rested, which is a picture of 6000 years of man working hard and 1000 years of man resting when JESUS rules the world in the millennium.
> Well, don’t I now feel like the idiot?
So, you want to deny children freedom to how GOD created the world.
> I live near Newcastle upon Tyne in the north east of England. In the
> eyes of some, the north of England can be equated to the South of the
> USA; we’re supposedly a bit rougher round the edges, our accents are
> funny, and in general we’re a little less sophisticated than those
> from the richer south. Like those people of Southern USA, there is
> also a general sense of pride in our region. I personally am deeply
> in love with the northeast. I love the nightlife in Newcastle, the
> fact that rolling hills and countryside is only a few miles away,
> that money goes further here, I love the honesty and friendliness
> that is so prevalent here. Since returned to the region a few years
> ago, I have become a born again Geordie. Which makes my shock, shame,
> and anger at the events in Emmanuel College, Gateshead all the
> greater.
>
> Emmanuel college is the first school in the UK to go the same route
> as those unevolved souls in America who wish to teach our children
> that dinosaurs did not exist, that the world is only 10,000 years
> old, and that fossils are simply rock formations placed there by God
> himself. It is their stated intention to churn out classrooms full of
> children whose spirit of inquiry will be blunted by the bland
> assertion that God created everything, and anything that contradicts
> that is either flawed as it comes from the mind of Man, or
> treacherous because it was put there by Satan to deceive us. How can
> it be that the place which I love more than any other is opening
> itself up to mockery by exactly the sort of smug git who would do
> things like laugh about the stupidity of those far away from himself?
Well now I'm angry at Emmanuel college, denying the existence of dinosaurs! Teaching children the earth is 10,000 years old, when it is only 6,000 years old! Fossils are the same evidence for Creationists and Evolutionists!
> The college is, in a way, a victim of it’s own success. It is partly
> private and partly state funded. It has been praised for the high
> number of exam passes that it is producing. A sister school is due to
> open in Middlesborough. However, the private finance comes from a
> gentleman who is passionately evangelical in his faith. And, as with
> most tiresome evangelists, he wants to spread the good word as far as
> possible. Hence the faith based science syllabus, which he and many
> of the teachers at Emmanuel wish to smear all over their pupil’s
> minds.
>
> Yet why should this be such a bad thing? After all, it’s not as if
> teaching of evolution is being abandoned altogether. It is merely
> being given equal weight to creationism as theories for how we all
> came to be standing here now. And isn’t it a good thing to give
> children the choice to make up their own minds? Well, to be blunt,
> no. Can you really imagine evangelical teachers giving unbiased
> information about evolution when their own beliefs conflict and when
> they have the opportunity to tell the Truth to a class full of blank
> slates? And what about homework or essays? If a pupil were to write
> that he or she had taken account of both theories and found that
> evolution was the more plausible, would he be given the same grades
> as someone who had seen the light and accepted that only God could
> have created such a perfect and holy world?
So it's better than with an Evolutionist for a teacher, when if you write why Creation is plausible and Evolution breaks the Second Law of Thermodynamics, you get a 0?
> Neither do the teaching plans of Emmanuel College bode well for the
> governmental preference that is being shown to faith-based schools at
> the moment. They don’t require as much state funding and so save
> money. These schools tend to do better in the yearly exam result
> league tables, and good luck to them for doing so. Consequently, more
> parents wish to send their children there. What if they decide that
> they too wish to teach the true word of God rather than Darwin’s
> distasteful and blasphemous theory? Does the idea of a generation who
> are taught to dismiss certain lines of enquiry with the blanket
> answer “God did it” scare anybody else as much as me? If you want an
> extreme example, let’s revisit the Afghanistan conflict. The Taliban
> and other assorted religious fanatics who are trying to show us how
> good God is by trying to kill as many people as possible originated
> from faith based schools in Pakistan. It was in these schools that
> they received their education, their absolute intolerance of anything
> that falls outside the scope of their religious beliefs, and their
> unshakeable knowledge that anyone who disagrees with them is the
> enemy. Why were these schools allowed to proliferate? Because they
> didn’t require state funding and so saved money.
>
> Of course, I’m not saying that Emmanuel college will be the training
> ground for warriors of a Christian Jihad, but I am saying that it
> will encourage exactly the sort of narrow-mindedness that will be
> music to the ears of a failing and flagging church. This will also
> give the lapdog Church of England a little more courage to yap at the
> government and make some demands of its own. The Church and the State
> were separated for a very good reason. Please don’t let it take the
> introduction of parliamentary bills calling for the abolition of
> abortion or removal of sex education from schools to remind us why
> that separation continues to be a good idea.
And you think abortion is a good thing? It is MURDER, abortion is MURDER. What's worst is you are killing a tiny baby, not even developed, you are KILLING them. It is the most disgusting thing to do. If there was a mother and small baby in a room, and one of them had to be murdered, who should take the punishment? It should be the mother, because she is the adult in the room and has already had some of her life, the baby is innocent and cannot plead his case. I would love to see ABORTION banned, it is an atrocious act of murder that goes on bearing no punishment and mothers end up using morning after pills as contraception, even though, this again is murdering the baby. Abortion is only approraite when either the baby is going to die or the mother, rape is another matter, but for mothers to simply give up on their baby is totally wrong. The baby should have more rights than the mother, the baby should not simply be KILLED, that's not an answer! That is a savage act of murder, and should carry a life prison sentence, for MURDERING a baby.
Sex education should not be banned, it is important, but the US has it spot on by teachings youngsters the value of sex only inside marriage, by various abstinence messages reaches youths.
> And some more....
>
>
>
> No matter what the event may be, and whether you think it is good or
> bad, it never seems to matter to you if it is happening far away.
> Take Afghanistan for example; we are aware in some peripheral way
> that there is a spot of bother out there. If we hunt hard enough
> through the column inches of the newspapers we may even find that
> people are dying out there (despite President Tony’s best efforts).
> We may also have heard of Camp X-Ray, where prisoners from the
> conflict are being held. Perhaps we have heard in passing about human
> rights abuses, or that English prisoners are being held there. Yet
> none of it is really real, because it is happening over there. We can
> therefore safely forget about it and get on with the important
> business of our daily grind.
>
> Sometimes however, we are given cause to regret paying so little
> attention to events over the sea and far away. Apathy gives way to
> anger, mockery turns to indignation, indifference to embarrassment.
> I’ve been given cause to feel like that recently. For many happy
> years I have sat in my chair and poured all manner of scorn on those
> evangelical Christians in the USA who believe firmly in Creationism.
> They have allowed years of scientific study to gently pass them by
> and remain cheerfully mired in the superstitions and fairy tales of
> times gone past, when the world was simpler and so were the people
> whom they wished to have influence over. When several counties in the
> south of the US began to pass laws stating that creationism was to be
> given equal weight in school’s to evolution, far from being utterly
> horrified at the world’s most powerful nation taking a giant leap
> backwards, I could scarce contain my laughter, to say nothing of the
> satisfying feeling that most Englishmen get when Americans do
> something laughable such as elect a chimpanzee as their president.
The people before the fall of man, were not stupid or characterless or anything abnormal, they were simply INNOCENT. Creationism, I believe should be taught with equal weight; thus allowing the pupil to in due course make up their mind and therefore not feel isolated in the classroom if they choose Creationism over Evolutionism. "a giant leap backwards", is how you described the idea of equal education opportunities. By enabling the student to make their own mind up, you are allowing them more freedom and free-will, which I believe would be a firm step forward for the current education system.
>
> I would wade through reams of print to find the reasoning that led
> to these schools saying (with a straight face) that the world was
> created in 7 days. Naturally, their reasoning caused one to believe
> that if they were created in 7 days then it was definitely a rush job
> on the part of God. All sorts of pseudo scientific titbits (“carbon
> dating is only approximate”), circumstantial guesswork (“there is a
> lack of fossils from key periods in the evolutionary timescale”), and
> downright lies (“only God could have created the world, for he has
> provided us with the Bible to show us that he did this”) were trotted
> out to any reporter who could keep the mocking grin from his face
> whilst the interview was conducted. In short, I revelled in the
> opportunity to point and laugh and stare at a group of people whose
> wilful stupidity and willingness to be manipulated into believing
> such nonsense confirmed so many long held prejudices about the good
> folk of Southern USA.
God did not make the world in 7 days, BUT in 6 days. On the sixth day man was created and on the seventh, GOD rested, which is a picture of 6000 years of man working hard and 1000 years of man resting when JESUS rules the world in the millennium.
> Well, don’t I now feel like the idiot?
So, you want to deny children freedom to how GOD created the world.
> I live near Newcastle upon Tyne in the north east of England. In the
> eyes of some, the north of England can be equated to the South of the
> USA; we’re supposedly a bit rougher round the edges, our accents are
> funny, and in general we’re a little less sophisticated than those
> from the richer south. Like those people of Southern USA, there is
> also a general sense of pride in our region. I personally am deeply
> in love with the northeast. I love the nightlife in Newcastle, the
> fact that rolling hills and countryside is only a few miles away,
> that money goes further here, I love the honesty and friendliness
> that is so prevalent here. Since returned to the region a few years
> ago, I have become a born again Geordie. Which makes my shock, shame,
> and anger at the events in Emmanuel College, Gateshead all the
> greater.
>
> Emmanuel college is the first school in the UK to go the same route
> as those unevolved souls in America who wish to teach our children
> that dinosaurs did not exist, that the world is only 10,000 years
> old, and that fossils are simply rock formations placed there by God
> himself. It is their stated intention to churn out classrooms full of
> children whose spirit of inquiry will be blunted by the bland
> assertion that God created everything, and anything that contradicts
> that is either flawed as it comes from the mind of Man, or
> treacherous because it was put there by Satan to deceive us. How can
> it be that the place which I love more than any other is opening
> itself up to mockery by exactly the sort of smug git who would do
> things like laugh about the stupidity of those far away from himself?
Well now I'm angry at Emmanuel college, denying the existence of dinosaurs! Teaching children the earth is 10,000 years old, when it is only 6,000 years old! Fossils are the same evidence for Creationists and Evolutionists!
> The college is, in a way, a victim of it’s own success. It is partly
> private and partly state funded. It has been praised for the high
> number of exam passes that it is producing. A sister school is due to
> open in Middlesborough. However, the private finance comes from a
> gentleman who is passionately evangelical in his faith. And, as with
> most tiresome evangelists, he wants to spread the good word as far as
> possible. Hence the faith based science syllabus, which he and many
> of the teachers at Emmanuel wish to smear all over their pupil’s
> minds.
>
> Yet why should this be such a bad thing? After all, it’s not as if
> teaching of evolution is being abandoned altogether. It is merely
> being given equal weight to creationism as theories for how we all
> came to be standing here now. And isn’t it a good thing to give
> children the choice to make up their own minds? Well, to be blunt,
> no. Can you really imagine evangelical teachers giving unbiased
> information about evolution when their own beliefs conflict and when
> they have the opportunity to tell the Truth to a class full of blank
> slates? And what about homework or essays? If a pupil were to write
> that he or she had taken account of both theories and found that
> evolution was the more plausible, would he be given the same grades
> as someone who had seen the light and accepted that only God could
> have created such a perfect and holy world?
So it's better than with an Evolutionist for a teacher, when if you write why Creation is plausible and Evolution breaks the Second Law of Thermodynamics, you get a 0?
> Neither do the teaching plans of Emmanuel College bode well for the
> governmental preference that is being shown to faith-based schools at
> the moment. They don’t require as much state funding and so save
> money. These schools tend to do better in the yearly exam result
> league tables, and good luck to them for doing so. Consequently, more
> parents wish to send their children there. What if they decide that
> they too wish to teach the true word of God rather than Darwin’s
> distasteful and blasphemous theory? Does the idea of a generation who
> are taught to dismiss certain lines of enquiry with the blanket
> answer “God did it” scare anybody else as much as me? If you want an
> extreme example, let’s revisit the Afghanistan conflict. The Taliban
> and other assorted religious fanatics who are trying to show us how
> good God is by trying to kill as many people as possible originated
> from faith based schools in Pakistan. It was in these schools that
> they received their education, their absolute intolerance of anything
> that falls outside the scope of their religious beliefs, and their
> unshakeable knowledge that anyone who disagrees with them is the
> enemy. Why were these schools allowed to proliferate? Because they
> didn’t require state funding and so saved money.
>
> Of course, I’m not saying that Emmanuel college will be the training
> ground for warriors of a Christian Jihad, but I am saying that it
> will encourage exactly the sort of narrow-mindedness that will be
> music to the ears of a failing and flagging church. This will also
> give the lapdog Church of England a little more courage to yap at the
> government and make some demands of its own. The Church and the State
> were separated for a very good reason. Please don’t let it take the
> introduction of parliamentary bills calling for the abolition of
> abortion or removal of sex education from schools to remind us why
> that separation continues to be a good idea.
And you think abortion is a good thing? It is MURDER, abortion is MURDER. What's worst is you are killing a tiny baby, not even developed, you are KILLING them. It is the most disgusting thing to do. If there was a mother and small baby in a room, and one of them had to be murdered, who should take the punishment? It should be the mother, because she is the adult in the room and has already had some of her life, the baby is innocent and cannot plead his case. I would love to see ABORTION banned, it is an atrocious act of murder that goes on bearing no punishment and mothers end up using morning after pills as contraception, even though, this again is murdering the baby. Abortion is only approraite when either the baby is going to die or the mother, rape is another matter, but for mothers to simply give up on their baby is totally wrong. The baby should have more rights than the mother, the baby should not simply be KILLED, that's not an answer! That is a savage act of murder, and should carry a life prison sentence, for MURDERING a baby.
Sex education should not be banned, it is important, but the US has it spot on by teachings youngsters the value of sex only inside marriage, by various abstinence messages reaches youths.
Spot on; the place for creationism is in Religious Studies classes. Evolution is for science classes. The science used by creationist is too appalling for words. Science looks at the evidence and formulates a theory. Religion forms the theory then looks for evidence to support it.
Yeah, what Duck said.
Having said that, they SHOULD be teaching religion in RELIGION classes.
By the by, the school doesn't choose it's A level or GCSE science syllabus, or SATS for that matter. I wonder what the teachers say for them (bearing in mind that the school as a VERY good reputation and wants to keep it that way! :-D).
"Ok kids! We know that evolution is really a load of rubbish, and that God created everything, but just for this test, lets pretend that evolution really happened.... because... erm... God wants to play 'opposites' with you all today! :-)"
"Ok miss! In that case I'll admit that I believe in him!"
:-)
Seeing as it's a secondary school, I can't see the kids being that easily fooled. I mean, I went through my secondary education through a catholic school, and I was the only one in the class with a REMOTE bit of faith. :-D
Although the class did love the Bible being read to them:
"and then Jesus put his hand on him" **class laughter**
Once we were given a task to illustrate some parables in a sketch, and one group got the spreading of the word of God. :-)
They put a "men's room" sign on the class room door and the girl in the group introduced it.
2 of the lads walked in holding hands and went to the third saying "do you want to join our community?".
He said "ok" to which they replied "come right this way then." and they led him out the classroom door... which had the "men's room" sign on it! :-D
The class erupted, and so did our teacher! ;-)
Although it IS different at our school.
No one is trying to pretend that ANY part of the Bible is science! :-D
Having said that, they SHOULD be teaching religion in RELIGION classes.
By the by, the school doesn't choose it's A level or GCSE science syllabus, or SATS for that matter. I wonder what the teachers say for them (bearing in mind that the school as a VERY good reputation and wants to keep it that way! :-D).
"Ok kids! We know that evolution is really a load of rubbish, and that God created everything, but just for this test, lets pretend that evolution really happened.... because... erm... God wants to play 'opposites' with you all today! :-)"
"Ok miss! In that case I'll admit that I believe in him!"
:-)
Seeing as it's a secondary school, I can't see the kids being that easily fooled. I mean, I went through my secondary education through a catholic school, and I was the only one in the class with a REMOTE bit of faith. :-D
Although the class did love the Bible being read to them:
"and then Jesus put his hand on him" **class laughter**
Once we were given a task to illustrate some parables in a sketch, and one group got the spreading of the word of God. :-)
They put a "men's room" sign on the class room door and the girl in the group introduced it.
2 of the lads walked in holding hands and went to the third saying "do you want to join our community?".
He said "ok" to which they replied "come right this way then." and they led him out the classroom door... which had the "men's room" sign on it! :-D
The class erupted, and so did our teacher! ;-)
Although it IS different at our school.
No one is trying to pretend that ANY part of the Bible is science! :-D
Loquacious Duck wrote:
> So bite me :^p
OOH, vicious.
> So bite me :^p
OOH, vicious.
The post wasn't directly relevant to any of the current points in those threads, at least not that I know of.
But it was directly relevant to a point at the heart of this thread.
So bite me :^p
But it was directly relevant to a point at the heart of this thread.
So bite me :^p
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