Comments on: The ICR Master’s of Creation Research: An On Line Teaching Degree

By: Ex-drone

Ex-drone — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 13:07:57 +0000

Sir Walter Scott:

Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive.

I attended an anti-evolution rant by the ICR once. It is amazing how much they have to contort science, history and factual evidence to create a framework out of creation, a young Earth, Eden and Noah’s ark. To get a consistent curriculum, the scientific and historical facts need to be very pliant, especially over time as contradictory evidence continues to be presented. I’m amazed they can keep all their lies straight.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 20:25:00 +0000

Skwee! Something like one in three biology teachers are creationists. I know people who teach in schools where there are creationists, and they need to bee constantly vigilant. It is happening all the time!

By: Skwee

Skwee — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 20:11:45 +0000

This is just a hunch- I was thankfully not exposed to militant creationist teachers in school-but who here thinks there is a good chance that some high school teacher, somewhere, is clandestinely teaching creationism. I recall reading in Edward Humes’ “Monkey Girl” that there have been a few cases of teachers being fired after a student reported his or her teacher for teaching creationism. Anybody who has personal experience with something like this is welcome to share it.

By: Jeb, FCD

Jeb, FCD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:41:20 +0000

I remember how shocked and awed I was as a freshman in college when I learned about the apocryphal, read Gilgamesh, and learned that every culture that grew up near a river had a Great Flood legend.

After getting over my shock, I got pissed that I was lied to by the grown-ups, and especially the ones who said “Thou shalt not lie.”

When I was leaving for college, I wondered why everyone in my baptist church said that people are going to try and change your mind about a lot of things. They said pray and I would be ok.

Well, no one changed my mind. I changed my mind after learning facts. I think that is one reason I detest religion and religionists so much now. Brainwashing prats.

By: Billy (A Liberal Disabled Vet)

Billy (A Liberal Disabled Vet) — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 13:21:51 +0000

Elf Eye: Bravo. I had a history as literature course in college co-taught by a history professor and a world lit/classical lit professor. One of the students in the class got up and walked out when we began discussing the later books of the old testament because the history prof refered to the book as a ‘flawed history written in the days when histories were meant to glorify or excuse the status quo.’ Too bad he left. It was a good conversation. But I agree that a creationist would be very uncomfortable with the ‘holy bible’ being subject to the same criticism as other literature taught at the high school or college leve.

By: Elf Eye

Elf Eye — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 12:01:47 +0000

As an English professor who teaches World Literature, I watch with amusement every time my students read Gilgamesh just prior to dipping into Genesis. They never fail to be perplexed by the fact that the flood narrative in Gilgamesh was composed long before the one in Genesis that incorporates so many of the same elements as the earlier one. They look back and forth between the time line and the accompanying map that shows that the ancestors of the Israelites lived in the region where Gilgamesh was composed. You can just see those (non-irreducibly complex) wheels in their head turning. They also read a translation of Genesis that preserves names such as Yahweh in places where many translations insert God. That helps ‘defamiliarize’ the text so that most of the students become able to apply the same rules of literary analysis to Genesis as they apply to the other readings in the course. Believe me, the last place a Creationist should want his religious texts to be taught is in a course where said texts will not be ‘privileged’.

By: Billy (A Liberal Disabled Vet)

Billy (A Liberal Disabled Vet) — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 11:23:24 +0000

Don’t forget goalpost moving. That’s another unethical practice for which we should be on the lookout. Or arguing from lack of evidence (the so-called missing missing links (of course everytime a ‘misssing link’ is found, it creates to more gaps)), or arguing from ignorance (I don’t see how the eye could have evolved so god must have designed it).

In high school, my biology teacher (freshman year) decided he did not want to teach evolution. What he said to the class was, “I am a biologist. I know Darwinism is a lie. So I will not teach it.” At least if the cretinists (sorry, creationists (must be polite, must be polite)) are labeled as such through their certification or master’s degree, It would certainly help. Of course, the class they teach would have to be moved from the science department to the philosophy department.

Or maybe the English department where they can study mythology and fiction.

By: Jeremy Mohn

Jeremy Mohn — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 11:11:29 +0000

“Texas is the new Kansas.”

The flurry of recent events in Texas demonstrates a level of institutional support for creationism that is much more significant than anything we’ve ever had here in Kansas.

I guess it’s true that everything is bigger in Texas.

By: mark

mark — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 10:17:37 +0000

As a former member of a state licensing board, I appreciate the importance of having the state certify practitioners in a specialty field. You wouldn’t want teachers of Creationism not to be certified–how else would you know that a Creationism teacher was not full of silly, unscientific ideas? How would you keep out those who engage in unethical practices, such as quote mining?