Separation anxiety

I watched the Nova presentation of Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial on PBS the other day and while I had seen the last hour the first time they ran it during prime time I missed the first part of it. After having now seen it all in it's entirety all I can say about it is, "Wow. That's the way every documentary should be made. Especially ones about science and the separation of church and state." You can see the film by clicking here and for those of you who don't know what this film is about, it tells the story behind the court case in Dover, PA that struck down the teaching of intelligent design in our public schools.


Intelligent design, for those of you who don't know or who need a good laugh, is the Christian answer to evolution. It used to be called "Creationism" but it had to change it's name to intelligent design after a court ruled that creationism was nothing more than religion masquerading as science in public school classrooms. Both theories hold that life on earth is too complex to have ever evolved on it's own over time and therefore some life sprung into existence fully formed and it did so through a creator or intelligent designer, i. e. God. It's important to note that there is no body of scientific work to back up any claims made by the backers of intelligent design and that no reputable college, university, or think tank is doing any sort of research into proving that intelligent design is a valid scientific theory.


On the other hand most every university, college, think tank, and scientific group is out there every day working and proving the validity of evolution and the evolutionary process. Some small minded sound science hating Christians, and to be fair there are Muslims who join them in their beliefs, hate the theory of evolution and do not want it's precepts taught or advanced. They do this in spite of the fact that Darwin's theory of evolution has been proven to be correct time after time and that every day it becomes clearer and clearer that Darwin was right when he theorized that all living things descend from a common ancestor. The small minded religious idiots say that Darwin is counter to what they read in their Bible or Koran and that god created all things and that we sprang from his hand and not from a common ancestor.


They also claim that the earth, despite all evidence to the contrary, is only 6000 or so years old and that man and dinosaurs roamed the earth together.
Some of them also claim that Kirk Cameron is a good actor as well. I would disagree with them on all of those assertions.


While watching the documentary on the Kitzmiller v. Dover School Board case one thing becomes clear, the push to teach intelligent design along side evolution in the Dover, PA biology classrooms was nothing more than a push to get a particular religion taught in public school. The board members who wanted a statement that said that evolution was not the only theory that explained how life on earth came about clearly state in the film that they want their Christian view of things pushed on others. In other words they wanted to break down the wall that separates church and state.


"Now why would that be a bad thing?" you might ask. "After all most of the people in this country are some form of Christian, aren't they?"

You'd be right. Christians, despite what some of them say, are in the majority in this country when it comes to religion. All the other religions come in a distant second compared to how many Christians there are. So why shouldn't they be allowed to teach their doctrine of how their god created life on earth in public school classrooms which are funded by your tax dollars?

Reason number one is their theory of intelligent design doesn't hold any water. It relies on the supernatural to explain how life comes about and adapts to it's surroundings. And it's not a scientific theory, it's a theory based on faith, not provable scientific fact.

Reason number two, and this is the clincher, is if you allow a religious doctrine masquerading as science to be taught then which religion gets to be the one that is taught? I'm sure the Jeebus loving evangelicals would not want a Muslim theory of how life came about to be taught. And if it's decided that only a Christian theory is taught, which sect of Christianity gets it's views pushed in the class room? Would the Free Will Baptists be comfortable with a Quaker based theory of how life arose? Would a conservative United Methodist be okay with a liberal Presbyterian teaching a brand of creationism? I'm sure the Roman Catholics wouldn't want a snake handler teaching biology to their kids.


And that's why it's best that no religion, none at all, not any sect of Christianity, not Judaism, not any form of Islam, not the Rastafarian religion, no one, be allowed to teach their unscientific version of biology, or chemistry, or math, or history, or language arts, or anything in the public schools. It's best that since we all believe differently when it comes to religion that no religious viewpoint be taught in public school classrooms. The place for the teaching of the religious viewpoints is in the home and in whatever church you go to and not in the public schools.


In the small rural school where I went to high school we had many a preacher come in and give sermons, especially if there was a revival going on in town somewhere and it made me furious that they were allowed to do so. It made me mad not because I was an atheist at that time, I in fact was a believer back then, it made me mad because they were pushing one religion to the exclusion of all the others.


Religion has no place in public schools and if your faith in your churches power to make believers out of people is so low that you have to use the schools to troll for new converts then I feel sorry for you and your church. Schools are supposed to be places for learning, not for religious indoctrination. And the biology classroom has no place for crack pot quasi supernatural theories put forth by religious whack jobs. They may hate Darwin and the theory of evolution but it's been proven to be correct time after time and their theory of a god who creates new species fully formed out of whole cloth is as nutty and the theory of spontaneous generation or the theory that the earth is flat.


Hopefully now that the idiot, draft dodging, murdering, lying, thieving, sound science hating George W. Bush is out of office maybe the religious right will slow their efforts to make our school children stupider. Bush asked, "Is our children learnin'?" I hope we can answer, "Yeah dumb ass, they're learning sound science and not that creationist mumbo jumbo you thought should be taught along side evolution."