Mood

: Wow! That is all I can say, just wow.

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: LOL

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: It's true...I can't make that up :S ....sad but true lol

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Mood

: Clever list of suggestions. This couples with what I wrote few weeks ago about unfollowing.

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Mood

Mood

: Granted, this is a much different issue here in the states, but the issue is still something we will deal with more in the coming years. I think that eventually the question has to come down to this, how would these Christian families react if we started teaching children all the various creationist theories? What if we brought in the Muslim creation story, taught the Native American creation story, the Buddhist, the Shintoist, and on and on down the line?

To me this isn't so much about teaching creationism as it is an attempt by Christian fundamentalists (yep, I'm gonna go there) to bring only their view alongside the theory of evolution (which I personally loathe to see called Darwinism). What about all the others?

@michaelfidler, @homosuperior, @thekookfringecom, @jasongoldberg, @thomaspower and anyone else I'm leaving out, i would be very interested to hear your thoughts on this issue.

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: I'm not suggesting that creationism be taught as science. I agree that there is no empirical evidence that would support this. I am suggesting however that bringing it up as a topic when teaching evolution (so that students know that there are people with differing points of view on the matter - hence, educating them) does not arise to the level of heresy that the media would have us believe. The idea of bringing it up as philosophy is also fine, but again, in public schools the media would have a heyday with it. So much for the idea that education is supposed to be about “learning”, not about “maintaining a comfort zone”.

As for teachers espousing religious points of view, I do agree that no viewpoint should be shoved down a student’s throat but it is ridiculous to ask people to leave their system of beliefs at the door. That is simply asking for freedom from religion; something that you have already agreed that nobody is entitled to.

Just playing Devil’s advocate here but if a teacher professes to their class that he is an atheist or agnostic, does that hurt anyone. And if the answer is “no”, then tell me how a teacher saying he or she believes in God hurts you or anyone else. It may make you uncomfortable, but so what. I can virtually guarantee that in the case of the latter, some parents, pundits and the media would be up in arms. But in the case of the former, nobody would say or do anything. Frankly, if one is wrong, so is the other. And putting a stop to either points back to freedom from religion as both deal with issues of faith.

It should also be pointed out that the Constitution provides for both freedom of religion and freedom of speech, period. It doesn’t say “freedom of religion and freedom of speech unless you work for the government in which case you are free to practice your system of beliefs only on your off hours, but when on the clock your freedom of speech and religion are both restricted.” I am fairly certain that the courts have diverged rather dramatically from the founders intent on this one.

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: Why are we appealing to tradition or the will of the founding fathers here? The founding fathers almost all would have certainly expected everyone to keep slaves but most can agree that is certainly immoral. It seems to me we should evaluate what is moral apart from the intentions of anyone regardless of their role in forming the nation in which we live. It is intuitive that, if religious people are free to practice religion that non-religious people should be free not to and tax money of the collective populace should not be used to espouse a particular belief system. I would argue that a teacher's religious belief should certainly be left at the door.

There are certain restrictions that come along with employment by any entity private or public. In fact, I would argue that restrictions on public employees should be more stringent since they are employed by the general population. They should be required to serve the populace as a whole not whatever religious faction happens to be vogue at the particular moment in time.

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Mood