Creepy: Anti-science types...

[LuckyTheDog]

... ruining it for the rest of us:

http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/stories/2008/10/27/teachers_evolution_emory.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13

Some students burst into tears when a high school biology teacher told them they’d be studying evolution. Another teacher said some students repeatedly screamed “no” when he began talking about it.

Other teachers said students demanded to know whether they pray and questioned why they had to learn about evolution if it was just a theory.

About 60 public high school teachers from the Atlanta area were at Emory University last week, swapping stories about the challenges they face when teaching evolution.

They said students often walk in with grave misconceptions about the subject, and many parents fear teachers will tell kids that they can’t have their religious beliefs.

“I’ve seen churches train students to come to school with specific questions to ask to sabotage my lessons,” said Bonnie Pratt, a biology teacher at Northview High in north Fulton County. “We need parents and the community to understand why and how we teach evolution.”

[YOY]

1. That we have to do this in the 21st century is pathetic.

Thank what-ever-exists that I got my Catholic School education where NOBODY questioned it in any non-sensical way.

Bitch all you want about Catholics. They don't pull this shit.

[realisticphish]

2. indeed

look at the Jesuits, for god's sake (ha). Not to say that there aren't anti-science catholics, because there are a hell of a lot. But in general, the catholic church seems to pride itself on being vaguely scientific

[YOY]

6. The Church themselves are "vaguely scientific"

The educational system they endorse is 100% scientific.

I'd like to think that Vatican II was the (better late than never) realization that they really screwed the pooch with their persecution of Galileo.

[realisticphish]

23. oh sure

well, excluding religion classes, but that would be pedantic to mention

[YOY]

26. Those classes never dared to contradict science.

We laughed through most of them though...did you go to Catholic School as well?

[realisticphish]

29. no

but several close friends did. And most of them weren't religious, they just wanted a private education, so they did the same :)

[YOY]

31. Meh...most of my Catholic classmates turned out pretty OK.

My family has 4 Democratic kids and we all went K-12 Catholic ed. Of course my brother and I are pretty agnostic these days...

There are a few of my classmates who vote pug that I still talk to. Mostly of ignorance or some weird sense of entitlement.

I scared the shit out of one of them who is a union worker that had NEVER gotten along with my "intellectual college boy" attitude who was shocked that are both Democrats. I wasn't shocked at all. I explained my reasons and that they coincided with his reasons. We've gotten along well since.

[realisticphish]

33. that seems to be common

a LOT of people who went to catholic school that i know are agnostic, or at least non practicing

[YOY]

38. One of the reasons why I don't mind sending my daughter there

Her mother disagrees though.

[RethugAssKicker]

3. This is frightening !

I learned evolution in the early seventies.... and this BS is
actually happening almost 40 years later?

We are devolving into dumb assess !

[Kazak]

37. Are we not men?

[cliffordu]

4. People who do that to their children are the strongest argument against evolution

there could possibly be....

[TahitiNut]

22. "People who can't add or subtract get married and multiply."

In a way, it's "natural selection" at work ... creating a concentration of idiocy at the shallow end of the gene pool. After all, how stupid does one have to be to marry stupid? Await the chlorine.

:evilgrin:

[ProdigalJunkMail]

5. ummm...

“I’ve seen churches train students to come to school with specific questions to ask to sabotage my lessons,” said Bonnie Pratt, a biology teacher at Northview High in north Fulton County.

what the heck does that mean? sabotage? with questions?

sP

[YOY]

8. With misinformation.

There are a shitload of Jack Chick tracts that are dedicated to pointing out "flaws" with evolution. At times they are disproven theories being brought back into the light and at other times they are straight out lies.

Enjoy the disection of the thoughts of imbeciles here:

http://www.enterthejabberwock.com/?p=561

http://www.enterthejabberwock.com/?p=642

http://www.enterthejabberwock.com/?p=610

[ProdigalJunkMail]

9. i would think that an aptly trained educator

would be able to quash those things with certainty. i teach a good bit, and misinformation is something that i step on with verve! it can be done with tact...and should be done.

sP

[YOY]

10. I updated the previous link with a humorous dissection of Fundie attacks on Darwin.

Enjoy.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

11. humorous as those are...

i still don't see them being ANY sabotage to a class in biology...

sP

[YOY]

13. There is better and ones that try to "stick to facts"

The chick ones are just so easy to laugh at though...

[ProdigalJunkMail]

17. they do make me smile ... n/t

[Swamp Rat]

18. Excellent!!

The dissections are great. :applause:

[Winterblues]

14. Maybe the correct word would be disrupt

Just as disrupter's are handled here so should they be in the classroom. If they won't sit down and shut up and do the work required then they need to be removed from the classroom. It is not the children's prerogative to question the teacher. That is for the principle unless the teacher asks for questions that is..

[Fuzz]

15. Always question is great. Disrupt and refuse to learn is not.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

16. much better...

disrupt is exactly the word that could be applied here...i guess as a teacher you would have to be sensitive as to whether the question was intended to disrupt or a legit concern...

sP

[central scrutinizer]

7. Okay, then when you get sick

make sure the doctor you choose has his or her knowledge of disease processes firmly rooted in the Bible, not modern science. Actually, maybe trepanning would let some of the nonsense leak out.

[Swamp Rat]

12. yikes

x(

[Javaman]

19. and people say there is no such thing as a right wing taliban in this nation. nt

[RainDog]

20. vomit

stupid, stupid, stupid.

I hate fundies for making my nation a laughing stock with their brainwashing of children.

[Wilber_Stool]

21. Here's the poop

from Scientific American.
In addition to the fifteen questions, another problem teachers have is that the fundies can't distinguish between evolution and the beginning of life. They see them as the same argument when it is easy to see how evolution and religion can coexist.

[TahitiNut]

24. "God created Man in His image."

The narcissistic 'Christian' regards himself as the Purpose of Creation itself. For such a self-absorbed creature to entertain the notion that all life, including humanity, is STILL evolving would be to reject the basis upon which they found their 'faith' - i.e. that it's ALL ABOUT THEM.

[Incitatus]

25. I remember thinking creationism and the flood was BS when I was a kid in Sunday school.

It's hard to believe how many grown people swallow this crap.

[Suspicious]

32. Ha! Me, too!

I can remember thinking the whole lot of it was BS from the time I was very young. The last straw for my pastor was when he was driving me home from Catechism class and I flat-out told him that I did not believe one word he was saying, that he was full of it, and if my dog couldn't go to heaven, then I wasn't going either. He was absolutely horrified and couldn't wait to tell my parents what a troubled child I was.

It IS hard to believe how many adults swallow this crap...I know a high school literature teacher (who went to the same church I went to as a child, as a matter of fact) who believes in creationism. It just amazes me. :shrug:

[rasputin1952]

27. It is bad enough that most of us are ignorant in many areas...

but to force ignorance upon others is virtually a crime AFAIC.

I have no problem if some people want to believe the earth is flat, or that the stars, "are merely pinholes in a dome so God can watch us"...if ignorance is bliss, people like that are dancing in the streets.

But there is something of the appalling when we "force" others to believe what we simply perceive as truth. We are often wrong, and if we can be wrong once, we can be wrong quite often. Virtually the entire scientific community realizes that evolution is a fact, it is happening today, it has happened in the past, and will continue on into the future. The only areas of contention are really when and how life actually began and just how we fit into all of this...science is working on that and answers are not too far away.

Sadly, some people are still left at the bus stop, they just won't get on the bus unless it is the "right" bus...:(

[cobalt1999]

28. Anti-science folks abound in this country.

The thing that shocks me is that there are plenty on the left too.

[NeedleCast]

30. If the nutters are so concerned about theories being taught in school

you'd think they'd be attacking the theory of gravity too.

[Turbineguy]

34. OK, howz about

we teach science under the freedom of religious expression doctrine? Science, for those who believe in that shit.

:woohoo:

[Terran]

35. Start by teaching them the difference between a hypothesis

and a theory. I hear that crap so much--"It's just a theory!" Well sorry, it's not the same kind of theory you're thinking of, dumbass.

[ColbertWatcher]

36. Gravity is a theory! Teach the controversy! n/t

[TWiley]

39. It is too generous to call Religion a Theory ..... it is pure B,S,