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US House Science Committee Member: Evolution Is a Lie From Hell
First time accepted submitter badford writes "Representative Paul Broun (Georgia Republican) said that evolution, embryology and the Big Bang theory are 'lies straight from the pit of hell' meant to convince people that they do not need a savior. It would not be quite as shocking if Broun did not sit on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. What impact could this have on policy? What impact could this have on STEM education not just in Georgia but all over the U.S.?"
It's an election year. Don't believe anything they say. Republicans this year especially have been saying the craziest crap because they know crazy people are more likely to vote than sane ones, who long ago gave up and decided the world was run by crazy people. Oh, did you just see what I did there? :( This guy has a long list of failures politically and personally (4 marriages)... I suspect he'd wear a pink tutu and sing songs from Little Mermaid if he thought he'd get more votes.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
is there even a House Committee on Science, Space and Technology?
Set your phasers on "funky"!
It's on the internet. The fundamental enabling technology for the internet is the semiconductor. The semiconductor is a child of quantum mechanics - there is no classical behavior that would predict it. Even though quantum mechanics are present in all chemistry and even vacuum tubes, those both have classical behavior that can be seen with the naked eye, and appreciated without quantum mechanics.
Semiconductors can't. They're "Devil Science", just like those others.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
We certainly need a saviour from people like him
Shouldn't people stop having imaginary friends when they grow up? Especially imaginary friends with ulterior motives.
I'm not anti-religious, I'm anti-idiot. I'm fine with people believing in God, but not people who think that said belief means science is wrong.
I wonder what he would think of the Pope saying that there is no conflict between the theory of evolution and church doctrine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_and_evolution#Pope_John_Paul_II
The issue is this man is on a committee that helps oversee and draft science related bills in the House. Why are people like him and Akin get on these committees?
Why I believe that we need to do a great deal of redistricting and add more congress-critters. 435 people are just not enough to get a decent cross section or represent enough of the U.S. How can 1 person represent an average of 716,000 people.
Both... To get elected in America, you either need lots of $$$ or the backing of one of the two major political parties, hence $$$. The primary system in most states ensures that only candidates who can successfully pander to about 0.5% of the population (die hard party loyalists) ever make it on to the ballot for the general election. So it is often the case that you either need to be exceedingly ignorant, or a very good liar in order to get nominated.
The voters suffer because we very often don't even get to vote for the most suitable candidates for office. That is also the reason that compromise in Washington D.C. is almost impossible. Failure to tow the party line means a primary challenge, and possibly not being able to get a nomination for the next election.
See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge64kMFoQEo
It has the greatest Youtube comment I've ever read too:
'You know what this video needs? More deer heads.' Thank you, Crossss8!
I know it's scary to think that this fellow will be making technology decisions for the rest of us, but just voting against him doesn't solve the problem.
It takes generations of well educated people to slough off these ridiculous old world superstitions. He probably has very nice salt-of-the-earth parents who worked hard all their lives and mis-attributed their success and happiness as gifts from a deity. A paycheck for living "good lives."
But in every generation kids question everything their parents stand for, adopting some, discarding others. If we keep educating them, if they see enough of the wide world to know that the only justice is what we make, that their are billions of people living good lives who believe completely different things, then they'll see through these lies, and pass along a different subset of their beliefs to their kids.
It's too late to fix this guy. if you want to vote out his successors, vote against ignorance; vote some of your hard earned money toward education. My parents did, and that's why this guy is now in the minority.
This makes me angry and depressed at the same time.
You can't really reach a consensus on many issues when such differences exist. Democracy makes the Majority "right" so it is important not to let their views go unchallenged.
Because they might be a U.S. Congressman who has a direct impact on science and technology funding, tax law, and application in this country?
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
His brain is not connected to a single rational thought, but he is a fucking elected congressman.
Even better, let's just lobotomize anyone who disagrees with current academic knowledge, because clearly they are mentally unfit to be part of society. In case two people are disagreeable on a topic where currently there is no scientific consensus simply jail them until one of them can be lobotomized.
It's entirely possible to have a well developed sense of the divine (without knowing exactly what it is and understanding that it may be entirely neurological) and be entirely free of Christianity, Islam, or any other fan club affiliation that requires an unproven belief in invisible friends, holy war, talking snakes, ritual blood drinking and/or body eating or additional taxation in the form of tithing.
Cheers!
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
... is that it's true whether you believe in it, or not.
Must be God's will. Nobody else could be that crazy.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
If he's right and only Protestant Young-Earth Creationist Republicans go to heaven, I'm willing to go to hell of my own accord if it means I'll never have to hear anything from them again.
Ezekiel 23:20
People do not live in a vacuum. People who believe in imaginary friends and believe those imaginary friends have sent facts and instructions for how to live, usually want to make everyone else believe those facts and live according to those instructions.
evolution, or lack thereof
foreign policy with countries dominated by other religions
the legal status of a fertilized embryo - stem cell research and abortion
contraception, sex education
porn
many other social policies
http://xkcd.com/154/
In the end, we will see who was right...
Unless we find that science was right, as then you just die and wont know the difference.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
... have declared war on the rest of us. They have declared war on modern society.
And no, there isn't any reasoning with these people, the Dominionists. They are stone cold nuts and they even use the vocabulary of war in their screeds. Any attempt to reason with them is assuming that they are capable of rational thought. They are not. Deep down, they actually and truly believe that science is *the* enemy. It is a position that is beyond the reach of any rational thought, so ridicule is the only tool left. If given half a chance, they would drag us back to pre-inudustrial society with just the Bible as the sole text.
He needs to be held up to ridicule from sea to shining sea.
Give him a piece of your mind https://www.facebook.com/brounforcongress
--
BMO
Curiously, the Big Bang theory was often attacked for being "religious", that is stating that the Universe didn't always exist but was created a finite time ago.
Should invalidate him to serve on that particular committee.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I think it would be a better idea if you had to pass some basic science (or whatever) test before you were able to chair a committee on science (or whatever).
But then I remember that congressmen are retarded people who got through life by pandering to the highest bidder
Until their neighbors declared that, due to their majority on the local School Board, evolution, history, a large chunk of geology, and set theory will no longer be taught. And all children will have a compulsory christian values class. And if you have a problem with it you are free to set up a completely separate school system on your own. And a separate medical system. Heck, unless you are willing to do things all their way you are 'free' to personally replicate all of western society yourself.
For given values of 'free' a 'free society' ceases to be a society at all.
People like this guy are worse than terrorist. A terrorist attack makes at most tens of thousands of people suffer. These Christian fundamentalists in high places can make sure that 100s of thousands of children don't get enough chances in life because they don't get the education they need.
-- Cheers!
... republican inquisition!
Privacy is terrorism.
I think that scientist ignore politics and such ludicrous claims too often. There should be strong visible position of the scientific community against these claims so that any sane even uninformed person could see, that such opinions are insane and unacceptable in modern society.
> If you advocate the involvement of government in education, you can have very little to say in opposition to elected officials' pedagogical opinions being leashed on the classroom.
What a false dichotomy (Tea Party much?). Try the the 3rd option: Yes, you actually can have completely valid criticism.
Look at the educational successes of other countries as well as America's and rethink your 'big government is the problem' American exceptionalism talking point.
I for one welcome our new Canadian overlords
Science says that the Flying Spaghetti Monster is impossible. (Some stupid argument about the weight of pasta.) Therefore science is wrong. QED.
BROUN'S 4-WAY TEST
I am committed to protecting the constitutional rights and pocketbooks of every American. I will apply the following four-way test to every piece of legislation that comes before the House for a vote:
1) Is it Right/Moral?
2) Is it Constitutional?
3) Is it Necessary?
4) Is it Affordable?
Ask Slashdot: Is Paul Broun fit to be:
1) A US legislator - responsible for national policy affecting Science, Space and Technology.
2) A medical professional - tasked with health care of the sick and ill.
3) An American Citizen - (ideally) part of a rational, responsible, and well-informed electorate.
4) A Christian - committed to following the teachings of Christ.
5) A Homo Sapien - the name, more or less, means "of the same wisdom/intelligence".
========== "Hello World" in my programming language of choice: ATG - LET THERE BE LIFE - TAG ==========
As a native and resident of the state of Georgia, let me apologize to the Slashdot community on behalf of this representative. I can assure you that he does not represent my district. Also, I went to a Magnet high school that was focused on math, science, and technology, so there is a significant number of Georgia residents that do not actually believe that evolution, the big bang (maybe The Big Bang Theory, but that's another topic), and genetics are not, in fact, tricks and lies of Satan.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Because Americans are deeply religious and he reflects genuine religious faith. Religion is the pursuit of primitive tribal society at all costs.
That's how Superstitionists think, and he's honest about his views.
"We must respect the other fellowâ(TM)s religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart."
â" H L Mencken, Minority Report (1956),
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
As every Buffy fan knows, it's under a suburb in Southern California.
As for myself, I always figured it was likely a situation much like Iceland / Greenland. Give the more likable of the afterlives an ugly name, and most of the the assholes will do whatever they can to be sent to that other place. So, um...yeah, see ya in hell! *Wink wink.*
Constitutional rights may be respected, repealed, or modified; but they must never be ignored.
Despite loudmouth morons like this, there are plenty of religious people capable of managing their daily lives and even participating usefully in science. We happen to notice the deranged assholes like this one, and we hang our heads in shame that large chunks of the American populace agree with them. But not every religious American is an asshole, and you wouldn't fix the world by getting rid of an awful lot of nice, useful people.
I sure wouldn't mind it if this person evaporated. This kind of pernicious stupidity makes the world a worse place. But I'm not going to let it make me stupid with the fallacy of hasty generalization. (Heck, for all I know this person is a useful human being when he's not being a useless loudmouth fuck, but I'm willing to generalize at least that far.)
The US got where it is despite every President, Supreme Court Justice, and Congressman (well, nearly all) being religious, in some degree or another. Being religious doesn't have to make you a useless piece of shit. Even if it does in this guy's case.
What's a "school system"? I thought a school was a teacher, teaching students something they want to learn. Anyone can hire a teacher to teach anything they want. This "school system" concept you're talking about seems to be a lot of extra nonsense that's only loosely related to teaching or learning. Why do we need to give up our freedom to have a "system" when teachers can teach and students can learn at least as well without it (and for a lot less money)?
Eeesh... It's genuinely frightening that you think that's a workable system...
In case two people are disagreeable on a topic where currently there is no scientific consensus....
Name that topic.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Are you purposely being obtuse on this? Do you have any concept of how education worked before the school "system" was established? This is complete non-sense of the worst kind as it would doom us to repeat the past where the vast majority of the country went uneducated and then comes all the sweeping problems associated with the uneducated masses such as massively increased crime rates across the board and vastly increased numbers of people in poverty.
A school is a lot more than just a teacher and students. This myopic attitude needs to go away as it is detrimental to the well being of a lot of children out there who's parents are either too busy or too stupid to teach their kids themselves.
Standards are well accepted on the Internet, I wonder why there is such resistance to the same things in the real world...
Except:
1) The Big Bang theory is something that arises from the study of physics. Saying it's "evil" says that the fundamentals of theoretical physics are evil. Of course physics will be affected if some idiot with a bit of power starts mouthing off that people studying the origins of the universe are evil. Some of those people are quite devout Christians.. Think it doesn't affect them and their state of mind, which affects their work? Technology arises due to knowledge of physics; they're very tightly interlinked. Railing against one part of it has knock on effects everywhere.
2) Saying evolution (which has been observed) is not important? Hello? There's no problem with having a design base? Well, hey, no problem with doing theology as long as you don't have anything to do with God I guess.. It's a part of Biology, and explains much about how things have arisen, the interactions, and why things have become the way they have.
No, America isn't anti science. The guy that's the subject of this is, quite frankly, and idiot. He's a member of a scientific board. What should happen is everyone calmly sits down and says "Interesting postulation. Lets see your working, experimental evidence and ensure it's repeatable in objective controlled environments. If it can't be proved, or disproved, it has no place in this environment, and you don't have the beginnings of an understanding of science, so please give up your post on this board, as you have no right to be here".
Private school systems actually have to live up to certain standards set forth for accredidation. That is why they still teach science as science, many certainly do inject creationism as well.
The reason people think religious nuts would take over is stemmed from history when religious nuts took over. Take a look at the history of the education system and you will surely understand why people feel this way. It happened before, remove government and there is nothing stopping it from happening again.
If you are religious, you should be prohibited from serving in public office. Further, you should have a guardian assigned to look after your affairs, since obviously you are very weak intellectually.
Probably bring about end of war, famine, disease, poverty, and all evil in the world, if we could just keep the religious from having influence.
I know lots of athiests who are religious about their beliefs (or lack of beliefs, depending on how you want to slice it). In fact I get preached to more by athiests than by any other groups, which is kind of annoying as i'm an athiest anyway and object to being told what to believe (or not believe) by anyone.
I know plenty of Christians who are quite happy to take the creationist view put forward by the bible with a grain of salt (and some who consider it blasphemy to preach creationism when the universe around them was clearly not created that way).
Maybe just keep insane people out of public office? Or at least those where their insanity and delusion will prevent them from doing the job they were hired for.
Well, mankind has steered evolution of a lot of living things. Think of all the different kind of dogs, both the Great Dane and Yorkshire terrier descend from wolves. OK, the breeders provided environmental pressure so you could argue that it is unnatural selection, but the mechanism is proven. Same thing goes for cattle, poultry, roses, wheat,...
But how would this education work? At some point you're going to tend towards a school again, ie put several students in with one teacher (to make it economically viable) and rotate the (many) students around a smaller number of specialised teachers. And somebody will have to run this, put it in a building with all the admin that is required of running a public building with hundreds of people in it. And then when your students emerge, they will want to have been through a balanced syllabus, which will have to be assessed somehow in a way that is recognised nationwide, so that will have to be standardised somehow, all of which sounds very much like something that a government should be doing.
Not to say that's a perfect system, but handwavingly pronouncing that the current way is bad (with no specifics other than vague fear-driven generalisations), and that anyone could do it better themselves doesn't convince me.
String theory?
Yeah, just look how well it worked for North Korea!
In this particular case making a difference means ensuring that kids get a better education now than in the past, you know, improving the system. A system doesn't have to be perfect to be a good thing, as it evolves you move towards better and better education which then elevates society as educated people become more productive and advance the country further.
Freedom is not a purpose, it is a state of being. You are not free to make your choices if you are too uneducated to know what your choices are. So I would argue this removes freedom for people to pursue their own happiness. This is based on the assumption that without enforcable standards that the number of people educated will decline significantly.
If this fellow and those who share his views are sincere, then they ought return all those things which Science hath given them. That means they don't even get to live the life of the Amish, because they still use simple machines like pulleys and gears and those could clearly not exist without Science.
Let them return their cars, their modern fabrics, their TVs and computers and cell phones. Let them not travel upon paved roads, for those are marvels of modern Science and engineering. Let them have nothing save that which was constructed by hand using tools of no greater sophistication than bronze implements. Let them herd sheep and goats and spin wool and till the soil and walk everywhere they need to go, communicating by speech and clay tablets.
If they do all those things, then it's fine by me if they serve in Congress and make decisions about matters of Science.
But if they don't, then they can GTFO and take their brain damage with them.
If not us, who? If not now, when?
Must be God's will. Nobody else could be that crazy.
I think that may be a mistake in the translation. -- God
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
What's missing? Not enough opportunity for graft? Not enough administrative overhead? No way to use politics to divide people? No union dues and slush funds? No way to censor "bad" ideas? No way to indoctrinate people into your belief system? No way to force bullies and their victims together? No one to tell the parents they're teaching their children wrong? No way for non-teachers to skim money out of the "system"? No one to fill out forms and do compliance paperwork?
...And no one to tell you your oncologist got his medical degree from Dr. Woo's School of Homeopathic Medicine.
You can't be bigoted against an idea.
All ideas and concepts are fair game for critique. The ones that fail are discarded.
If the holders of an idea declare that idea off-limits for critique, their idea automatically loses.
This space available.
Standards are well accepted on the Internet...
Tell me sir, what flavors of html and css your browser support? Which versions it supporys correctly? What addations to those standards ithas made for its own use?
Silence is a state of mime.
In fact I get preached to more by athiests than by any other groups
It's like a friend of mine once told me: "Atheists are very boring. All they talk about is God, God, God..."
Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
I think it would be a better idea if you had to pass some basic science (or whatever) test before you were able to chair a committee on science (or whatever).
But then I remember that congressmen are retarded people who got through life by pandering to the highest bidder
This clown is supposedly a Medical Doctor. So he had to at least be exposed to the some reasonably advanced concepts and memorize them. You've got to be pretty weird to go through all of that and denounce it as essentially heresy.
From his bio on his web site:
Representative Paul C. Broun, Jr. was elected in July of 2007 to serve the Tenth District of Georgia. Since his arrival in Congress, he has been appointed to the House Homeland Security Committee, the House Committee on Natural Resources, and currently serves as Chairman of the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee for the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. Dr. Broun grew up in Athens, Georgia where he attended Athens High School and graduated from the University of Georgia in 1967 with a B.S. in Chemistry. In 1971, he received his Medical Doctor degree from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. An internship at Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland, Oregon and a residency at University Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama followed.
He's probably just pandering to the crowd, but what a friggin slimeball.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Given that the country was founded on then 500 year old whig ideas you'd think that a political process that'd be based on who prayed the loudest would be utterly rejected one would think that people like him would be utterly rejected as being fit for serving on governmental duties.
...and on the tenth day He created dinosaurs which were a bit crap so fuck them.
In plaing English that would translate to "Stop voting for idiots.".
If you ask types like him what family values are all about you'd be subjected to shameful stammer and be drenched in dribble.
20 minutes into the future
I bet this psycho wouldn't agree with the equally crazy statement:
--
make install -not war
No he doesn't get the economies of scale. He was taught at home.
He's lying. The earth is only 6000 years old. He must have an ulterior pro-science reason for spreading the belief that the earth is 9000 years old.
There is NO DIFFERENCE between the "two" parties.
Except, you know, when it comes to issues like health care, reproductive rights, or Social Security.
Anyone who says there's no difference between the two parties is either (1) totally uninformed, (2) obsessed with fringe issues and apathetic about everything that the rest of us care about, or (3) trying to convince you to stay out of the election so their vote will count more.
Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
No, we can improve the system. But your anarchist system where only the richest get education and the opportunities it opens failed for centuries, millennia, to serve anyone but the rich. And it didn't serve them that well either, compared to how well they're served now.
Your arguments are all simply that since our public education system has problems, we should delete it entirely - in favor of a intolerable disaster proven worse for centuries. It's obvious why you hate school: yours failed to teach you to think.
--
make install -not war
In plaing (sic) English that would translate to "Stop voting for idiots.".
But that's all that is on the ballot!
The speed of time is one second per second.
Yes indeed... a short-lived experiment at a democratic republic that (a) never managed to even come close to adhering to its own constitutional authorizations, veering further and further from them by the day, and (b) is currently only able to operate courtesy of loans from other countries, and (c) is now possessed of an entirely corrupt political and legal framework, starting at the bottom (legislation) and working right up into all the various human factors (law enforcement, judges, lawyers, politicians and the sundry minions of all the foregoing.)
I agree: Being religious doesn't make you a useless piece of shit. Just a critical-thinking challenged human being. Neither uncommon or particularly reprehensible. But people being religious does appear to have had a great influence on making our government a useless piece of shit. I know, correlation is no guarantee of causation, but on the other hand, we rarely find massive, consistent and repeatable effect without significant correlation, do we now?
I agree with you 100% that there are plenty of faithful yet thoughtful and responsible people.
But at the same time: among people who are morons, there are few worse than fundamentalist fucking morons.
to the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge64kMFoQEo
in case you're like me wondering what species of slime mold a "Paul Broun" is,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Broun#Controversies
unfortunately i have not found a web page to explain how this mouth-breathing brain-dead no-talent ass-clown continues to cash a government paycheck. I've been to Atlanta, and its people are quite intelligent, unfortunately theyre outnumbered by the hicks in the sticks straddling mobility scooters and sucking down big macs as usual.
Good people go to bed earlier.
I'm just saying what I was taught 16 years ago.
Hell, even Einstein said he believed in a God who created the universe. His work in the unified theory was an attempt to understand that creator's mind.
Uh, no. In a March 24, 1954 letter, he [Einstein] is quoted as writing, "It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it." In another letter, Einstein wrote the word God was "nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish." I would wager that the vast majority of scientists hold the same opinion. They may have been raised in a religious environment, and might even maintain some traditions of those environs. But actually believe it? I don't think so.
Despite loudmouth morons like this, there are plenty of religious people capable of managing their daily lives and even participating usefully in science.
And each and every one of them who doesn't stand up and put these extremist assholes in their place is guilty of collaboration.
What? America judges muslims the same way.
I would have a lot more respect for religion and religious people if you would stop allowing these fuckers to abuse your religion. As long as you do, I must assume that you don't think him all that bad. Not bad enough to get your asses up, at least.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
You have strange friends. Imaginary?
What the atheists I listen to are talking about most often is how other people try to control their life. In my country, for example, the churches are still receiving a few billion bucks every year in tax money. Not directly, of course, but through a vast network of indirect channels.
Then there's all these bullshit laws they want to force on us. Right now, there's a discussion in Europe about new blasphemy laws. Blasphemy laws! You'd think the middle ages are past.
In america, religious service is forced again and again on soldiers, school children and other people who are in power-inequality positions.
The list goes on. God only enters the picture as the bullshit reason these control freaks give for their actions, but we have long ago realized that it's the reason for the dumb. The reason for the smart has always been power.
You can have as many imaginary friends as you want. But I and others will continue "preaching" to you every time you or someone like you tries to control my actions or restrict my freedoms because of something that you think one of your imaginary friends wants.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
The problem is that Creationism is a discredited theory: it fails to match so much observed evidence, and fails to predict so many things we've found, that there's no longer any serious possibility that it might be correct. As a scientific theory, it should be chucked out into the dumpster to join Ptolomey's theory of celestial mechanics, phlogiston and a host of other discredited theories. It doesn't even have saving grace of eg. Newtonian mechanics: known to be incorrect, but a sufficiently close approximation for everyday use and much simpler to deal with than the more accurate theories.
I wish that more people would realize that the Jews, Christians and Muslims all worship the exact same God/Allah/Yahweh (The God of Abraham) they just differ in the implementation. It seems that the Christians in the US are ignorant of this fact and treat Allah as something other than God.
that's exactly right
the kind of people who believe fervently in heaven are the kind of low iq and obsessively controlling type of person it would be hell to spend eternity with
irony
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
So you think the purpose of a school is to limit parents' influence on their children. I think the purpose of a school should be learning and the parents should be free to decide more-or-less everything because they're rightfully free citizens, not government subjects.
But the children are members of society and not slaves to their parents to be shaped to their will.
As a parent myself, I WANT society to step in and bitch-slap me hard if I start acting against her best interests. Then if I don't change my ways, I want society to step in and take her away from me.
The tricky part is to determine what is her "best interests". This is something society needs to get together and agree on as a whole.
Note that I don't advocate children becoming mindless drones following the rules of society and never thinking outside the box. That would be a terrible state of affairs. No, I rather advocate that children grow up to understand their society and are capable of living within it without being totally fucked when they are forced to interact with it. They can disagree with it if they so choose (perhaps even because the parent has influenced them in that direction), however they'd better be ready to handle society's reaction.
I guess the main point is that from my point of view, my daughter is an individual person and like any person, has to interact in different circles of life. One is that of her parents (my wife and me); and another is of the city of Hannover, Germany; yet another is the subcontinent of Europe; and yet another is the planet Earth. Each of these circles is a society of a kind and it behooves us all to understand the societies we are in and be capable of interacting with them in the best possible way. Children that do not pass through a formal school system, instead being taught purely at home by their parents or a hired teacher, are usually unable to deal with several of the larger circles that exist and often have large gaps in their knowledge due both to a lack of interaction with others that have opposing viewpoints and a lack of simply being told certain things that the kids who do go to school get taught.
I'm against schools indoctrinating viewpoints; but I'm very much for them explaining viewpoints. I feel very lucky to have attended school in New Zealand, where the system, while not perfect, is a far sight better at this than many other countries I've seen.
My book about LSD and Self-Discovery
Also on facebook as: DroppingAcidDaleBewan
I'm sure that idiotic statement qualifies for Godwin status. Yes Pol Pot murdering millions is exactly the same as ensuring that children learn to read and write. You libertarians will never ever convince anyone because you are such dicks. Anyone sick and can't get healthcare. Let's quote Thomas Jefferson at them, that'll make them feel better. Unemployed and can't find a job. Denounce them as lazy and let them starve, even if they just need a little support to get back into the workplace. Our governments are not perfect but they used to be a lot worse as even a basic examination of history will show you.
"Rawr roar rar." Said Jesus, trying to blend in.
"Blessed are the huge scaley monsters, for they shall surely inherit the earth."
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
You are the one being confused. There is no government in communism and all questions are meant to be decided by grassroots democracy.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
The US got where it is despite every [...] (well, nearly all) being religious, in some degree or another.
Because (up until recently) they were making a point of keeping religion separate from state affairs.
Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
No, you are wrong. They all pretended to be religious because they are smart and knew that was the only way to power.
I live in Georgia. When people ask me about religion, I explain that I am a man of deep faith. That is true, but I do not believe there is some all-knowing, imaginary entity guiding everything, everywhere. That's for physics.
My faith is a little more grounded. When I'm driving a vehicle on the roads and highways, I have tremendous faith in other humans that they won't cross into my lane or cross over that double yellow line and kill me, my wife, my kids. THAT is faith. Sometimes other humans fail me. About 2 months ago, a woman tried to cross 5 lanes of traffic to make a left onto a freeway entrance. The fact that my vehicle was in the way didn't matter to her. I avoided being hit, but spun out 3.5 times. During the spin and stopping, I didn't hit anything else. No other cars, not that crazy bitch and not the side of the road. It was really amazing. It was a beautiful, sunning day around 3pm. Thanks to physics and the people who designed both the vehicle and tires, I was saved from harm. The woman stopped after I pulled over to the side of the road. My car was facing oncoming traffic at this point. We both got out. She started appologizing for her actions. I grabbed her and gave her a huge bear-hug. She was an Asian womain ... perhaps 40 yrs old. I'm a big white man a little older. She wanted to exchange information, since there might be damage, but nothing was harmed. I gave her another bear hug, and left. There were 50 witnesses - all sitting in two left turn lanes who saw the entire thing. It never crossed my mind to hit her even though she just tried to kill me. No pains ever happened, thanks to physics and good engineering.
My wife and I agree. We teach our kids the same things. "God" or "god" are for weak people with weak minds, but we don't want to upset them, so we play along. All your friends are weak. Their parents are weak. Almost everyone else is weak minded because they believe in imaginary forces that do not exist. Look at Xmas, Halloween, Easter ... the entire world claims to believe. 10% are like us and just play along.
Why do we play along?
* Jobs; If daddy told his boss that he didn't believe, he would be passed over for raises and promotions.
* Family; parts of our family are weak, like grandma and most of your aunts and uncles.
* Avoid Harrassment from religious groups for our lack of beliefs.
Basically, religious people are bigots and perform extreme discrimination, so we must act like there is some god.
It is the most important secret our kids have. Never tell anyone. It isn't safe. Mommy and Daddy have a few friends that believe like we do, but most do not.
All religions are stupid wastes of effort. The only good reason to have a religion is for the tax free aspects. Look throughout history and there are thousands of examples of religions doing terrible things to people and the world. Terrible things.
He's the kind of person that gives Christianity a bad name. I am a Christian. I support Intelligent Design. But I don't deny Common Descent and I certainly don't deny the Big Bang. The Big Bang is conclusive evidence FOR a creator! You can't claim that the universe is all that exists when it's plain as day that it had a beginning. This guy is just an anti-scientist, he's not worthy of the Christian faith or of the Republican party.
Interestingly, you could be describing life under the Taliban or in Saudi Arabia, just with a few tweaks because it's a Christian theocracy rather than an Islamist one.
With all the prattling about how free America is, I know that I'd rather live in the UK where you don't have to pretend to be religious ever.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it