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Map of Publicly-Funded Creationism Teaching

Posted by samzenpus on from the everything-I-needed-to-know dept.

Capt.Albatross writes "At Slate, Chris Kirk presents a map of schools in the USA that both receive public funding and teach creationism. It also shows public schools in those states where they are allowed to teach creationism (without necessarily implying that creationism is taught in all public schools of those states). There is a brief outline of the regulations in those states where this occurs, but the amounts involved are not discussed."

5 of 544 comments (clear)

  1. Texas Barely Registers by lgw · · Score: 4, Interesting

    For all the trash that gets talked about Texas in this regard, it barely registers here, and only for some sort of "Responsive Ed charter school" that a Texan might explain better - sounds like it's not the normal school system.

    Louisiana and Tennessee OTOH - ouch!

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    1. Re:Texas Barely Registers by Mashiki · · Score: 5, Interesting

      What I find interesting on the map is the lack of "other religious" institutions that also support the ideology. They don't list muslim schools in VA, MD, or DC, or those in TN, or WI(many of which get public funding or falls under vouchers. But they list the various christian denominations...odd...how very odd. They don't list the Jewish schools either.

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      Om, nomnomnom...
    2. Re:Texas Barely Registers by fermion · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I don't know if muslim or jewish schools teach fake science. I doubt they use curriculum and books for Fox News to talk about the white man is inferior because he did not have stirrup until about 1000 years after Asia. I know that Talmudic and sharia law is the bugaboo of the evangelical christian, and this is probably what is taking about here, using public money to teach these values. But here is news. There is not much daylight between evangelical and other fanatical religious laws. They all want to control when we enjoy ourselves, they all want to control women, and they all want a select few to control what we know. In any case, this is speaking of very specific topic, which is teaching creationism using public funds. One would have to provide evidence that schools other than evangelical Christians are doing such things in a rigorous manner. For instance get a worksheet that is corrected when the student says he prays to allah instead of a christian g-d. As far as the Texas thing is concerned, Texas is not a state where one can be a total dumbass and still succeed. There are only so many MBA or drug sales jobs for the evangelical scientific illiterate person. Schlumberger and BP are not going to tolerate the average public school teacher educating kids in fake science. The oil patch needs people who can build electronics, not pray for a strike.

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      "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    3. Re:Texas Barely Registers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Employment protection (notable lack of people getting fired for being straight around here, oddly enough), marriage, etc.

      But yes, of course, you're right, some days my car brakes down and that is worse for the given day than systematic discrimination. I had a burst pipe in my house recently, and that was fucking awful! But such occurrences are fairly uncommon, and the real point was that there are more days that have been ruined by Christan dominion than I can readily count. I know it's shocking that the worst part of your day for most days could be "society massively and systematically discriminates against me" -- I don't even particularly blame you for thinking that way. You're just another person who has never actually been forced to think about being part of a discriminated-against minority, and so you naturally assume that issues like "will I ever be able to get married (nowadays: in my home state)?" or "will I ever be able to come out to my coworkers without worrying that I'll be fired for who I am, rather than continually coming up with reasons for why I'm not interested in a blind date with that girl they know who would be a 'perfect match' for me?" are trivial background noise, rather than real issues that can and sometimes do keep me awake at night.

      And of course that's without even mentioning the particularly horrid (but thankfully decreasingly common) instances where homosexuality leads to assault or murder.

    4. Re: Texas Barely Registers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

      Isn't science filled with beliefs and bias' as well? To blindly accept all science as fact is a leap of faith as well. Empirical evidence can be doctored and statistics abused. While the Bible is filled with many stories that defy logic and reason but so does the idea of the universe starting as an empty void only to become what we see now.