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Creationism Conference at Michigan State University Stirs Unease
sciencehabit writes "A creationist conference set for a major research campus — Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing — is creating unease among some of the school's students and faculty, which includes several prominent evolutionary biologists. The event, called the Origins Summit, is sponsored by Creation Summit, an Oklahoma-based nonprofit Christian group that believes in a literal interpretation of the Bible and was founded to "challenge evolution and all such theories predicated on chance." The one-day conference will include eight workshops, according the event's website, including discussion of how evolutionary theory influenced Adolf Hitler's worldview, why "the Big Bang is fake," and why "natural selection is NOT evolution." News of the event caught MSU's scientific community largely by surprise. Creation Summit secured a room at the university's business school through a student religious group, but the student group did not learn about the details of the program—or the sometimes provocative talk titles — until later.
The concern is over the appropriateness of the venue. Since Creationists by and large reject major branches of science, allowing them to have a "conference" at a university seems wildly inappropriate.
As to refuting the Creationist's claims, some people have dedicated years just to that; www.talkorigins.org
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I think I've found the place to book my next neo-Nazi homeopathic phrenology conference.
From TFA:
University officials say they have no plans to interfere with the event. “Free speech is at the heart of academic freedom and is something we take very seriously,” said Kent Cassella, MSU’s associate vice president for communications, in a statement. “Any group, regardless of viewpoint, has the right to assemble in public areas of campus or petition for space to host an event so long as it does not engage in disorderly conduct or violate rules. While MSU is not a sponsor of the creation summit, MSU is a marketplace of free ideas.”
The university is going to let the crackpots say whatever they like, and then ignore them. Which is as it should be.
Well, actually, since it's a public school that would otherwise allow rallies, Nazi's can, given they obtain the proper permits. See the National Socialist Party of America v Village of Skokie, among other decisions.
Does not appear to be deception, but rather no one bothered to ask what it was about in any detail. Additionally, it seems that the faculty does not really care...
FTA
University officials say they have no plans to interfere with the event. “Free speech is at the heart of academic freedom and is something we take very seriously,” said Kent Cassella, MSU’s associate vice president for communications, in a statement. “Any group, regardless of viewpoint, has the right to assemble in public areas of campus or petition for space to host an event so long as it does not engage in disorderly conduct or violate rules. While MSU is not a sponsor of the creation summit, MSU is a marketplace of free ideas.”
Science does not believe.
Religion does not prove.
There is no Venn diagram overlapping the two.
Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
Let them wallow in their beliefs.
Sure, that's done a lot of good so far. Like all of the religious wars around the world. The acts of devout religious believers like ISIS. A world where families trying to raise their children are heavily taxed but churches are free to wallow in their untaxed riches. Whole nations who justify their atrocities against others because they are "Gods chosen people". Child molesters mostly untouched by the law because they are "respected" church priests. Groups of people who want to take the entire next generation and teach them bullshit like they are guilty of a sin that was supposedly committed by a fictional caveman, that sin being to "eat from the tree of knowledge"; even though the evidence is that most have their thinking processes so damaged into adulthood that they can't accept reason and want to do this to their own children.
I live in a country so controlled by the religious ignorant that one has to profess the complete stupidity of religion to get elected, an Atheist who professes to be rational and thinking can't be elected because of the hate of the masses. And you think we should "let them wallow in their beliefs" even to the point of using tax payer funded facilities to do so?
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
In other words: religion is not an opinion.
That may be, but it *is* a protected civil right in the United States. If you fuck with it, other civil rights like Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press could easily be fucked with next.
Let them have their conference. It doesn't hurt anyone, and fucking with it will only cause major headaches for everyone. Consider it a religious conference if it makes you feel better.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Michigan State is an arm of the government. They take both state and federal money.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Sure, you do. All the time. Of course if you happen to live in a country in which Christianity is the dominant religion that impacts the lives of such atheists you would expect the most common topic to be Christianity. Or do you really expect people to criticize the things that don't impact their lives instead of the things that do?
If "you never hear these people criticizing any other religions" how did they get lablled islamaphobic? Amazing that they could do that without criticizing other religions - http://www.salon.com/2013/03/3...
And debates such as
Christopher Hitchens vs Tariq Ramadan
Sam Harris vs Reza Aslan
are illusionary?
Creationism in and of itself isn't a threat. A large scale plan to have it taught in schools and universities most assuredly is a threat, and should be treated as such. Ignoring it will not make it go away.
Really? It's a threat to teach ? Since when is any knowledge a "threat" to anything? A threat to ignorance?
No wonder our universities are not what they used to be, with people like you wanting to ban dissenting opinions. If anyone is convinced by their rhetoric to buy into the extremist views they are peddling, they probably don't belong at University anyway.
Threat my ass. The threat is tyrants like you that want to judge people and silence their opinions.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia