Wednesday 6 May 2009

US teacher broke law by describing creationism as 'superstitious nonsense' | World news | guardian.co.uk

If ever there was an argument against establishing a written constitution for Europe this is it. Once you have a written constitution it is interpreted endlessly by opposing factions  until they leave behind the original intentions of those who framed the constitution and make a nonsense of any attempt to make sensible and reasoned decisions.

Much better to allow precedent make our laws and define our rights as they do now in the UK. That way our constitution is respected but not carved in stone and given the same status as Holy Writ.

If Christians need written laws to protect them from being “offended” there is no hope for this Christian generation and if the unscientific claims of Creationism cannot be intelligently challenged by educators and need to be protected by law instead of reason then Creationism doesn’t deserve to be heard or taken seriously.

A US teenager has successfully won a lawsuit against a teacher who described creationism as "superstitious nonsense".

Chad Farnan, a devout Christian studying at California's Capistrano Valley high school, persuaded a judge that his European history teacher, James Corbett, violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which courts interpret as banning government employees from promoting, or displaying hostility towards, religion.

US teacher broke law by describing creationism as 'superstitious nonsense' | World news | guardian.co.uk

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't be so quick to defend evolution just because the wingnuts hate it. Darwin led to the worst colonial, militarist, attrocity and stock market abuses in history. Lamarkian inhertiance and mitochondrial DNA show that Darwin was not all he is crackered up to be. So don't defend him! These angry white talk radio males need universal health care so they can finally see a psychistrist. We also need to psychiatrically regulate the preachers and teachers who influenced such creatures. That is what homeland security is really about.

Mike Tea said...

Vernon

I take ityou might have strong feelings on the matter then.

I don't know that I was in my comments particularly defending Darwinism as condemning Creationists for the dumb stuff they come up with ("Oh, there must be something in the constitution to protect me from people who don't think just as I do!")

Don't condemn Darwin for what others did in his name. Once you start playing that game there is no end to it and no beginning to reason.

As to the Constitution I think it is a disaster because it does the very opposite of what was intended by those who drafted it; having government interfere wholemeal with people's religious freedoms and then it licences stupid Americans to carry AK47s "because we have the right to bear arms".

Then, as if killing each other isn't enough, they go around the world killing people in other countries based on a pack of lies put out by the Pentagon about Iraq's WOMD's.

Homeland security is a con foisted on Americans by a far right government hell-bent on controlling everyone because they know people vote with their fears and not with their hopes. I am not American and so can say these things without fear of the modern McCarthyism.

That said, I don't agree that colonialism is altogether a bad thing. Colonialists exported good stuff as well as bad. Would India be the world's biggest democracy if England hadn't exported its well developed mode of government, not to mention a civil service still unequalled in the world?