I am so flippen tired of and frustrated with Creationists. I am studying to be a teacher at the moment - and I have frequent discussions with one girl who literally believes the Earth is 6 000 years old.
Thing is, I think she is quite a gentle person, and she was hurt when she was small - so she clings to her faith like a life jacket, and the moment you challenge her faith she feels threatened.
In the beginning I used to handle her with kid gloves, but now I am getting really fed up. Worse, what causes me anxiety, is that she wants to become a TEACHER!
For pity's sake- yesterday she tried to tell me that Creationism is a science as well. So I challenged her to bring me proof of her theories then, so I can examine them - as this is what real scientists do - they publish their theories and expose them to debate and criticism.
She declined. No surprise there.
But she did tell me about her "magnetic field decay" defence. Things is, it took me four minutes on the Net to debunk that argument. If she really believed her theory, don't you think she would have wanted to do some research about it first? To cover all her bases?
But no, instead she just walks around, ready, willing and able to teach the children of tomorrow that the Earth is 6,000 old, that Creationism (a belief based on FAITH, for crying out loud - NOT SCIENCE) is as valid as evolution (or, in her opinion even more valid) that dinosaur fossils were the animals that fell overboard from Noah's Ark or something equally far-fetched...
Here is my dilemma: I think she is quite a nice person, and I don't want to hurt her, which is why so far we haven't really gotten into a prolonged argument. But I find myself unable to sleep at night, knowing that she is going to become a teacher.
I believe I have a moral obligation to protect the children against this kind of indoctrination. I just wish I could think of a way of doing this without cracking this chick as wide open a a soft-boiled egg...
Don't you have a superior moral obligation as a teacher to respect her religious beliefs? As a teacher, it is your responsibility to teach fact.
I have the feeling that many parents and school systems would object to this practice. She may get a great job brainwashing people at a religious institution. She needs to understand that teachers teach fact, not their own beliefs. (Thats from my roommate who is studying to be a teacher)
My opinion is...you have to leave it. People like this cannot be changed and it is not our place to change them. I know people too who are insanely religious (for some reason I usually end up wanting to date them until I find out about the faith ((or she finds out about the atheism))) but you just have to leave it and move on. The best you could do is report her is she teaches such religious beliefs in the classroom.
I'm a high school physics teacher and me and the other physics teacher at the school that I work at , both did double majors in Physics. The thing is that she is what I call a " HARD core evangelical" and with all the science she knows and UNDERSTANDS, she cannot deny that the planet is a few billion years old.
The whole evolution bit , she still wouldn't go into that, saying that it is a person's belief. But then again her faith prohibits her from going cinema, listening to secular music, heck even accepting foods blessed by other religions....... so I am guessing that people believe what they want to let themselves believe.
Originally posted by finiIf they blessed all the food they could starve her to death vin
I'm a high school physics teacher and me and the other physics teacher at the school that I work at , both did double majors in Physics. The thing is that she is what I call a " HARD core evangelical" and with all the science she knows and UNDERSTANDS, she cannot deny that the planet is a few billion years old.The whole evolution bit , she still wouldn't go into that, saying that it is a person's belief. But then again her faith prohibits her from going cinema, listening to secular music, heck even accepting foods blessed by other religions....... so I am guessing that people believe what they want to let themselves believe.
Originally posted by fini
I'm a high school physics teacher and me and the other physics teacher at the school that I work at , both did double majors in Physics. The thing is that she is what I call a " HARD core evangelical" and with all the science she knows and UNDERSTANDS, she cannot deny that the planet is a few billion years old.The whole evolution bit , she still wouldn't go into that, saying that it is a person's belief. But then again her faith prohibits her from going cinema, listening to secular music, heck even accepting foods blessed by other religions....... so I am guessing that people believe what they want to let themselves believe.
Do that put that on labels or something with the nutritional information? "Warning may contain traces of nuts and the deity of another religion."
I seriously have to wonder about people who think they will be in dire spiritual trouble if they ate a lettuce someone had blessed. In fact I'd tell them everyday they came to school that I was blessing their food mentally, from a distance, like the Prof. X of food blessing.
Originally posted by Lord Urizen
Evolution, like Gravity, is already proven through our most advanced means possible.
I maintain that the most powerful tools of evolutionists to use against creationism are ridicule and dismissal.
Originally posted by Bardock42
Well, lots of Religious people do, or at least demand that Religious theories should be taught in science classes....
Originally posted by Bardock42
Well, lots of Religious people do, or at least demand that Religious theories should be taught in science classes....
I don't think there's a demand for religious theories to be taught, however, I do feel that there is a demand for more than one theory to be taught. I wouldn't have as much problems with evolutionary theory if it were taught alongside other credible theories regarding the origins of life. You have to admit, TOE is presented in a rather dogmatic religious fashion in many modern schools.
Originally posted by ThundarWell, it is by far the predominant theory, and believed to be close to the truth, if there were believable and supported (by scientits) theories those should be taught as well...though whether there was a creator behind something that's philosophy or theology and does not belong in a science class.
I don't think there's a demand for religious theories to be taught, however, I do feel that there is a demand for more than one theory to be taught. I wouldn't have as much problems with evolutionary theory if it were taught alongside other credible theories regarding the origins of life. You have to admit, TOE is presented in a rather dogmatic religious fashion in many modern schools.
Evolution should be taught as theory with it's pros and cons...that I agree. But not every other theory should be taught alongside with the same amount of time to it.
Originally posted by Thundar
I don't think there's a demand for religious theories to be taught, however, I do feel that there is a demand for more than one theory to be taught. I wouldn't have as much problems with evolutionary theory if it were taught alongside other credible theories regarding the origins of life. You have to admit, TOE is presented in a rather dogmatic religious fashion in many modern schools.
If there were other credible theories, they would be taught. There are not. None have been proposed.
If you think there is one, you need to show that it is science and scientifically proven.
If you want my support, state your case. If you propose ID, I will personally shread you into oblivion.
Originally posted by FeceMan
And yet it still leaves much to be desired. Not the gravity part, as that is wholly observable.I maintain that the most powerful tools of evolutionists to use against creationism are ridicule and dismissal.
Gravity is less suported than Evolution. There is no mechanism for gravity. No one know how it comes about. Infact, gravity is so not-well understood that it is not even indluded as a force in the standard model of physics.
The most powerful tools that creationismists use against evolution is ignorance and misinterpretation. Both, after 3 centuries are deserving of little more than ridicule and dismissal. If you use an argument from the 17th century to supplant modern science, you have issues.
I have never seen ANY IDer define creation as science or explain why it isi worthy to be taught in science class.
So I say bullshit.
Originally posted by Alliance
Good point. Fini get to work.Does she believe in gravity?
If she actually understood biology, she'd also have no choice but to accept natural selection. The fact that she denies evolution (observable fact) is ludicrous.
Speaking of which...back to my paper on Darwin...
Ewwww Biology, lol
Yeah she believes in gravity, why you ask?
You know I think a lot of these people who thump evolution ( especially those who have an understanding of science........ well other than those who turned their back on it like M*******o), would believe that it happens for animals, but not for humans.