Wednesday, February 23, 2011

 

Being of Two Mouths


Casey Luskin is at it again.

He has a disingenuous rant on the supposedly disingenuous arguments of opponents to the latest version of the Undiscovery Institute's campaign to sneak religion into public school science classes ... the so-called "Academic Freedom" bills it has fomented across the country.

This is the part I found particularly amusing:

Despite the talking points of critics, academic freedom bills do not authorize or protect the teaching of creationism or any other religious viewpoint. ...

Such bills also typically contain a provision akin to the following:

The provisions of the Act shall only protect the teaching of scientific information, and shall not be construed to promote any religious or nonreligious doctrine, promote discrimination for or against a particular set of religious beliefs or nonbeliefs, or promote discrimination for or against religion or nonreligion.

Those who claim that academic freedom bills authorize the teaching of religion disregard the actual text of the bills. The plain text of the bill shows that it does not cover or protect the teaching of creationism or any other form of religion.

Riiight! We should believe 'em because it's in writing!

Oh, wait! ... "cdesign proponentsists"!
.

Comments:
The provisions of the Act shall only protect the teaching of scientific information, [bolding added]

Oh yes, just scientific information. But just what does that entail?

Design theory promises to reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist worldview, and to replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions. [from the Wedge Document, bolding added]

Yes, just science is allowed. Well, as long as there's a Wedge holding religion back, with only science Wedged into the curricula, what harm could be caused by such bills?

Glen Davidson
 
The provisions of the Act shall only protect the teaching of scientific information, and shall not be construed to promote any religious or nonreligious doctrine, promote discrimination for or against a particular set of religious beliefs or nonbeliefs, or promote discrimination for or against religion or nonreligion.

What Luskin carefully omits from the article is any discussion of just who decides what constitutes scientific information. Would it be a committee of academics, of experts from the relevant fields? Or would it be the elected members of school boards who, in these cases, routinely ignore the recommendations of expert committees in favor of their personal interpretations?

There is also the ongoing campaign to have a theory in biology recast as an atheistic "worldview" or even a religion.

Evolution education deals with a fundamental question of humanity -- "Where did we come from?"

Another interesting question is whether these "Academic Freedom" bills would permit students to be taught about the continual attempts to insert evangelical Protestant beliefs into the science classroom or just "Wedge" open the door to allow individual teachers to do just that?
 
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