Dembski thought it would be a hoot to make flash videos of Judge Jones complete with flatulence. Creationists in Russia sought to one up him by sending an actor in a monkey suit with some banannas to court with the paperwork filing suit.
That's the fun part. The rest is the typical creationist drivel: Darwin kills morality and will lead to the downfall of society, evolution is atheistic, need to teach creationism as an alternative...
The student around whom the lawsuit is based says, "I believe we have the right to learn not only the theory of evolution, but creationism as well."
I'd agree with that. You go to school for the first. You go to church for the second. After all, the girl claims she's Christian so she does go to church to get her sermons, right?
Nope. Perhaps that's why she feels the need to get the government to sponsor her religious education. And for all the morals the young woman pretends to have, it's interesting that she's complaining that the school intends her for her actions. I find it much more likely that she's actually just failing because she has been skipping school to give interviews.
From what i can gather, the Christianity in Russia today is largely weighted at the fundamentalist end of the scale. During the Soviet era, the state Christian church was Orthodox. After the fall, it was largely fundamentalist denominations that moved in.
ReplyDeleteIn my view, the Russian culture of lies is probably healthy, in a way. One learns skepticism.
Sounds like the student who is instigating the lawsuit is a little loopy. Maybe a combination of hyperlitigiousness (I made that up) and flighty religious thinking.
ReplyDeleteIt also sounds like the textbooks are being derogatory towards religion.
John - If we go to school to learn the theory of evolution and go to church to learn creationism, then should the government fund and govern churches as well as the school system, and require every citizen to attend church? Obviously your argument breaks down quickly.
btw - The article that you link to in the post says that the girl doesn't attend church. Maybe you need to throw out your rigid stereotypical categories.
The article does make it sound like the textbooks are derisive of religion. However, I'm highly skeptical of this. I'm much more inclined to believe that this is just a message the creationists choose to interpret from the texts as we have seen often in America.
ReplyDeleteAnd no, the government should absolutely not require or fund church. The point I was making is that Creationism is a religious model, and as such, belongs in an institute not affiliated with the government which is affiliated with religious teachings. This would be churches.
Lastly, I fail to see what your point is about the girl failing to attend church. Are you trying to suggest that this somehow shows she's not religious? Not all religious people go to Church. And, again, given that Creationism, by definition, is a religious theory (colloquial usage there) this would imply that she too is religious.