Evolutionary Biology replaced by Bible Studies in American Schools.
 

Yes. That's right. Before I post the facts, I would like you to click the link below and think about the picture:

http://www.sullivan-county.com/images/sci.gif

As a motto, 'In God we trust' is perfect for America

And this is what I found on a religious website: The evolutionists are trying to take over our schools.

What is wrong with this world? Why do I suddenly feel that I went back in time to the middle ages when men killed witches? WTF is going on? Since Bush became president, Bible became a part of school education system, and evolution is "optional". What? :ithink: America is keeping knowledge from it's own people! Just what we need, more ignorance in this world! :rolleyes: Common! This is outrageous.

Primitive Religious Beliefs have no place in a Science Class!!!
There are people that believe that the Bible is the word of God and therefore what the Bible says is true. "God said it, I believe it, and that's that!" We live in a country where everyone has the right to believe whatever he or she wants no matter how stupid it is. But that doesn't make it any less stupid. We are starting a new century and it's time we started looking at reality the way it really is.

I am writing this for the children of the State of Kansas so that those of you who surf the web can read about real science rather than be forced to endure your state's bizarre religious views that they insist on calling science. If they throw out the science of evolution because it doesn't agree with the Bible, then they'll have to throw out Astronomy too, because Astronomy doesn't agree with the Bible either.

If we're going to promote mythical based beliefs in schools and allow local school boards to teach Creationism instead of Evolution, then who not allow local school boards to teach Astrology instead of Astronomy? We'll just redefine Science to mean whatever the majority of the local school board believes in. If a local school board thinks the world is flat, then the world is flat. I better not give Kansas any more ideas. I've been to Kansas and you don't have to be there very long before the belief that the world is flat seems plausible.

The Bible is Wrong
The difference between evolution and Creationism is that evolution is real and Creationism is not real. Creationism is based on the Bible that says that God created the world in 6 days about 10,000 years ago. Clearly the world was not created in 6 days about 10,000 years ago so therefore the Bible is just plain wrong. If the world were merely 10,000 years old then how do you explain the dinosaurs that are millions of years old? We've discovered life fossils that date back billions of years. Even the skeletons of modern humans date back before the time of Adam and Eve.

If we were to believe the Bible, then we would have to believe the Earth was created before the stars, which is the wrong order. If the stars were created 10,000 years ago, we wouldn't be able to see starts that were more than 10,000 light years away. That's because if a star were further away than 10,000 light years, the light from that star wouldn't have got here yet. Our galaxy alone is about 100,000 light years across. If the Bible were true, we wouldn't be able to see but 1/10th the way across our own galaxy. We surely wouldn't be able to see other galaxies or galactic clusters or know that the universe is expanding.

Our modern technology has proved the Bible wrong. That means that if there is a God, he didn't write the Bible and the Bible is not his word. If the Bible were the word of God and the Bible is wrong, then God is wrong. And if God can't be wrong, then the Bible, which is wrong, can't be the word of God.

Men who lived thousands of years ago wrote the Bible. The authors had limited knowledge of the nature of the universe and wrote the Bible based on what they believed at the time. They didn't know the Earth was round and that it orbited the Sun, which is a star among billions of stars in the galaxy which is but one galaxy in billions of galaxies that have existed for billions of years. To them, the world was flat. There was up and there was down and God lived in the sky. They didn't know the world was round and there was no such thing as "up". They didn't know that the sky was a thin layer of gas that surrounds the surface of this planet. We have been to the sky and we have been above the sky and God isn't living there.

Evolution is Real
As to evolution, evolution is science. We have the bones of creatures living millions of years ago that are the links between different forms of life. The bone exist that link us humans we our common ancestors that we share with other primates. In fact we have unearthed many civilizations that go back further than 10,000 years and predate Adam and Eve. And these discoveries actually exist and can be measured. We know them to be real.

Evolution is happening right now. Farmers have been using evolution for thousands of years to bread new and better farm animals and crops. The corn we eat today is very different than the corn that was raised by the ancient Egyptians. Today's cattle are very different from cows a few hundred years ago. The difference is that farmers controlled the breading to select the best individuals and to cause them to reproduce instead of the inferior ones. We have taken control of evolution and used it to out benefit.

Do we know everything about evolution? No, we don't. But we know a great deal, and we're learning more every day. As we pursue science and research we are expanding our knowledge of the reality of the universe and the world around us. This is real knowledge about the way that the world actually is. Knowledge that has come from scientific discovery rather than the mythology of past and primitive civilizations.

Why People don't like Evolution
People don't like the idea of evolution because of our fear of death and that we like to think of ourselves as something special. The idea that we "came from monkeys" is as disgusting as sex. If God made man in his image and we are the only life in the universe and we are dominate over all other things and we're going to live forever, that would be a great reality for us. Unfortunately, that's not the way it is.

On the other hand, this planet is but a speck of dust in the universe. We are a small planet rotating around a star that is one of billions of stars in a galaxy that is one of billions of galaxies in a universe that existed for billions of years. The universe is likely teaming with life, some of which is so evolved that they would never visit here because we are too primitive to even be considered interesting, unless we were considered tasty food. We exist as a result of random chance and the only reason we exist is because our parents and their parents before them gave into overwhelming sexual instincts, like the animals have, and we were formed as a chance DNA combination. We exist for no other reason.

Now, which one would you rather believe? It's simple. We would all rather believe that we are special and that God has a special purpose for us and that we are important. But which one is real? The one we would rather believe? Or do we believe what is supported by scientific fact. Sometimes what we want and the way things are are not the same. It takes courage to believe in what's real. Those who are afraid of what's real are attached to maintaining the illusion of a creation rather than facing the facts. The reason I'm here is because my father didn't have it together enough to use a condom properly. It's that simple.

The Evolution of Christianity
Christianity itself has evolved over the centuries. In order to survive it has had to change an adapt. Many religions and many branches of Christianity have become extinct over the centuries. In order to survive, Christianity has had to merge with the cultures of other religions. For example, Christmas is not a Christian holiday. Christmas was originally Yule and people cut down and decorated trees long before Christ was born. Easter had nothing to do with Christ rising from the dead. Easter was a pagan fertility ritual where pagans prayed to the Gods for reproduction and food. Hence, the rabbits and the eggs.

The religions of the world are threatened by modern science. We humans have evolved to the point where we know a lot more than we ever did and we now know that a lot of what we believed for centuries is just plain wrong. However, we humans are still herd animals and it is our instinctive nature to continue to believe what the tribe believes rather than what's logical. Our minds have not yet evolved to the point where logic and reason dominates over tribal patterns. (Except for me of course. That's why I'm writing this.) But because of technology, and especially computers, the day is coming where the rest of humanity can move up to my level and beyond. (Sorry, it's not ego, it's my warped sense of humor. In your heart you know I'm right though.)

As religion evolves people will turn from mythology to reality. As humans become smarter, people will want to understand the real world the way it really is. The 21st century will be the century of the global mind and the Church of Reality will evolve into the dominate religion on the planet. And I will go down in history as the Dalai Lama of nerds.

:mad:

Kate, i JUST fell in love with you :rose: :love: :yes:

I agree with some of what's said there... and i grow up in a very conservative area where Biology students think that Evolution is crap and that God snapped his fingers and the world appeared as it is.

I recently had a conversation with my surrogate brother about a topic similar to this:
I was telling him of my recent trip to eastern PA where i had to spend a week with My fundamentalist grandparents. I ramble a lot to myself, and were were driving to Scranton and i was watching the rocks that had been carved out of the mountains to make the roads [i hope people know what i'm talking about]... in my ramblings, i accidentally said the words "plate tectonics"... at which point my grandfather asks me "So, greg, you don't believe in the bible? you don't believe that the world is as God originally made it?" I quickly said, no, but i do believe :: and thought quickly, i had to make it sounded like i still was, you know, a bible banger or risk being thrown from the car as a heretic ::. ... The bible was written by men who were inspired by the voice of God, right? [he said yes]... well if God had told these men that the world was made of processes like plate techtonics and all the other things we know they would have freaked out! He told the people what they would understand....

and that's what i'm getting at, the Bible [old testament] was written as an interpretion and a way to explain what we didn't know... now wheter or not it was told to them by God or not is up to you... but i think people need to realize that Science is developing REAL answers to some of the things that were "Explained" in the bible, and we shouldn't just smack them down because the bible says "and god said let there be light"...

of course, if my surrogate brother was there he'd have said "Oh, God just made the earth look old so the geologist would have jobs..." hahahaha, smart ass...

as for Kansas...... gah! that's worse than my World Cultures teacher telling us that Hindi's are polytheistic because christians know better.......... :: Pish ::


and may i just say, if you can't "handle" reading things that contradict your own beliefs, you must not be as strong a believer as you say you are. A person strong in what they believe will have no problem listening to others express their views.......

Great post katbeidar, i basically agree with everything you've said. :D

I'm not too worried about that though, it's not the world, it's only the US and the Middle East that are going through a new Medieval period, and they are going deeper and deeper into it each year.
But like during Europe's medieval period, science and knowledge will continue to thrive in other parts of the world and this time it's Europe, India and China that will continue to develop science while the US and the Middle East are taken over by religious extremists.

katbeidar, don't you think you should give credit to the website from which you copied and pasted?

http://www.churchofreality.org/opinion/evolve.htm

religious schools have a right to exist, but teaching the bible as "the way" isn't correct. evolution is a fact, after all.

russkayatatu, I forgot. I was late to Uni when I wrote this, took a bit more time then it should have. Lol.

I always wondered why this evolution/creationism crap is only debated in US. E.g. you can't find this elsewhere.

:newyear:

Unbelievable! :eek: When ignorance takes over instead of a good analysis based on the facts, the world turns upside down. That is simply dangerous.

Only people that use organized religion as means of exploitation and sanctuary for their fears and prejudice would hang on to it so vigorously to deny scientific facts. Sad really. I find people like that pathetic. The worse humanity has to offer. The weak and the hypocrits.

Exactly. Talk about living in ur own little ignorant world, when a book full of ancient beliefs is taken to be fact.

:rolleyes:

Looks like I'll be the only one in the forum to counter this argument. I'm not pro-creation, or anti-evolution; I'm not taking a one-sided stand.

First, I have to say that evolution is a theory! It is a stab in the dark, a guess as to what might have happened. It is strongly supported from what we can comprehend and the circumstantial evidence we've gathered to support it; but we can never prove it's truth! We were not there, so we will never know, and to say we know what happened in itself is ignorant. That makes creationism no better or worse than evolution.

I find that extremely harsh, somewhat offensive to a point. I have many good friends of a plethora of religions, some are extremely devout, but that doesn't make them worse in my opinion. In fact, I respect someone more if they believe strongly in what they believe in. Here it is again, scientific facts. There is no such thing as a scientific fact. Do we know that gravity really exists? It is our opinion on the matter, it may just be an illusion. Optical illusions trick the mind into seeing things that aren't really there or aren't as they should be. Can Kate know that evolution is real and the bible is fake? This is just an opinion, just like creationism is an opinion or any other hypothesis at our creation. Finally, labeling these people "the worse humanity has to offer" is extreme. What about criminals, rapists, murderers?

Actually that is not completly true. Evolution can be observed. Three examples.

1. This one was observed by Darwin and triggered whole theory. In Galapagos island are strong winds. Darwin noticed that certain type of bugs don't have wings because they would be blown away. They have wings elsewhere.

2. Viruses. When antibiotics came out they were very effective. But then doctors overprescribed them and viruses got more resiliant and antibiotics are less effective.

3. Hedgehogs. When hedgehog crosses road at night and you light him he will do what reflexs tell him to, he will curl into a ball. That of course increases chances of him geting run over. However peopel noticed that certain hedgehogs don't react like this and run away. It's only a short time to see if this feature get's more widespread. Evolution would say yes. Because hedgehogs that run will survive and will breed and transmit "running genes" to offspring.

Evolution can be observed in lifeforms with short life span and quick reproduction.


Not true. Evolution provided evidence supporting it's theory. Creationism hasn't (beside the Bible). Also creationists spend all their time disproving evolution, not proving creationism. Disproving evolution doesn't automatically proves creationism. Not by long shot. If creationist want their theory to be treated with same respect as evolution provide fact that stand up to scrutiny. Also evolution theory changes with new facts being discovered. Which is a sign of flexible thinking. Can creationism adapt to new facts?

:newyear:

Evolution is NOT a theory, it's a fact! There are several theories aiming to explain the mechanism of evolution, but evolution itself is a fact.

Humans have been on this planet long enough to actually witness it! The animals drawn in caves by our ancestors no longer exist, where are they? They have evolved into modern species (and some have simply become extinct).

Like luxxi said, evolution can even be *observed* in life forms with short life spans, we can see how those species are rapidly evolving through thousands of generations.


Creationism is not even a theory, it's a bunch of crap. So the world and all life forms were created 6000 years ago exacty how they are today? Please! We can see animals and plants evolving everywhere, we can see continents moving, we can see the climate changing (there were once a forest where the Sahara desert is now for example). The whole planet and its life forms are constantly reshaping under our very eyes everyday!

Creationism is as stupid as Spontaneous Generation, because you just have to look around you to see that it's wrong, lol.

no haku, in technicality Evolution is a theory.... look it up. The thing is it that scientists can't claim that evolution has been happening all this time in the way we can on other facts. Goku is right, it's rather arrogant to say so... and they can't claim it to be a fact, i know they want to. I believe that Evolution is a fact, but that's all we can really say. In my Geology course my teacher had to be careful with Evolution, he called it something different which had to go with the Fossil Record.

Actually, if you look into the fossil record you'll find some amazing support for evolution on certain species, wherein you can see their developement.

But it's not something we should worry about to much, i know that there are some creationists who would stop at nothing to make sure that Evolution is no longer taught as a theory. You can't stop the progression of science.... after all, they threw Galilieo in jail and didn't they KILL nostradomus for thinking outside the box. I'm not too worried, but I just HATE when people can't handle the teaching of different thoughts.... and i do think that creationism is just TO simple of an idea for Science Teacher to be forced to teach... it must be rather painful for them

Not here. :) (I've just checked my French encyclopedia, lol, and i remember what my teachers said even though it was 20 years ago.)

Here, evolution is regarded as an observable phenomenon, like tectonics, or the fact that the Earth is round and revolves around the Sun.

What are considered theories are the various hypotheses to explain the phenomenon of evolution (Lamarck's theory, Darwin's natural selection theory, and the modern theories of synthetic evolution and synergic evolution, etc) but evolution itself is regarded as an undeniable fact, it's only the way it works that is being researched.

goku, Yes. A theory. But in science, a theory means something backed up with good facts and proof. It's not the word "theory" we use day to day, like "Mary is going to brak up with John, but it's only my theory". :rolleyes: In science, theory is as good as fact. You don't say Pythagoras' theorem is a stab in the dark, do you? Nope. Same with evolution. You can say that evolution is a fact. :)

Nope. :no: He died of natural causes. He even predicted how he will die and how his body will be found.

:newyear:

yeah, i knew that, i meant Socrates...

I was taught that a theory is a an idea that is neither proven or unproven. Something widely accepted but not necessarily proven to be a fact. Haku, it makes me insanely happy to know that there is a place that states Evolution as a fact... but here in the States i could be socially crucified for saying that...

Science is backwards here... in my area at least. People here are ruled by the Bible, and it was hard for me sometimes, being the radical that i am. In a debate about Evolutio n, Stem Cell and other things in this scientific matter [and other social things, like gay marriage and abortion (Which has it's scientific standpoints to me)], in a class of 30, i was only 2 or 3 were for the "pro" side... everyone else was complete against it [this was in high school]. Luckily, my classmates didn't really hold it against me...

but yeah, even Science majors think that Evolution is crap, and yet they believe in plate tectonics, dinosaurs and other things. Yet, just because it says "God made Man in his own image" ... Evolution is crap.

But it's really just because the whole world completely misinterpreted what Darwin originally spoke. Poor man....

But lets not forget, we did completely outlaw the teaching of Evolution in our schools, wasn't it Plessy vs. Ferguson? ...

thegurgi, Not in scientific world. To make something a theory in science, you need to prove it with facts and so on. :heh:

I believe in Evolution. I worship it, if you will. I hope that someday, when I get a degree in molecular bio-technology, I'll be able to prove genetic relationship between hominids (Paranthropi, Australopithecines etc) and us. It's my aim in life.

By the way, two interesting FACTS:

1). Champanzees and humans share 99% of genes. Only 1% of our genetic material is different.

2). Mitochondrial DNA, which can only be passed down the maternal line and is not involved in crossing-over during meiosis (thus making it's mutation rate easy to calculate) can be tracked back to a single woman in Africa, who lived approximately 200,000 years ago. :) That's the "Eve Theory".

Yet everybody knows that Easter was to celebrate the Jews' passage to Jerusalem. :p

To me, evolution seems as shaky as religion and the "fact" that Man has descented from the apes as proved as that he descent from a particular type of fish. You see, there are a lot of theories of evolution around.

So obviously that guy who wrote that "liberal" stuff must be as ignorant as the bigots who are irritated by reading his "findings".