Tag Archives: Intelligent Design

The Danger of Equal Access in Public Schools

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an_xrated_book

The Bible is an X-rated Book

Evangelical Christian groups want access to public school students so they can educate them them about Christianity and evangelize them.  From the Gideon’s handing out Bibles to Child Evangelism Fellowship’s after school programs, Evangelicals are diligently trying to “rescue” children from the grasp of atheism and secularism.

Some schools wisely ban all groups from access to students. Unfortunately, many schools do all allow access, giving preference to Evangelical Christianity. The problem with this is illustrated in a story from the State of Florida. Christian News reports:

Atheists in the Sunshine State say that they plan to distribute literature about the Bible being “an x-rated book” and other humanist publications at local public schools within its district to counter a Bible giveaway organized by a Christian group earlier this week.

On Wednesday, members of an organization called World Changers of Florida distributed Bibles to approximately eleven schools in Orange Country by placing free copies of Scripture on tables near the lunchroom. When Central Florida Freethought learned of the event, and the recent decision of the Orange County School District to allow the Christians to do so, it sent a letter to district officials, demanding that they change the policy permitting the distribution of religious materials.

“Our effort is to ensure the county realizes this is the wrong policy,” David Williamson of Central Florida Freethought told Fox Orlando.

The outlet reports that Williamson informed them that if the district refuses to alter its policy, the group will schedule an event of its own at the same schools. However, in a press release issued this week, the organization noted that it has since obtained permission to distribute its materials on campus. It outlined that some of the literature that may be offered to students includes the publications “An X-Rated Book: Sex & Obscenity in the Bible” and “Ten Common Myths About Atheists,” as well as works by popular atheists Dan Barker and Madalyn Murray O’Hair. The first of the publications features a cover depiction of a Bible with arms and legs reaching up under a woman’s dress.

“This group of Biblical literalists has somehow convinced the school board that our public schools should be a religious battleground of sorts. This is unacceptable to freethinkers and persons of all religious traditions, including many Christians,” Williamson said in the release. “But because the school board insists on opening the schools up to Christian proselytizers, we think it’s important that students receive materials countering their religious propaganda.”

A second atheist group has also called for equal time in the school system.

“Orange County is showing favoritism by allowing the distribution of Bibles in the county high schools. This is an issue of preserving the rights of all students, regardless of their beliefs,” said David Silverman of American Atheists out of Cranford, New Jersey. “We will be moving forward to distribute books written by Madalyn Murray O’Hair on atheism in the same manner. Our request will be presented to the school board asking for a specific date when we can place our books in the schools. We expect equal treatment for us; as well as any and all other religions that want to distribute their literature in the same manner.”

The organization did not further explain how it plans to carry out its efforts, although it is assumed that local humanists affiliated with American Atheists will participate in the distribution.

Ken Ham, founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis, commented that atheists already have “more than equal time” in the classroom.

“The secularists have had their arbitrary definition of science forced on millions of kids in American schools. The religion of atheism is being taught throughout the public school system,” he said. “Atheists certainly don’t want equal time in the science classroom now, do they?”

While the atheist groups are unhappy with the district’s allowance for the Bible distribution, an attorney for the Orange County School District says that it has no intention to change its policy, which not only allows free speech, but also contains various restrictions and guidelines.

“Anything that contains pornographic material, any references to advertising, alcohol, tobacco, illegal drugs, or anything disruptive to school district and their educational facility [is prohibited],” said attorney Diego Rodriguez.

Those who distribute materials on campus are not allowed to have any contact with students. Literature may only be left on a table for those who are interested.

As previously reported, Satanists throughout the state have also planned to host a rally later this month in support of Governor Rick Scott and his enactment of a religious freedom bill that allows for students to pray in school. The Satanists state that they applaud the measure because it gives Satanist children equal time to “pray” to the devil in class.

Do the atheists really want access to public school students? Of course not. Their actions are meant to draw attention to the danger of  equal access and why NO group should have access to public school students.  Schools need to focus on educating students,leaving matters of religion and atheism to parents.

Ken Ham, who seems to show up way too often in these kinds of stories, knows that atheists don’t want equal access. He is lying when he suggests otherwise. What atheists want is secular schools to actually be secular schools.  Yes, I realize Ham and millions of Christians think young earth creationism (and its dressed up cousin intelligent design) is science but it is not. Young earth creationism is Christian dogma based on a literalist interpretation of the Bible. (as the court rules in Kitzmiller v. Dover decision)

In Kitzmiller v. Dover, the court ruled:

“Teaching intelligent design in public school biology classes violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States (and Article I, Section 3 of the Pennsylvania State Constitution) because intelligent design is not science and “cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents.”

All that atheists want is for students to receive an education based on facts rather than the theological beliefs of a particular sect of Christians. If Christians feel the need to evangelize then they should go knock on the doors of the homes where the children live….and let their parents decide what their children should be exposed to.

If Christian parents object to their children being educated in secular, non-Christian schools then they are free to send their children to a Christian school or they can homeschool them.  They are free to believe whatever they want to believe. However, in a secular state such as ours, they are not free to have access to the impressionable minds of the children not their own.

HT: Christian Research Network  (a Fundamentalist, right-wing site  I read)

Why we CAN’T Ignore the Religious Right

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Do you wish you could just ignore the Religious Right? Maybe you think people like me overreact to the Religious Right. Let me give you three illustrations from recent news stories that are a SHOUTING reminder of why we CAN’T ignore the Religious Right.

In the State of Indiana a bill has been introduced that:

Allows the governing body of a school corporation or the equivalent authority of a charter school to provide for the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer at the beginning of each school day.

Here is the text of the Indiana Senate Bill 251:

In order that each student recognize the importance of spiritual development in establishing character and becoming a good citizen, the governing body of a school corporation or the equivalent authority of a charter school may require the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer at the beginning of each school day. The prayer may be recited by a teacher, a student, or the class of students.

(b) If the governing body or equivalent authority requires the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer under subsection (a), the governing body or equivalent authority shall determine the version of the Lord’s Prayer that will be recited in the school corporation or charter school.

(c) A student is exempt from participation in the prayer if:

(1) the student chooses not to participate; or

(2) the student’s parent chooses to have the student not participate.

In the State of Missouri  House Bill 1227 has been introduced in the Missouri House of Representatives. This bill  would require the teaching of biological intelligent design, aka creationism.The National Center for Science Education reports:

House Bill 1227, introduced in the Missouri House of Representatives on January 10, 2012, would, if enacted, require “the equal treatment of science instruction regarding evolution and intelligent design,” according to the legislature’s summary of the bill. The equal treatment provision would apply to both public elementary and secondary schools and to “any introductory science course taught at any public institution of higher education” in Missouri.

HB 1227′s text is about 3000 words long, beginning with a declaration that the bill is to be known as the Missouri Standard Science Act, followed by a defectively alphabetized glossary providing idiosyncratic definitions of “analogous naturalistic processes,” “biological evolution,” “biological intelligent design,” “destiny,” “empirical data,” “equal treatment,” “hypothesis,” “origin,” “scientific theory,” “scientific law,” and “standard science.”

Among the substantive provisions of the bill, applying both to public elementary and secondary schools and to introductory science courses in public institutions of higher education: “If scientific theory concerning biological origin is taught in a course of study, biological evolution and biological intelligent design shall be taught. Other scientific theory or theories of origin may be taught.”

For public elementary and secondary schools, HB 1227 also provides, “If scientific theory concerning biological origin is taught in a textbook, the textbook shall give equal treatment to biological evolution and biological intelligent design.” After the bill is enacted, new textbooks purchased for the public schools will have to conform to the equal treatment requirement. A committee will develop supplementary material on “intelligent design” for optional interim use.

Here in my home state of Ohio we are gearing up for a battle over whether or not a fertilized egg is a person. A bill banning abortions once there is a fetal heartbeat is stalled in the Ohio Legislative Assembly. House Bill 125 states:

“Unborn human individual” means an individual organism of the species homo sapiens from fertilization until live birth.”

It is unlikely that this Bill will be enacted into law. However, the Religious Right is planning on getting a Personhood Amendment on the November 2012 ballot. This will have a secondary effect of getting Republicans out to the polls. While voting for this Amendment they might as will vote for the Republican candidate for President too.

Personhood Ohio makes it clear that their amendment drive is motivated by religious belief. Their website states:

It is a verifiable fact of the Holy Bible that life begins in the womb. The Bible confirms repeatedly that a woman is pregnant with a “child” – not “products of conception”, not “a blob of tissue”. In Genesis 25, Rebekah’s “children” struggled within her. In Psalm 139, the inspired writer insists that he existed in his mother’s womb – not a non-living, non-human “product of conception” that became him later on. Pregnant women were considered “great with child“, and Jesus’ mother Mary was found “with child of the Holy Ghost.” ….

…In light of this, it becomes obvious that we have committed a great travesty against the weakest and most helpless members of the human family – the preborn. Forty-five thousand to fifty thousand innocent children die in Ohio every year by abortion. In this, as in all state-sponsored genocides throughout history, society first dehumanizes the victims before genocide can be committed against them. Thus, one of the first steps to protect the preborn and end the Abortion Holocaust is to inscribe into state law that which science, reason, and biblical truth affirms: that personhood begins at the beginning of our biological development, or at fertilization. Children in the womb are recipients of the God-given, inalienable right to life and liberty. It is the mission of Personhood Ohio to restore the God-given right to life and liberty to all Ohioans, and to secure “justice for all.”…

The Religious Right, drunk with political power, demands that their religion and its laws be the religion and law for everyone. Rather than relying on the power of their religious argument to make disciples they have turned to the courts and legislature to advance their agenda.

Call them ignorant, backwater hicks,or Bible thumpers, but do NOT ignore them. The leaders of the Religious Right have millions of closed minded people at their disposal.They have the ability to motivate large numbers of people to do their bidding. Do you cherish liberty and freedom? Do think that the separation of church and state is a wall that must never be breached? Do you want school children taught science rather than fictional Bible stories? Do you want schools that are free from religious coercion of any kind?

I know I do and I suspect you do too. Let’s not underestimate their power. We must continue to shine the light of reason and law on their theocratic intentions. Complacency is not an option.