*Sigh*.
Today is the day that the (Louisiana) House Education Committee considers SB733 the “Louisiana Science Education Act”. It supposedly calls for “critical thinking” about scientific issues which… when you look at the fine print… means talking about Intelligent Design which… when you think about it or look behind the curtain means talking about creationism.
“Oh no”, we are told, “this is not about sneaking religion into the classroom”.
Enter a defender of the bill with a letter to the editor of the Baton Rouge Advocate:
News flash to professors and machinist: teaching our kids their way has made them unable to compete NOW! Louisiana is ranked among the worst in public school education, and they are telling us that intelligent design is bad? Is this a joke?
Of course this brings us to one glaring question in this debate; if mixing religion and science makes for “bad” education then how is it that schools like Catholic High, Episcopal High, Parkview Baptist turn out world-class medical doctors, engineers, scientists, etc. Please don’t tell me they have money and parental involvement. If mixing religion and science makes “bad” science, then the only thing money and parental involvement would accomplish is these schools would be really good at teaching “bad” science.
Two things strike me about this letter.
First – this person comes right out and mentions Intelligent Design (however one defines that). So… it is true then that the purpose of the bill is to get Intelligent Design into the public school classroom? Ah. Thanks for letting the cat out of the proverbial bag.
Second – and this is my favorite – this person comes right out and mentions “mixing science and religion”. So… it is true then that the bill means we will have religion mixed in with science education in the public school classroom? Ah. Thanks for…
Granted the authors of the bill might say “thanks for the word of support – but no no no that is not really what SB733 is about”. But I would suggest the letter writer has inadvertently exposed what this bill really is all about. Intelligent Design. Religion in public schools.
(And how do they teach science in those religious… private… schools the writer cites? Hmm? The issue is teaching religion-as-truth to children in public schools.)
And to throw out this little piece of illogic:
Logic would dictate that in spite of disadvantages the public schools should turn out better students since they have “good” science. So who is to blame for Louisiana public schools being among the worst in the United States? Can’t be religious people since there is no religion in public schools. The only people to blame are the very professors and machinist who write to this paper.
Um… no. This is truly stupid. I will explain precisely why with two points. One – there may be and there are other reasons Louisiana public education ranks so low and it has nothing to do with how we teach science (or more specifically with teaching science sans Intelligent Design or religion mixed in). Two – plenty of states have excellent public education and guess how they teach science? Ding ding ding.
Why do some Christians think we need (cooperation with) the power of the State in order to fulfill the mission of the Christian church??? Did they have it during the first few centuries? And how did the Church do then? Granted we do not want a hostile State. Although we can still be the Church and fulfill our mission even with such.
By seeking to solicit State collusion for (what I do not think really is) Christian mission I believe does not help but actually hinders the mission of the Church. This is bad policy. But what really frosts my mug is the truly bad thinking that people advance in order to support this mistake.
