jj@alice.UUCP (08/14/85)
{Now maybe you'll read this. You must have not read the first
one, from the loud silence I hear.}
I find it quite disturbing that netters, while finding time
to worry about who is/was a Nazi-influenced composer/artist/conductor
(I thought conductors were artists, too, by the way), what
the politics of Don Black are (I think we can all see for
ourselves, on that one, folks), and what to do about the
nuclear bombs that we're stuck with (since the USSR
isn't about to do anything except blackmail us if we get
rid of them), do not even seem to care that evolution,
physics, sexual equality, racial equality, the scientific
method, geology, geography, and other such "secular
humanism studies" have been banned in high-schools that
receive federal funding.
Of course, that's not strictly true, since the statute
only bars "secular humanism", which is ill-defined and
probably meaningless. None-the-less,
that's what "fundamental Christians" and other nasty beasties
are using the statute for. Given that the person who
WROTE the statute (Orin Hatch, R-Utah) is a person with strong
and very regressive religious beliefs, I cannot believe that the
use of the statute for religious harrassment is co-incidence.
It is more than sad that the US is about to have a new round
of Scopes trials, religious persecutions, and the like,
it is downright TERRIFYING!
Why don't all you activists out there who have the time
and willingness to do something wake up and DO something?
(Well, I do know the answer, since most of the
"activists" on this net seem to be luddites themselves,
albiet of a different nature. Maybe because it's anti-science
it's OK? Come on, now. Do you really think you fit
into Orin Hatch's New World? Really?)
Lots of people have spent time crying about things that
the "Ray-Gun" administration has done, merely because
they figured they could make some political points,
even though they knew that the points were dishonest
and bankrupt. Now something matters, and I don't hear a peep, a rumble,
or even a pin drop on the subject.
Come on, folks, you're smarter than THAT!
Prove it!
--
SUPPORT SECULAR TEDDY-BEAR-ISM.
"I see a dark cloud, On the horizon,..."
(ihnp4/allegra)!alice!jjjho@ihu1m.UUCP (Yosi Hoshen) (08/15/85)
> It is more than sad that the US is about to have a new round > of Scopes trials, religious persecutions, and the like, > it is downright TERRIFYING! > ???????? I don't understand what are you talking about. Can you be more specific? -- Yosi Hoshen, AT&T Bell Laboratories Naperville, Illinois, Mail: ihnp4!ihu1m!jho
mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate) (08/18/85)
What's amusing about the whole thing is that, if you eliminated all the things that main-line, liberal, Eastern, or catholic christians routinely believe in, there would be little left to ban, other than teaching that religion is in fact false. The likes of Orrin Hatch seem to forget that not all Christians are bothered by evolution, psychology, and the like. Charley Wingate
kew@bigburd.UUCP (Karen Wieckert) (08/28/85)
In article <4141@alice.UUCP> jj@alice.UUCP writes: >... do not even seem to care that evolution, >physics, sexual equality, racial equality, the scientific >method, geology, geography, and other such "secular >humanism studies" have been banned in high-schools that >receive federal funding. > >Of course, that's not strictly true, since the statute >only bars "secular humanism", which is ill-defined and >probably meaningless. None-the-less, >that's what "fundamental Christians" and other nasty beasties >are using the statute for. Given that the person who >WROTE the statute (Orin Hatch, R-Utah) is a person with strong >and very regressive religious beliefs, I cannot believe that the >use of the statute for religious harrassment is co-incidence. > My suggestion is for someone to get the exact wording of the legislation, which I believe is on the D of Educ. authorization. I was in Washington in 1984, and the bit about secular humanism was added by Orrin Hatch to the D of Educ.'s 1985 authorization, but was not applicable to all schools. In that authorization, which I know passed the Senate but don't know what happened in conference, federal funding was being used to set up magnate schools or some such thing. These would be regional "super" schools where bright kids would be educated on math, science, literature, etc. making them better engineers, scientist, leaders of the future. This was being pushed because of data on the number of these types being educated in USSR, Japan, China, etc. Anyway, Hatch added this stuff about no money going to secular humanism type courses in these magnate schools. Hatch may have gotten away with more in the 1986 authorization and extended it to all schools with federal funds, almost all schools now both public and private. I wouldn't be suprised. But before you go bananas over the loss of evolutionary biology, etc, take a look at the legislation. Write to your Congressman requesting the Do educ.'s 1985 authorization and budget, and the 1986 draft legislation for the authorization and budget. I doubt that it has been passed into law yet. For 1986, you should request both the House and Senate versions. (I would do this myself, but I am leaving the net for at least three weeks and possibly permanently. Moving to another network...) ka:ren