[net.origins] Educational exposure

miller@uiucdcsb.UUCP (11/30/84)

> To sum up, I think that creationist children should not be
> required to attend classes that they deem offensive to 
> their religion.  At the same time, we should make sure that
> creationists will not force pseudo-science into the science
> classroom.
> Yosi Hoshen
> ==============
> Would you leave a child with parents
> who starve it for food?  No?  Why then would you leave it with parents
> who starve it for mental food?  Malnutrition of the brain has the same
> general effects in both cases.
> Martin Taylor

This is really dumb.  I know I said I wasn't going to reply to anything until I
finished the SOR pamphlets, but I couldn't let this pass by.
No creationist individual/group I'm aware of advocates taking children out of
evolutionary classrooms and/or not allowing them exposure to evolution.  Quite
the contrary, all creationist individuals/groups I'm aware of advocates
presenting *all* of the evidence available for evolution and *all* of the
evidence available for creation.  Creationists, you see, apparently have a
higher respect for the intelligence of students than do evolutionists.  We feel
when presented with  *both sides*, students are smart enough to make up their
own minds.
Now what we have here is yet another example of evolutionists posting myths to
the net.  The inference they have created is that creationists don't want their
children to hear about evolution.  Homework: Demonstrate said claim or retract
it.  I'll accept any published statement, in context, from ICR, CRS, BSA, or
SOR.

A. Ray Miller
Univ Illinois

ethan@utastro.UUCP (Ethan Vishniac) (12/05/84)

[]
>A. Ray Miller
>No creationist individual/group I'm aware of advocates taking children out of
>evolutionary classrooms and/or not allowing them exposure to evolution.  Quite
>the contrary, all creationist individuals/groups I'm aware of advocates
>presenting *all* of the evidence available for evolution and *all* of the
>evidence available for creation.  Creationists, you see, apparently have a
>higher respect for the intelligence of students than do evolutionists.  We feel
>when presented with  *both sides*, students are smart enough to make up their
>own minds.

As I understand it, the arguments in this newsgroup are about whether there
is *any* sense in which any version of creationism is a scientific theory and
whether there is *any* evidence to support it.  Based on what I've read here
I'd say no to both.  That being the case I think that the scientific evidence 
for creationism *is being* presented in schools, because there 
isn't any.  I'm of the opinion that if one deliberately lies to children by 
repeating the material contained your postings then one is wasting their time 
at best, and seriously damaging their education at worst.  

"I can't help it if my     Ethan Vishniac
    knee jerks"         {charm,ut-sally,ut-ngp,noao}!utastro!ethan
                           Department of Astronomy
                           University of Texas
                           Austin, Texas 78712