Creationists lose in court yet again

August 16, 2008

Guest Post by Morbo

Creationists are like the Energizer Bunny: they just keep going and going. You beat them in court, and they come right back with something else. Anyone who cares about good science education in America must face the fact that cranks who believe the Earth is 6,000 years old and that dinosaurs walked alongside humans will never be truly defeated. They have to be watched constantly because they are always up to something.

Creationists often try to sneak into public education through the back door. Here’s a case in point: California’s system of state-funded colleges tries to be open to as many young people as possible. But there are certain academic standards hopeful students must meet to gain admission. One of these is that they were not taught utter nonsense in high school.

A bunch of creationist kids who were taught utter nonsense in Christian fundamentalist private schools decided that they wanted to attend these colleges anyway. School officials looked at their transcripts, saw that they were taught creationism and noted that this type of instruction fails to meet the standard as legitimate college prep courses.

So some of the kids sued. They were joined in the lawsuit by two fundamentalist Christian academies and the Association of Christian Schools International. Recently, a federal judge rejected the legal gambit.

U.S. District Judge James Otero said the University of California (UC) has the right to reject certain textbooks and classes if they omit important information in science and history and fail to teach critical thinking.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Otero

“upheld the university’s rejection of a history course called Christianity’s Influence on America. According to a UC professor on the course review committee

, the primary text, published by Bob Jones University, ‘instructs that the Bible is the unerring source for analysis of historical events’ and evaluates historical figures based on their religious motivations. Another rejected text, ‘Biology for Christian Schools,’ declares on the first page that ‘if (scientific) conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong…'”

I have some sympathy for the youngsters involved.

After all, not all of them were sent to fundamentalist academies voluntarily. But young people who have been taught this junk are not shut out of the system entirely. They can still attend UC schools if they score well on Scholastic Assessment Tests. I’d cut them even more slack: I’d let them attend UC schools provided they agree to take remedial classes in areas where they are deficient. Any fundamentalist who can pass “Fundamentals of Biology” is welcome to advance to the next level.

In the end, this case wasn’t so much about students’ rights as it was gaining a foothold for creationism in higher education. Had the creationists won, you can bet national anti-evolution groups would be trumpeting it: “There must be something to creationism! After all, our classes are accepted by the University of California.”

Thankfully, the court slammed the door on that. I can only wonder what the creationists will come up with next. I’m sure they’ll surprise me. After all, their strategy is always evolving.

Faith is a double-edged sword. It can comfort you during pain and confusion, but many take it too far, and use it to embolden their aggressive reaction to fear of the unknown.

Did we learn nothing from Yoda?

Lord, give me patience to deal with Thumpers.

  • BTW – this was well written, Morbo. Those kids are caught in a situation they didn’t originate.

  • …will never be truly defeated. They have to be watched constantly because they are always up to something.

    This sound SO-OOO much like my 3-year-old. Fortunately, she has learned to say “no” to the Mormon “missionaries” proselytizing tag-teams that have been roaming the neighborhood recently—and my 10-year ols keeps asking them when Joe Smith (their founding “prophet”) is going to turn himself in for bank fraud (Ohio convicted him in absentia for running an illegal bank and cutting out on the depositors when it “went under”)….

  • Another rejected text, ‘Biology for Christian Schools,’ declares on the first page that ‘if (scientific) conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong…’”

    This is the nut of the problem, no?

  • If creationists have taught me anythin, it’s that bing stupid is easy; being WILLFULLY IGNORANT is hard hard work, harder than actually learning something.

    I refuse to believe in a God that wants me to be stupid. The universe is a puzzle God (whatever God is) wants us to solve. God’s rooting for us. We must be more disappointing than not.

  • The irony of the rabid right fundies is how insecure they are in their own faith. They seem to stumble on accepting their faith as a matter of…well…faith. So they look for empirical evidence to ‘prove’ their faith. As they lack any specific understanding of empirical evidence, they are left with ‘strength in numbers’. How can something so many people have become convinced of, be wrong? For the solemnity of their faith, it’s little more than God by American Idol. Text your vote to 1-800-YoJ-esus. Press one to vote for the Lord’s Science. Press two if you oppose Satan.

  • Otero. That’s one a them Muslim names, ain’t it?
    Seriously, my brother-in-law, the brave Army band cello player, home schooled his kids. They are sweet, but now out in the world, are finding their education a little lacking. After busting out of several jobs each, they’re back in a real school, trying to catch up. One even found out the planet is more than 6000 years old, and the big bang was not the conception of Jesus.

  • I really wish that a lot of these anti-science Christians would realize the hypocrisy in living in the modern world. Go back to a simpler time by not eating Genetically Modified Corn (evolution), Cheez Whiz (???) or other “wholesome” modern processed food. Or use electricity (Big Bang) or computers (Math and Big Bang). It’s not the modern world’s or universe’s fault that they can’t deal with or accept the science that challenges their faith. Why use these socalled products of the devil?

    The hardcore Mennonites and Amish at least live the faith of their fathers without the modern conveniences they were taught to dislike.

  • “I can only wonder what the creationists will come up with next. I’m sure they’ll surprise me. After all, their strategy is always evolving.”

    Excellent! LOL!

  • Great read Morbo. I especially love your closing sentence, “After all, their strategy is always evolving” Classic

  • “…‘if (scientific) conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong…’”

    Now educated critical thinking people would add ” or else the ‘interpretation’ of the Word of God is incorrect” but fanatics lose the ability to see themselves as ever being wrong. Rather than observe and discover they have an opinion that everything else must fit into rejecting anything to the contrary. Rather than figure it out they immediately conclude it must be wrong for God’s word is never wrong (my interpretation of his word can not be wrong either) Is Galileo still in prison or is the earth still flat? How quickly we forget.

  • Biblical literalists are metaphorically challenged. And more.

    Slappy #5: “I refuse to believe in a God that wants me to be stupid. The universe is a puzzle God (whatever God is) wants us to solve. God’s rooting for us. We must be more disappointing than not.”

    I’ve always maintained that God must be disappointed in people who refuse to use the brains he gave us.

    My pastor said something last week that at first made me think of the presidential campaign: “Fear keeps us from seeing what is true”.

    I thought of those who believe the smears against Obama because it plays to their fears, that Obama is unknown, foreign, not one of us. The smears just reinforce their view that their first impression is correct. Some refuse to believe the truth when it does come their way, they are so stuck in their mindset.

    That statement about fear applies to so much more than political campaigns, of course. Fear of the unknown, fear of what we have yet to discover, afraid that our world and/or God view, that is all set and pat in our minds, could possibly be untrue or far more complex than anyone could imagine. It’s a challenge to think “outside the box”.

  • #13: I must note that my pastor was not referring to the presidential campaign when he said this. But it applies to so much.

  • Keep in mind that these kids are still eligible to apply for admission to the UC system regardless which nonsensical “college prep” courses they took. The only question was whether those classes were suitable for _advanced placement_ credits.

    Remedial courses would not be necessary in any situation. Freshmen are expected to start with lower-division introductory courses anyway. The only way to bypass those is AP credit.

  • Michael Seery, @15.

    They wanted AP credits for that sort of crappy “science”? And thought they had any chance of getting them? At UC? Good grief! Let them go to Roberts or else sue their “academies” to return their money, *with penalties*, for PTSD .

  • Given your past admissions of impatience with the devout, I admire your openness to admitting these poor wretches. As you say, it’s not all their fault.

    It is important for them, culturally, to know the INCORRECT way infidels believe the world runs. They will understand people SO much better.

    It goes both ways. Unschooled secularists will be unaware that devout Christians believe the world is 6000 years old and similar species were created one by one regardless of their uncanny resemblence of DNA. (This genetic closeness was all part of the creation for some unexplained reason.)

    Minus this knowledge, they will fruitlessly try to communicate with logic rather than change the subject to art or music so we can enjoy their company.

  • California has a first class community college system. It has always been a place where you could go to get what you missed in high school. It does not matter to that systgem whether you missed the material in high school because you were drunk/drugged, criminal or christian. It’s a low cost way to fill in the gaps and get prepared for university.

  • “… dinosaurs walked alongside humans” ???
    God says yes:

    Job 40 (NIV)
    15 “Look at the behemoth,
    which I made along with you
    and which feeds on grass like an ox.

    16 What strength he has in his loins,
    what power in the muscles of his belly!

    17 His tail [b] sways like a cedar;
    the sinews of his thighs are close-knit.

    18 His bones are tubes of bronze,
    his limbs like rods of iron.

    19 He ranks first among the works of God,
    yet his Maker can approach him with his sword.”

    See: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job40:15-24,Job41;&version=31;

    .

  • “A bunch of creationist kids who were taught utter nonsense in Christian fundamentalist private schools…”

    All children start out in life ignorant of God – ALL children are natural atheists. They are TAUGHT the ignorance of creationism deliberately by their parents and their churches. In a rational society, this would be called child abuse.

    For those interested, here is a link to Dr. Francisco Ayala’s masterful takedown of the Bob Jones University bogus biology textbook which was a centerpiece of the recent UC court case: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/acsi-stearns/expertreports/ayala.pdf

    It’s good reading, from a top scientist and scholar, about the massive anti-science conspiracy that the bogus Christian “schools” and bogus “Bible Colleges” are using to dumb down America.

  • The mere fact that creationists NEVER get or even attempt to get their garbage published in reputable peer reviewed journals proves to me that their “science” is fake. These people are fraudsters who prey upon the uneducated like astrologers and fortune tellers are. It`s scary that so many folk out there are ignorant and gullible enough to give these lying decietful bastards a comfortable living by buying their pseudoscience rubbish whether it be in the form of books, DVDs or simply paying them to speak at a public meeting. In the UK where I live our government is too cowardly to crack down on this nonsense for fear of losing fundie muslim, and to a way lesser extent fundie christian votes. Same goes for the main opposition party over here too. They care more for their votes and their positions of office than Britains schoolkids so they sometimes pander to these nutjobs. That`s the dismal condition of domestic British politics today.I hope for your sakes ( and your childrens even more) that both your main political parties take a much harder line with these junk “scientists” and always put the interests of American kids first

  • I am a Christian, but I believe in proper education. Creationism is, at its core, not scientific. There can be no direct evidence, only conjecture, if you are to truly believe in a young earth. It is a matter of faith. After believing in this for most of my relatively young life, I have come to understand that God is much bigger than that. To me, it is vastly more profound and impressive that God allowed us to come about by evolutionary means. That is not to discredit the Bible – it is undeniably the Word of God – but merely points out that indeed God wants us to dig deeper. There are many mysteries in this life, and settling is something I’m not willing to do.

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