(no subject)

[apocalypsos]

Ga. Evolution Dispute Embarrasses Some -- ATLANTA - First, Georgia's education chief tried to take the word "evolution" out of the state's science curriculum. Now a suburban Atlanta county is in federal court over textbook stickers that call evolution "a theory, not a fact." Some here worry that Georgia is making itself look like a bunch of rubes or, worse, discrediting its own students.

If it makes the embarrassed ones feel any better, I don't think Georgia's full of rubes. This just confirms my belief after reading articles on this stupid debate that Georgia's got a handful of backwards rubes and a whole bunch of people standing around shaking their heads going, "Stop being on our side! You're making our side look stupid!"

If it were my kid, I wouldn't want them teaching him creationism in science class, what with it being a religion thing. Kind of the same way I wouldn't want the gym teacher teaching algebra. They kind of separate the teachers by subject for a reason. Science is hard enough without sending to the teachers to freakin' theology school.

Besides, I don't want my kid being taught creationism, for crying out loud. I do believe in a God, but I don't think he took a week to create the planet. What the hell is up with that? "I'll create the planet in six days, and then on the seventh day, I'll get to hang out and play the Halo sequel." NO. Either he's an effective God who does everything all at once, (which I don't buy considering his job record) or he's the comfy slacker I've always thought he was and he had his hand in that evolution schtick from day one. Six days with a break on the seventh sounds way too much like those jerks at work who have a deadline on a project and get it done a day early specifically so they can hang around your work station and be smug all over the place. "You're still working on creating horses? Man, I got those done on Wednesday, right after I made all that soot. Hey, did you get Middle East peace done yet? I kinda slapped it together and I was wondering if I could look at your work and see if you got it right -- No? Aw, come on, man, don't be hatin'."

And while we're at it, that crack about evolution being "a theory, not a fact"? Guess what gets discussed in real science classes -- among other classes -- along with facts? That's right, kids ... theories!

EDIT: And another entry in the "What the fuck is wrong with people?!" files, child porn is found on the laptop of a pro-life priest. I'll just be over here, trying desperately not to make the tasteless sarcastic cracks this story begs for.

Comments

[harmonyfb.livejournal.com]

Ugh. I don't want my child taught "creationism" because a) It's not science and has no business being presented like one and b) I don't worship their fucking god, and c) It's got to be the most half-assed excuse for a religious theory I've ever heard, right on the order of the Hale-Bopp folks. Weirdos.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I don't worship their god, either. I mean, I believe in a God, I just don't think he's as big of an asshole as they make him out to be.

[harmonyfb.livejournal.com]

Oh, agreed. A lot of those anti-evolution crackheads worship a god that doesn't appear to have any points of commonality with the G-d of Abraham, no matter what they claim.

Though it'd still be a big no-freaking-way for me, anyway, even if they weren't crackheads, since I'm a polytheist & don't subscribe to Christian holy writings (and I'm raising my kids the same way). It's the fucking arrogance of someone who assumes that everyone's child should be taught their little particular religious creation myth that floors me.

[tania.livejournal.com]

Gee I'm glad I live in Australia. 9_9

Re the edit - stories like that make me retch. Don't worry, I'm sure your readers will supply the accompanying tasteless cracks shortly. ;D I look forward to it. Sometimes you just gotta laugh to keep from tearing your hair out in pure frustration. >_

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

You have a sexy duck.

As if that weren't enough, you make me away-sick for Australia [you can't be homesick for someplace that isn't your home...but I miss Australia a lot.]

[tania.livejournal.com]

*giggles* Sadly, I have a lot of sexy ducks, it's sort of a hobby. ;D

So you spent some time in Australia? :) When and whereabouts? I'm in Queensland myself, on the Sunshine Coast. The name don't lie, it's BAKING here during the day at the moment. o_O;;

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Man, it's pouring rain and freezing cold in the DC area. I want to go down there. *pines away for warmth*

[tania.livejournal.com]

Take some of ours! It was so hot today that... eh, I don't even know HOW it happened, but it appears part of the ocean has evaporated and gone airbone, leaving a misty 'salt fog' all over the town. Seriously, you're driving along with the window open and all you can smell is brine.

Generally it spends a few days at a time getting hotter and hotter to the point of insanity here, then it 'cracks' and dumps a metric buttload of rain on us for a few hours, HAILS for a bit (yeah, that confuses us too), and then goes back to being hot. Right away. *grins*

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

One week trip to Surfers Paradise in the early 90s.

Loved it. Miss it. Want to go baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.

[harmonyfb.livejournal.com]

EDIT: And another entry in the "What the fuck is wrong with people?!" files, child porn is found on the laptop of a pro-life priest. I'll just be over here, trying desperately not to make the tasteless sarcastic cracks this story begs for.

Oh, I'm so VERY not surprised. So many of those "pro-life" people are genuinely evil (volunteer for a while as a clinic escort & you'll see what I mean) that I'm not surprised by anything they find out about them. Hell, they plant bombs, they shoot people, they start fist-fights (I had one guy raise his fist to punch me in the face - happily, the presence of a cop deterred him), they endanger others (one guy brought his six year old to stand on the shoulder of a six-lane road to protest a clinic where there had been a bombing the month before. He wasn't the least ashamed that he was endangering his already-been-born son's life.) ::pauses to spit on the ground::

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

I'm not embarrassed.

But that's because I'm a New Yorker who happens to live here. I'm not Georgian, and vive le difference, baby!

This is one of the reasons why I get riled when people treat me like I'm from here.

[anne-jumps.livejournal.com]

I'm a native Georgian, and I'm not like that.

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

Not saying all Georgians are like that.

But all the craziness I hear coming out of this state, plus the insane "don't you people know the Civil War is OVER" nonsense I get from old people ['well, ma'am, the boy came over at 10, and installed mah cable'; 'is mah tech gon' be black or gon' be white, baby? Ah puhfer white.' and so forth] ...the examples I see of natives have given me a rather jaundiced view.

So I owe you a cup of tea and a hangout by way of apology and getting to know someone who is not a negative representation of your state.

Fair enough?

[anne-jumps.livejournal.com]

I see you're in Marietta. Ouch! That explains a lot. I can't stand Cobb County. In town, and in places like Decatur, people are more progressive... annnnnnnnd that's because they're either from out of state and here for the work, or know a lot of people from out of state ;)

I can take you up on that cup of tea and hangout at some point....

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Been alive 40 years. Lived in NY until I was in my mid-30s, and then I move to Marietta and get robbed for the first time in my life. I'd move if I could afford it.

But yeah. Cuppa tea, definitely.

[for trollprincess Cuppa tea, cuppa tea, almost got shagged, cuppa tea"]

You ever get the feeling ...

[seferin.livejournal.com]

That God would say he never did anything too us, just gave us free will, and we have people who have been metaphorically kicking us in the head since time began?

[prairiedaun.livejournal.com]

The best/worst is when creationists wander into the Anthropology Student's Association room at my school, and try to convince us that they're right.

For serious.

*headdesk*

I even had one person way that they would pray for me because I studied evolution. I helpfully told her I'm a linguist and don't actually study evolution...

[dorothywwom.livejournal.com]

Just ask them which of the the TWO creation stories in the Bible is right.

[vivian-shaw.livejournal.com]

I have found that the following approach works best with creationists. You quote this with a completely straight face:

So then God created the world, and the first day he created light, and air, and fish, and jam, and soup, and potatoes, and haircuts, and arguments, and small things, and rabbits, and people with noses, and jam – more jam, perhaps, and soot, and flies, and tobogganing, and showers, and toasters, and Grandmothers, and… Belgium.

The second day, He created fire, and water, and eggnog, and radiators, and lights, and Burma, and… and things that go “uuuhh,” and Colonel Khadaffi, and… Arthur Negus.


By the time you've got to "radiators," they are backing away slowly, and they don't bother you again.

[bailunrui.livejournal.com]

One word: Rwanda. :)

[vivian-shaw.livejournal.com]

"Doesn't work very well. Infrastructure's fucked."

[bailunrui.livejournal.com]

"Here have a radiator."

[dustbunnygirl.livejournal.com]

The Kansas Department of Education is still trying to dig itself out of our Evolution/Creationism snafu from a few years ago. They outlawed it, don't you know. No evolution to be taught in Kansas schools. Made us the laughing stock of the Midwest.

Not that that's saying much, mind you, but...I still took to telling people I was from Missouri for a while there.

[mayatawi.livejournal.com]

*snerk* Ah, Georgia. I lived in Augusta for eight years. (I had my picture taken with Zell Miller!!11!!one) I still remember, one afternoon in seventh grade, this very, very devout Christian girl in my class got into an argument with our science teacher over whether she (the teacher) should be teaching evolution or not.

That girl alternately frightened me and cracked my shit up.

And then there was our next-door neighbor, an eleven-year-old kid who got bored at a birthday party once, and so he and his friends started going up and down the street knocking on doors and evangelizing. He was always asking me if I'd let Jesus into my heart yet, too. Funny shit. (Me: "Uh, not yet. Try again later.")

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

"Uh, not yet. Try again later."

*snerk* I'm meaner. I probably would have said something like, "I keep trying, but no matter how many times I puree him, he's just not small enough!" And then a fake sob and a wail, for the melodrama. ;)

[vivian-shaw.livejournal.com]

"No--should he be in the atrium or the ventricle? Left or right side?"

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

Jesus is already in my heart. AND I'M NOT LETTING HIM OUT! YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM BACK BECAUSE YOU DON'T TREAT HIM RIGHT!

[sabra-n.livejournal.com]

Of course evolution is a theory. Just like gravity, and the atom.

Science is the objectivist's dream and the fundamentalist's nightmare- there's no such thing as a "fact" as it's defined in popular culture. Things can only be disproven, never proven. A scientific "fact" is just something that's been independently corroborated by so many sources it's taken as as a fact and used as the basis for further reasoning. A scientific "theory" isn't "theoretical" in the popular sense- something posited but so far unsupported by real-world evidence. It's actually a scientific "fact" on steroids- one that covers many fields and areas of interest and has too many implications to count.

And that's how you can tell that those particular creationist idiots didn't study their science textbooks hard enough, or didn't have books or teachers that elucidated the fact that words in science take on a different meaning than they have in the rest of life. And now they want to spread the ignorance. Thanks a lot, guys.

-blue

[anne-jumps.livejournal.com]

They always prove their ignorance by "pointing out" the theory thing.

The current issue of National Geographic is a great source for facts on evolution.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_redpanda_/]

Fernandes himself triggered the inquiry that currently has him facing up to five years imprisonment. According to court records, Fernandes was having problems with the laptop and contacted the diocese's computer repair company Oct. 25. Two days later, a technician for DEG Associates of Fall River discovered the child pornography.

Oh man. That bit's what gets me, actually. DUDE. What an idiot. *facepalm*

[lots42.livejournal.com]

He probably called the porn 'Financial records' and thought that would save him.

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

God wanted him to get his ass busted for his sins.

And now he's going to go to jail and get his ass busted for his sins.

"I kill me!"
--Gordon Shumway.

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

Can they set up a sub-section of the Darwin Awards for people who don't actually die through their own stupidity? I mean, he's not going to be doing much reproduction in prison, so it's okay, right?

[krimon.livejournal.com]

Six days with a break on the seventh...

That's the problem with doing it as an indepedent contractor. He should have made the Universe hire him full-time and then unionized.

Alpha-Omega Local 01:
Article VII
Sec. 55: The Universe will exercise its efforts in good faith, subject to the requirements of efficient operations, to the end that Creator will be scheduled on a basis of a normal work week of forty (40) hours within the work week period during which there are two (2) consecutive days of rest.

[ficangel.livejournal.com]

*shakes head* It's the 'theory' bit that always pisses me off. Like they honestly don't realize that being called a theory is the highest praise a scientific idea can get, uh-huh. I hate it when jackholes try to assume that I'm ignorant so that they can manipulate me.

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

This is one of the manifold reasons I'm never going to have kids. But if I did, and I sent them to a school that was going to be teaching creationism alongside evolution, I'd probably teach them about one of those neat Greek myths with bulimic baby-eating gods and tell them to ask the teacher about it.
Because I would be a very bad mom.

[kimera.livejournal.com]

See, I'm pretty much agnostic, but my idea about the whole creationism thing is... "well, he's a fucking god, he can have a different concept of time!" Heck, maybe we're still on the second day or something.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

That's my theory to, but that always seems to vapor-lock people's brains. While doing such is fun, it gets old.

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

Add me to the ditto chorus, here.

That old joke:

Man: How much money is a penny?
God: A million dollars.

Man: How long is a second?
God: A millennium.

Man: Can I have a penny?
God: In a second.