Frivolous much?
University of California Sued Over Creationism.
LOS ANGELES -- A group representing California religious schools has filed a lawsuit accusing the University of California system of discriminating against high schools that teach creationism and other conservative Christian viewpoints.
The Association of Christian Schools International, which represents more than 800 schools, filed a federal lawsuit Thursday claiming UC admissions officials have refused to certify high school science courses that use textbooks challenging Darwin's theory of evolution. Other rejected courses include "Christianity's Influence in American History."
According to the lawsuit, the Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta was told its courses were rejected because they use textbooks printed by two Christian publishers, Bob Jones University Press and A Beka Books.
Wendell E. Bird, a lawyer for the association, said the policy violates the rights of students and religious schools.
"A threat to one religion is a threat to all," he said.
UC spokeswoman Ravi Poorsina said she could not comment, because the university had not been served with the lawsuit. Still, she said the university has a right to set course requirements.
"These requirements were established after careful study by faculty and staff to ensure that students who come here are fully prepared with broad knowledge and the critical thinking skills necessary to succeed," Poorsina.
Prepared. Schmepared. Critical Schmitical. Thinking schmink -- okay, enough. I know the Creationists want to push their POV against the godless heathen science-privilegers in the UC system, but I am here to seek the truth, and that truth lies w/ Our Noodly Master. The puny UC system is no match for His Truth!
Ahem.
"A threat to one religion is a threat to all." Yes, nice sentiment. Too bad the evangelical-types running this circus sideshow don't believe in it. I don't see them living side-by-side in harmony, everyone finding solace, meaning, and guidance in their own religious beliefs. Those beliefs are, according to our evangelical pals, wrong, corrupt, or, at the very least, misguided, and the wayward must be brought home to Jeebus. They can't have it both ways; they can't simultaneously hide under cover of an important social justice principle and every day of their lives work to discredit and deny other religions.
There are many evangelical, even fundamentalist, types who do not desire to wipe the earth clean of other forms of worship, no matter how much they privilege their own way. Bless them. But these folks, the ones who get the press, the ones who yell the loudest, the ones who clog up our legal system w/ frivolous lawsuits under guise of "religious freedom," they do us all a disservice.
These are not small questions. How are the dominionists going to cut it when facing educational science standards? The Bible can't help you study for the SAT or the MCAT. I can't help but worry for any group who is so set on professing their belief as the (scientific) truth that they'll "prove" that Adam & Eve hung out w/ T. Rex.
I saw someplace today that one in five American adults thinks the sun revolves around the earth. This is precisely the kind of ignorance that will be our undoing as a nation. If we were especially smart, we'd stand up and loudly declare that teaching Creationism is unpatriotic.
That might cause a ruckus.
Posted by: Tata | Tuesday, 30 August 2005 at 02:03 PM