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Tennessee's Monkey Bill: Marching Backwards As Fast As We Can
Having narrowly escaped falling off the edge of the earth, Tennessee's creationism-happy Senate has approved the so-called monkey bill, allowing teachers to discuss the "strengths" and "weaknesses" of "controversial" topics like "evolution," as well as "global warming," in order to help their students "improve their thinking skills" and realize once and for all that the miraculous earth was shaped with a magical touch of a godly finger, even though a gazillion scientific and legal experts say the bill is "unnecessary, anti-scientific, and very likely unconstitutional." Also dumb. State legislators are also busy enacting other useful bills, such as allowing the Ten Commandments to be displayed on public buildings, banning the word and concept "gay" and telling girl athletes what they can and can't wear, for which acts we and the Lord thank them. Sort of.
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60 Comments so far
Show AllLet's all march backward into the stone ages...Fascists!
Absent any evidence that stone age societies practiced fascism, a march back to that era could be a step forward in terms of social coherence.
Having been reading some Rianne Eisler recently, that was the first thing that occured to me also.
An aquaintance of mine said he visited the creation museum and they actually show people riding dinosaurs! They cannot deny dinosaurs existed, but they deny they existed over 6,000 years ago. WOW!
Oh, ye of little faith!
It's a known fact that Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs to church every Sunday!
Haven't you ever watched "The Flintstones"? They were ungodly heathens, of course-- but at least the principle is plainly demonstrated.
and they were good GodFearingChristians too!
Did they show Racquel?
And the real kicker is, if there is a god, and she did create us, I'm pretty sure she's thinking "OMG, I made these humans special by giving them this incredible thing called a brain, and look how they waste it!".
Don't tell the republicans god might be a women, for gods sake!
Dayton, Tennessee was the site of the infamous Scopes trial in 1925 where a schoolteacher was convicted of violating the state's law against teaching evolution in the public schools. It's fitting that this backward Southern state is resurrecting a new version of this ignorance.
"Scopes was found guilty, but the verdict was overturned on a technicality and he went free." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_Trial
For me, the trial confirmed the profound idiocy of the Populists to fuse with the Bryan Democrats 30 years earlier, which destroyed their movement.
My daughter graduated two years ago from U of O, she has a degree in biology, she is a marine biologist. During her first year of college she wanted to attend a conservative college, the school that some of her friends attended, after her freshman year, she had to move to a more liberal school because she depleted the science courses. She is the first one to say that the conservative school teaches ignorance. She is correct.
I for one am pleased to see the Tennessee legislature is addressing important scientific theories and hope they will also take aim at the other ridiculous theory that seems so prevalent today. The one the postulates some mysterious force you can't see, taste, touch or feel that holds things to the ground. That's right, I'm talking about the so-called theory of 'gravity'.
God makes stuff fall. He makes it stick. That damn theory tries to substitute some mysterious natural force in place of God's will. Tennessee Legislature: Have at it!
And what's all this crap about the earth being round? Any damn fool can see that's a crock of gravity. Think it's a coincidence that 'science' and 'stoopid' start with 'S'?
Me neither.
Of course the earth is flat! It's commonsense! Next you will be telling us iron ships can float and that God deosn't hate shrimps.
If stuff falls and it shouldn't, use duct tape. If it sticks when it shouldn't then use WD-40.
Glad to see another sensible person here, I use duct tape all the time. When one of these scientific types posts some theory nonsense, I just duct tape right over it so it won't harm the kids. Sure, it's near impossible to read anything, but hey, what's more important than your kids. Okay, maybe hunting, but after that..okay hunting and fishing but then it's..wait a minute..hunting and fishing and beer. But nothing else. Them kids is near first in my heart.
if duct tape, and plastic, could solve USer security concerns, why couldn't WD-40 remove saddam?
That's classified.
In sixteenth century Europe the plague was blamed on witches, demons, Jews. I am more afraid of people's ignorance, superstition, stupidity---their reaction to the climate change that is already happening--- than the climate change itself.
The craziness of the political right is being made exponentially worse by the craziness of the religious right, and it all fits together with plans for more dirty oil instead of research on renewable sources of energy.
Before the year 2020 rolls around, look for the fire coming out of water taps being explained by the devil and his demons and witch hunts on for the evils of abortion, homosexuality, and atheism all of which are doubtless contributing to problems which science can't explain.
So by all means let's close any public schools that are still open, or else make sure they are teaching the gospel according to creationism.
Tennessee is dead-set on herding its citizens back to the dark ages. In the past two years, the Governor and Republican Party have squashed Gay Rights statutes in the city of Nashville, developed laws targeting peaceful protesters and made it illegal to post “potentially offensive images” to the internet. The “Monkey Law” now brings religion back into the classroom by opening debate for creationism. In addition, a new law puts the Ten Commandments back in public buildings around the state. There is a clear cut suppression of progressive thinking by the Republican Party and I addressed these issues “illegally” on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/07/potentially-offensive-portrait-governor.html with a portrait of the Governor to address his party’s absurd agendas.
I thought your art interesting and the comments as well. I'm glad to see there are some non-cretins who are active and keeping it alive in Tennessee. Let us know how your trial turns out. Good Luck!
If you elect monkeys to be your legislators, you will get monkey-mind laws.
For years I have found it very sad, as well as fascinating, that these heretical Christians always want to post the Ten Commandments in public places, never the Sermon on the Mount.
not authoritarian enough.
Love it. :)
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the Earth.
Divine Legends in Their Own Minds
18th-century French philosopher and physician Julien Offay de La Mettrie challenges Descartes’ view that humans should, but animals should not, be viewed as conscious beings because humans have immortal souls and animals do not. Thus, Descartes explains animal behavior in terms of “mechanical” stimulation, like pinball machines.
Descartes’ teaching regarding the human mind, La Mettrie writes, is “plainly but a trick of skill, a ruse of style, to make theologians swallow a poison hidden in the shape of an analogy…. For it is this, this strong analogy (between human and animal behavior), which forces all scholars and wise judges to confess that these proud and vain beings (i.e., theologians in particular and humans in general), more distinguished by their pride than by the name of men however much they wish to exalt themselves, are at bottom only machines which, though upright, walk on all fours.”
Amen.
This philosopher had a high opinion of himself and, by extension, of all human animals. He seriously believed that non-human animals were literally machines and could not feel pain--however much they mimicked human pain.
Obama has outflanked the Rethugs from the far, far, far right. Thus, the rethugs no longer have any platforms; they are being forced to embrace patently absurd positions in order to differentiate themselves from the D's. Soon, they will be suggesting that people should be stoned for eating shellfish.
In any case, Obama is far more dangerous than any of these Republican nuts.
Apparently you've been eating shellfish.
...
I've got no problem with evolution because that's how we make great race horses and absurd little dogs. I've got no problem with creation because evolution had to start somewhere, apparently when God said "Bang". Lot's of folks here in Tennessee like God but have no appreciation for Her sense of humor. That's why they take themselves so seriously and are scared of their Shadow.
The stupid is always righter than the smart 'cause there's more of us.
I didn't know that it was illegal in any of our school systems to question science dogma or to explore strengths and weaknesses of scientific orthodoxy.
It looks like we don't want to encourage thinking in our schools.......Hmmm.
DL, If ever there was a glaring example of why humanity is doomed you are it.
Speechless.
So-called Christian Rightists are almost always wrong -- about everything from their religion-founder's ethical message, to their own self-unexamined, psychotically-narcissistic absolutisms.
.
And I say "almost always wong" only by a charitable-in-their-favor stretching of Christic Social Gospel values into something nearly upside-down from what the man historically identified as Jesus, unmistakeably intended.
Many if not most Christian Rightists today are existentially fascistic, pseudo-spiritual egotists, who'd just as soon ram us all back to pre-Enlightenment forms of tyranny as they would spit in the face of an actual human ethicist like the Social Gospel Jesus.
Therefore, I think it would more accurate and useful to start identifying this particular subset of allegedly Christic-following folk for what they are: Not Christian Rightists, but:Christic Wrongists who comprise a concerted bevy of criminal primitives devoutly in need of resistance by all, and otherwise psychologically sane, humans.
Ditto, of course, for any and all other absolutist pseudo religions -- like Rightist Islam and Rightist Judaism..............
The religious right is neither. :)
The Ten Commandments?
Just a goddamned piece of stone.
According to the myth.
Moses, take two tablets and call me in the morning.
Maybe he should have tried holding them between his knees? Then neither he nor his wife would have to call on a doctor.
But then any man born to a woman who was 130 years old must be unusually vigorous without need of medical attention. Afterall he lived to be 120 at a time when few lived past 40.
I am wondering which version? Catholic, Protestant or Jewish? It's going to be interesting to see which religion vies for prominence and State sanction.
http://www.biblicalheritage.org/Bible%20Studies/10%20Commandments.htm
And the whole "graven image" thing is something that's going to be hard to enforce. Coveting is also intensely problematic in todays world of marketing and advertising.
Good One vdb. The way "Christians" act you would think it was the ten suggestions!
When it comes to religion I'm all for states rights. Imagine if we had some states that were hard core christian right, all these old testament party animals could congregate there to wait for the end times and leave the rest of us sinners free to do the devils work. You know like use our heads for something other that a place to put our God Loves NASCAR ballcap.
Can any one of the scientists here explain how any species survived before its reproductive system was fully evolved? And how far back along the evolutionary tree do we have to go before the advent of male/female pairs needed for reproduction?
1. Yes. 2. Many millions of years.
When I think of what goes into the development of even the simplest cell, I am astonished that it ever happens correctly. I can understand why, lacking scientific education, the story of creation in the garden of eden would seem more plausible than what really happened, the development of so many species including humans. But there is so much evidence for evolution, I would give it a try if I were you. Many scientists believe that evolution took place, and still that God was the driving force. Not I, but it is a possible combination.
May I suggest reading "Why Evolution is True" by Coyne. It is funny as well as informative.
You are right to be astonished. It's been said that even the simplest cell contains all the activities of a modern city; traffic, manufacturing, deliveries, etc. and it's natural to be sceptical about the probability of such a complex organism occuring through random processes.
Your post doesn't address my two basic questions, and I'm not too surprised. If you stop and think about all the components required for sexual reproduction, and then imagine each component in each gender evolving somehow in parallel over millions of years until everything is in place and working properly, you will realise absurdity of such a concept.
How many high school biology teachers do you think could answer and explain simple questions like mine? No wonder the evolutionists don't want a classroom discussion.
Many scientists believe........ is not a convincing argument.
Your second paragraph is downright silly. The fact that something is poorly understood does not imply divine intervention.
"Poorly understood"? How then can anyone defend it as a FACT??
The argument seems to be........We have something here, so it must have evolved over millions of years, but we haven't a clue about how it happened. You may not question this doctrine, and no debate is allowed in our school.
Let's discuss the strengths and weaknesses of creationism, scientifically.
Strengths: none.
Weaknesses: the theory is based on hobbled together patchwork of anonymous narratives during the Bronze Age. There is no evidence that any kind of deity exists that created life, the universe, and everything. There is no means of measuring which god or gods created the process, or any means of determining how they made the universe we exist in.
There is no means or consensus for determining exactly what a god is or isn't. There is no means for testing the following: the god of the Bible is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.
Exploring any of these claims to their logical conclusion will determine they are impossible.
If something is designed or invented, it's usually for a function or purpose is there any objective means for determining the function of a vast nearly endless universe and why it was built with physical laws that are nearly prohibitive for living beings to explore this universe in a human lifetime?
Lastly, a scientific theory is used as a model to understand how nature works, and is used to make predictions. Exactly what does creationism predict or tell us about nature?
It tells, us God did it. Now shut up, sit down, and worship him, dammit.
Creationism is not a scientific theory by any measurable or verifiable means. It predicts nothing. It offers nothing tangible that can be used to determine anything about the universe we live in. It would be useless in fighting disease, which the theory of evolution is very useful for.
It looks like evolution is not a scientific theory either. Some windbags like to declare that evolution is a fact, now shut up and sit down. But if a simple question about the evolution of the reproductive system, or any other system is unanswerable, as it appears here, then we must expect healthy scepticism about the theory.