Utterly Meaningless

Your link isn’t working for me.

My answer is yes and no. Yes, homeschool textbooks are published by private companies, who can publish whatever ridiculous spew they wish, and they will likely find ignorant sheep who will buy them and believe them. That’s sad, but can one really deny the private companies their right to publish what they will?

But, deep down… no, it isn’t okay. Evolution is science, and if companies Truly Believe that evolution is bunk, they are deluded, and perpetuating that delusion in generations of children who will eventually go into the world egregiously ignorant. The intelligent world will mock them, or at best pity them for their ignorance. One can hope they will grow a brain of their own, but it is a shame that the potential of a child be wasted because of the anti-intellectualism of their parents and their parents’ shepherds.

msnbc....lution

No, it’s not OK. That’s not a question about anyone’s right to publish lies. That’s a question of right and wrong.

Nance

I voted “Yes.” Publishers have a right to publish and parents have a right to teach their children their religion. Whether they teach it in Bible class or Biology is irrelevant. Separation of church and state goes both ways.

Do I want the next generation to be a bunch of ignorant yahoos? Of course not. But if we’re going to claim the right to homeschool, to teach our children what we believe is important to learn, we have to acknowledge that the ignoramuses have that same right.

I’m with Daryl. We are probably still quite a ways from the totally automated McDonalds. Until we get there, somebody needs to make my fries.

Are people allowed to publish educational materials that only offer part of the picture? Sure. Is it OK? Oh, I dunno. If you want to raise healthy, capable, smart kids with the ability to understand two sides of an issue, protecting them from one side doesn’t seem like the smartest way to go.

For the record, Good ol’ Mormon-funded Brigham Young University drags out the evolutionary picture, the line of skulls, and talks about the different dating techniques and the science behind the picture. Evolution was taught as a “here’s what most of the secular world thinks, and why they think it” deal.

(I was a surly teenager rebelling from the church at the time. My buddy hauled me into class so I could see the lesson. I was not unimpressed.)

Is the LDS church officially YEC?

No. You can find them in our ranks though. We go back and forth about the flood and how literal to take the Bible too, but no defining doctrine. If ya do the ‘thou shalts’ and avoid the ‘thou shalt nots’, you’ll fare pretty well on the other side, no matter what opinions you held on stuff that wasn’t settled.

LOL at “somebody needs to make my fries.”

If only they didn’t vote. I just worry about their opinions becoming popular and prevailing. Or, maybe I’m still rattled after Girl made me watch FOX & Friends a few weeks back.

Next, I’d like to see the poll: Is it OK for private-school textbooks to dismiss the theory of evolution? Not all that dreadful material is going to homeschoolers, obviously.

The general population, graduates of public schools, have no idea what the Theory of Evolution really says. Many confuse it with Lamarck’s theory of inherited characteristics. (Ask a group of people how giraffes evolved long necks!) Many believe humans are descended from apes.

So – does having evolution “taught” by teacher-college graduates make for an informed citizenry?

I’d sacrifice evolution any day if it was either that or my right to teach my children as I choose.