Thursday, April 08, 2010

Can One Sentence Shatter Your Religious Beliefs?

A father wants Knox County to ban a biology book in an advanced biology class because of a sentence, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel -

"
On page 319 of the text, the authors describe creationism as “the biblical myth that the universe was created by the Judeo-Christian God in 7 days.”

Zimmermann said the useof the word “myth” could “mislead, belittle and discourage students in believing in creationism and pointedly calls the Bible a myth.”

So am I to believe this father's contention, that one sentence can shatter his religious beliefs, those of students or anyone who reads that sentence in one textbook? Is their 'belief system' so delicate? Do they think Tennessee is a smoldering hotbed of demonic science fictions and not a state where you'll find multitudes of churches in every square mile?

KnoxViews has a news round-up of this oft-repeated fearful debate.

And as the Knox School Board was considering how to respond to the request for banning a book, a board member used a 'personal privilege' to delay consideration of the issues for a month ... just long enough for the May election cycle to pass by.

I rather like Jesse Mayshark's article in MetroPulse, which notes:

" ...
with an actual motion to ban a textbook, and the national media's Pavlovian interest in all things Tennessee and creationist, the interest level may well go up over the next few weeks."

6 comments:

  1. Carpenterjd12:14 PM

    Didn't we go through this debate 85 years ago? Man Tennessee is slow to change!

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  2. Anonymous1:26 PM

    Dad should chill...

    God's a big boy. He can handle it.

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  3. Anonymous2:24 PM

    Can one sentence shatter your Scientific Beliefs?

    "Creationism is a religious belief that the universe was created by the Judeo-Christian God."

    Are non-believers so thin-skinned that they can't acknowledge that many millions of people believe in God?

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  4. Gracious! The word "myth" simply means someone's story created as an explanation of a truth. Does not imply whatever it's explaining is true or false, as I understand it. The bible is a myth. So is the theory of evolution, technically, isn't it? maybe im mistaken.

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  5. ceeslouis6:03 PM

    How about if we put in the textbooks that evolution is a myth & teach creation along side of it. Would that damage your beliefs? Only trouble is, the evolution tales change so much that what was printed in the textbooks 5 years ago, even the evolutionists don't agree on it today.

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  6. way to duck my question ceeslouis.

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