We’ve been getting a lot of comments lately on many different posts. I haven’t taken the time to blog for too long. The wealth of comments, both positive and negative, tell me that it is time to start blogging again.
I enjoy both positive and negative comments. Positive comments help us all to feel like we’re appreciated and part of the larger atheist community. Negative comments are great for sparking debate and thought. But sometimes, negative comments are just plain idiotic. Here’s one of those:
The comment is a response to the post, “Sorry Children of Texas, You’re Fucked,” from August 8, 2007. The post is about the appointing of a evangelical creationist to head the Texas BOE. Tammy Polio says:
I attended a private school in Michigan, received a much better education-oh yes and even learned Darwins theory. Not teaching science as you see it is not the problem with Texas schools you morons. The fact that they do not teach, and spend the whole year teaching kids how to pass tests instead of teaching them to read. I doubt you are a parent but a stupid liberal who never even learned words from the dictionary based on your f-ing language. I have a child in school who has been assisted on assessment tests so our school keeps their exemplary status.I now have to be in the room with him to make sure he is not assisted. The whole system is corrupt and pathetic. Do you really think it is more important that your theories are taught over just the basics? If you have a problem-move. In case you weren’t taught in your public school we still pledge to one country under God. You sound angry. If you want to know the truth God can reveal it. I would know that,because no matter what we are taught it cannot be just because someone is speaking it in front of a class. WE have to embrace because we beleive it to be true.
Let’s look at this one part at a time!
I attended a private school in Michigan, received a much better education-oh yes and even learned Darwins theory.
Okay – good start, Tammy. Let’s first congratulate you on attending a private school and receiving a much better education. Better than what? To what are you referring? And of course you learned Darwin’s Theory if you attended any sort of accredited school because guess what? His theories are the basis and springboard for 98% of the study of biology.
Not teaching science as you see it is not the problem with Texas schools you morons. The fact that they do not teach, and spend the whole year teaching kids how to pass tests instead of teaching them to read.
First off, this isn’t about teaching “science as I see it.” This is about teaching science as 95-99.9% of scientists see it. There simply isn’t any sort of widespread support for Creationism in the scientific community. This isn’t about idealogy. It’s about facts and evidence. Science is, by nature, non-subjective.
Regarding your point here about teaching how to pass tests – we agree on this fact. George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” act forces teachers to “teach to the test” as opposed to giving them a valuable real world education. Most of my friends who are teachers despise this, but it is unfortunately their job now.
I doubt you are a parent but a stupid liberal who never even learned words from the dictionary based on your f-ing language.
Apparently Tammy Polio would like to personally attack me here. That’s fine. She’s right about two things in this sentence – I’m not a parent and I’m a liberal. My 3.5 GPA and graduation with honors isn’t important for understanding how the education system should work in this country. It doesn’t mean much. And Tammy would probably discredit it, since I went to a state university and not some fancy private school. My “f-ing laguange” is a demonstration of emotion. Sticks and stones, Tammy.
I have a child in school who has been assisted on assessment tests so our school keeps their exemplary status.I now have to be in the room with him to make sure he is not assisted. The whole system is corrupt and pathetic.
Again – I agree. This is horrible.
Do you really think it is more important that your theories are taught over just the basics?
These theories ARE the basics. What about the theory of gravity? Should that not be taught either? Please read earlier posts on the different semantic understandings of the word “theory.” The theory of evolution is overwhelmingly supported by scientists worldwide and it is essential that it be taught as “the basics.”
This is where the comment gets kind of psycho-crazy-like with rants in a couple different directions.
If you have a problem-move.
That’s absurd. I believe in the America that the founding fathers envisioned — one in which religion was not forced on its citizens. Maybe a brief jog down memory lane will bring up a history lesson from your private school. You might remember that one of the things that brought us to this country was the desire to live in a country without the establishment of an oppressive religion. This country is about freedom. Freedom is NOT “If you have a problem-move.” That’s the opposite of freedom.
In case you weren’t taught in your public school we still pledge to one country under God.
We did pledge to “one country under God” in schools, but this is unconstitutional. This type of thing never bothered me though, because most children don’t have enough life experience and smarts to make up their minds about religion yet. The indoctrination of these children with the idea that this is a “christian country” is wrong, however. Study the history of the Pledge of Allegiance, Tammy. Again, I’ve already covered this in earlier posts.
You sound angry. If you want to know the truth God can reveal it.
I was actually starting to think the negative comments on my blog are sounding much angrier than anything I have to say. And this is an atheist blog, we don’t believe in God here.
I would know that,because no matter what we are taught it cannot be just because someone is speaking it in front of a class. WE have to embrace because we beleive it to be true.
Someone is not just “speaking it in front of a class” to make it true. The theory of evolution isn’t something someone just made up, Tammy. It’s the accepted and agreed upon theory for the origin of species according to more than 95% of scientists worldwide. Why would we give equal time in schools to a theory of Creationism that only a tiny percentage of scientists believe? Imagine this – imagine no one went to school for 2-3 generations. After this, when everyone decided to start going to school again, half the population believed that the moon was made of swiss cheese. Maybe there was support in the holy book for it, I don’t know. 99.9% of scientists dispute it – but since half the population believes it – we now have to teach that the moon “might be” made of swiss cheese. Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?
The Great Realization 
Apparently, her “much better” education did not include how to properly construct a complex sentence or how to indicate a possessive. I know that’s picky, but I love it when one of these Creatards decides to proclaim their intellectual and academic superiority in fragmented or run-on sentences with typos, comma splices, and the occasional misuse of the hyphen and dash.
In any event, evolution isn’t just “Darwin’s theory,” and that considerable advances have been made in understanding how evolution works since Darwin’s time. An educated person would understand at least that much.
Also, while I agree with her opinion of the abuse of standardized testing as a high-stakes assessment, I cannot see what that has to do with Don McElroy’s campaign to tardify science textbooks.
Tell the Evolutionist and the Creationist and everyoneelse to stop worrying about where they came from. The world’s population is now 6.8 Billion people. Experts predict that by the year 2050 the world’s population will be 9.1 Billion people. That will be an increase of 2.3 Billion people in just 41 years. The United States population is now 305,000,000 people. The U.S. had an increase of 11,000,000 people from 2003 to 2008. That means if 1,000,000 people committed suicide every year for the next 5 years the U.S. population would still increase by 6,000,000 people. In Japan they have already cut back to one child per family. And even then their population will still continue to grow. If there is poverty and starvation now what do you think it will be like in 4 or 5 hundred years? Scientists have already said that there is a hole in the ozone layer. If people continue to over populate and the ozone layer disappears your future generations will suffer one hell of a disaster. When this earth gets piled up with about 50,000,000,000 people and the ozone layer is gone your future generations are going to see hell like they’ve never seen hell before. There are only two ways to stop this from happening. The first way is to stop creating and tell your children when they grow up not to create. The second way is to get about 6,000,000,000 people to committ suicide and leave the other 800,000,000 people behind to repopulate. If you do not do anything and your generations don’t do anything then they will see hell on this earth in the end. Spread this message to the entire world. BS
There’s a site that deals with this often, today’s article even. http://www.americanvision.org
I’m not a scientist first of all but, just because some athority belives something does not make it a fact. Darwin’s theroy of evolution is defined as a process of change over time. No one has defined God’s ability to create as a process. If you read Genesis 1 you will see that God created everything with a process of divison. You can read it for yourself. Life is beginning every moment of every day. Nowhere can you show me life begining with Darwin’s process but, there is no life form on earth that does not begin with a process of divison plant or animal.
Cell division is a fact proven by science. Sometimes it is just too simple for people to see. We are being forced to pay for schools to teach our children a lie and calling it science.
Thanks,
Howard
To the creationist crazies: Why do we have to change the influenza vaccine almost every year?
Because some stupid person says we have to and the sheep just follow!
Tammy’s better education is evident in her beautifully constructed sentences.
I thought this was a joke at first. Seriously?