Quit giving her a hard time buba, you know what she means…....

Yeah sorry, I got it: believe in yourself, try not to make other people believe the same stuff.

I think having faith in other people can be quite a good thing sometimes, but one needs to be able to go beyond that faith sometimes in order to do the right thing… But I can’t see how having faith in a God that doesn’t exist can be a good thing. Religious faith is like waiting at a bus stop for a train to come.  It also has a tendency to quell activism. I think it was Ronald Reagan’s environmental adviser who said “we don’t need to worry about the envirnonment, the end of days is here.”  That’s some scary faith right there.

CP said :I think it was Ronald Reagan

I think it was Ronald Reagan

The current E-Skeptic contains a very good article on ID and President Bush’s comments supporting it. Not to defend Bush (I personally dont like him or his policies one bit) but it does bring to light facts that diminish comments supporting ID by Bush.

Excerpt:

Intelligent Design (ID) creationism has resurfaced in the news again after President George W. Bush

I don’t see a problem in mentioning ID in school, as long as it’s only mentioned and not actually endorsed and taught.  Something along the line of, “There are ideas other than the Theory of Evolution, however.  For example, the concept of Intelligent Design is. . .” (and I have no idea really what the concept of ID is exactly, so I can’t finish that sentence).  Letting students know what a lot of other people in their society believe in is a good idea, just so they’ll be able to interact with those people more easily.

As for whether faith is a good or bad thing, that’s not an absolute.  It can be either, or even both.  There are many people out there who are happier and more productive than they used to be because they “found Jesus” or gained some other faith.  Even if they are deluding themselves, so what?  They’re satisfied and I’m happy for them.  And many religions have some excellent ideas on ethical codes; just think of how much nicer the world would be if more people took “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” to heart?  Or faith can be a bad thing, such as if somebody decides to use you as the latest sacrifice to their gods.  Overall, I don’t really care what other people have faith in, as long as they’re polite about it.  If somebody wants to stand on a streetcorner and hand out fliers about their religion, that’s fine.  I might even listen to them, because they sometimes have things to say worth hearing.  It’s when people try to make me have the same faith as they do that I get annoyed.

Pretty close to unanimous there in the voting! I say conclusion reached…

Sir Stephen - 17 August 2005 12:11 PM

CP said :I think it was Ronald Reagan

Accipiter - 19 August 2005 04:56 AM

I don’t see a problem in mentioning ID in school, as long as it’s only mentioned and not actually endorsed and taught.

We had a debate about this on another board b/c if you mention ID, you’d have to mention ALL the other theories available.  So do you have a class that doesn’t TEACH anything, but only MENTIONS all sorts of theories?  That would be difficult. 

Jocelynn will be learning about evolution, b/c I don’t want her to be out of the loop with her peers - but she’ll also be taught Creation.

Why would you have to mention all theories available?  That idea’s ridiculous.  No other subject does the same thing.  In Literature class, teachers don’t have students read every single work of literature ever written.  In History class, you aren’t expected to know every single thing that has happened in the past 5,000 years.  In science classes, they don’t teach every single theory on any subject.  In school, you’re only taught the ideas that are most widely believed by whatever society you live in.  You wouldn’t be expected to mention every single theory or belief in the world, just those most relevant in that particular society.  In the US, those would be the whole Jewish-Christian-Islamic idea of Genesis, Intelligent Design, and the modern Theory of Evolution.  While only the latter is supported by any real scientific evidence and so should be the one actually taught, the other two are at least worth mentioning so that students know what many of the other people around them are believing in.  As you said, Maegan, you’ll teach your child Creation yet you’ll also be teaching her evolution so she won’t be “out of the loop with her peers”; well, it works the other way around as well.  If she only knew evolution and not Creationism, she’d be lost quite often when dealing with her peers.