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Creationist Degree Not Scientific Enough for Texas 

Richard Whittaker  Tue Apr 29, 11:59am , 2008
Tags: Education, Religion

(Before starting this blog entry, we at the Newsdesk would like to say that we understand that the ultra-conservative Houston Area Pastor Council does not speak for everyone in Houston, most Christians, or even all Houston pastors.)

In their latest newsletter, the council rankles at the fact that Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has rejected a request from Dallas-based creationists the Institute in Creation Research to be able to offer a master's degree in science education. Well, isn't that just typical, say the Houston Area Pastors. After all, "cross-species micro-evolution is the nerve center of the faith of liberalism." And there was those crazy liberals thinking it was something to do with human rights.

And their priority? "It's time to take this issue seriously or admit that we don't care whether our children, our society and our nation are trained and dominated by Baal." Yes, Baal. Presumably they don't mean the Bertolt Brecht play.

This is in between some desperate schilling for Ben Stein's Expelled, which they call "an incredible documentary", but the New York Times called "one of the sleaziest documentaries to arrive in a very long time", and our own Mark Savlov called "propaganda that'd do Leni Riefenstahl proud." But isn't that what those pesky liberals would say?

 

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COMMENTS
2
 
HAP Council clueless txjak Apr 30, 2008 - 04:50 pm
By endorsing the Ben Stein movie "Expelled," the Houston Area Pastors (HAP) Council has placed themselves squarely in the camp of Holocaust deniers and sympathizers. The HAP-less Council also seems like a Disco'tute front, except that the DI wouldn't rule out Baal as a possible designer.

I would agree, however, that "It's time to take this issue seriously or admit that we don't care whether our children, our society and our nation are trained and dominated by Baal," except that I would change "Baal" to "YECs." YECs are Young Earth Creationists and most would truly love to see the brand of science the ICR pushes (creation science) forced down our throats.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) has done the right thing in denying the ICR certification. The ICR Graduate School may have a few "sciencists" on the payroll, but they cannot accept, let alone teach, any science that relys on the Earth being more than six to ten thousand years old. The ICR tenets also prohibit teaching evolution, so a graduate would be deficient in his or her knowledge of science in that regard as well.

Lets hope that the State Board of Education will follow the THECB example and bring Texas science education into the 21st Century instead regressing it to the 18th Century as the ICR, Ben Stein, the HAP Council, and the Disco'tute would have them do.


We're working as fast as we can! Fort Bend Independent May 01, 2008 - 02:13 pm
Please don't blame all Houstonians for the lunacy of a few. Heck, we worked for years and finally got rid of Tom DeLay... the rest of the fringe will takes some more time.



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