Well, we have a real furore developing here.

To my beloved IndigoNights, just over the mountain from my window, we have
the edge of the population of snake-handlers.  <S>  If you're ever east,
come listen to how they look at these issues.  "Museums?  What'n hail are
them?"  When I first took charge of this one, a man stood up in the back row
of a crowded county budget hearing and said "It is against God's written
law to worship inanimate objects.  The county is violating God's law by
supporting the museum."  I learned he was a professor of science at a nearby
Baptist college.  He later ran for Congress!!!

To clarify:  the 'real world' of which I wrote is the 'real world' of human
beings, of which the would-be Congressman is one.  Human behavior simply
can't be predicted, much as young folks would like to see predictability,
i.e., lack of ambiguity and ambivalence.  I was not addressing genetics, but
society, history, folklore, culture.   None of us in this so-called
knowledge industry should be in the business of derogating any other
person's understanding of a Higher Power (or absence thereof).

The description of creation is from the Hebrew tradition, i.e., the Genesis,
Old Testament.  It is taught to Jewish and also Christian young people.   I
fully agree that children should be taught how variously people see the
emergence of the human species -- including the belief among some Native
Americans that the first humans descended from the heavens on the wings of a
heron.

For those with this kind of time on their hands, check out today's New York
Times website.  There is a two-part elaboration of the theory that the act
of rape is actually the result of evolution.  It's headlined under
"Science."  Evolutionary psychology is an Emerging Science.
Ross Weeks Jr.



----- Original Message -----
From: Suzanne White <[log in to unmask]>
>
> Furthermore, if we're going to teach about creationism in public schools
> -- and I'm guessing that Mr. Weeks is referring to creationsim in the
> Christian sense -- if what we're *actually* concerned with is our
> children's understanding of the "real world," we have to include creation
> stories from a variety of *other* religious traditions as well...certainly
> not all U.S. citizens are Christian, and if you're going to include the
> whole *world* in the concept of "real world," then that's even more true.
> Finally, one would have to include the mention of people who have no
> religious beliefs whatsoever.

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