Bleeding Kansas Revisited

At some point I'll begin to tackle a more diverse array of issues, but I'd be remiss if I didn't once more address the grand imposition that is Evangelical Christianity. The news out of Kansas seems to dovetail too well with what I've been talking about recently. Now more than ever, we need to ask ourselves, "what would Flying Spaghetti Monster do?"

I've noticed a common theme running through my last few posts. Apparently I have consistently underestimated the power and influence of Evangelical Christianity in all aspects of American life. This was proven once again last night when we all heard the news that the Kansas school board had decided to embrace intelligent design. There is now undeniable proof that our society has begun to turn its back on logic and reason. My heart goes out to the rational people of Kansas who want a sound and secular science education for their children. The entire country should share in their embarrassment, but embarrassment alone is not enough. We need to be outraged and strong in our conviction that this was wrong.

Many of the proponents of faith-based education initiatives like intelligent design, abstinence-only sex education, and the distribution of Bibles rely on the same tired and fallacious arguments for support. At least one of these ignorant and poorly researched truisms shows up in every issue of my local paper's op-ed page. Rather than continue to pull out my hair and grieve for my misguided fellow citizens, I'd like to address a few of the greatest hits here.

1. The phrase "separation of church and state" isn't even in the US constitution.

Congratulations! You paid attention for 5 minutes in church or 9th grade civics class. That phrase was written by Jefferson, but in a letter to a Baptist convention in Virginia. However, a real separation of church and state comes in the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment. In addition to prohibiting the establishment of a national religion, the Supreme Court has interpreted and clarified the clause through decisions like Lee v. Weisman. The ruling in Edwards v. Aguillard went so far as to say that no school system may, "advance a particular religion", and that "[Creationism] did not serve the secular purpose of improved scientific education."

2. Why can't we have God in our schools? The founding fathers must not have minded because "In God We Trust" is on our money and "under God" is in the Pledge of Allegiance.

This is the "Stairway to Heaven" of overplayed arguments. The use of the phrases "In God We Trust" and "under God" are considered to be examples of "ceremonial deism" by the Supreme Court. That means they are considered to be secular. There's a good definition of "ceremonial deism" on wikipedia.

3. The founding fathers established this country so that they could escape religious persecution and have the freedom to practice their faith. Why does our government want to restrict that?

No, it was the Pilgrims who came here to escape religious persecution. They didn't really have much to do with our founding fathers. The founding fathers established this country to get out of paying taxes to King George (among other things).

4. People like you must hate (or feel scared/threatened by) religion.

Actually, I love learning about religion. I even love learning about Christianity. There are so many wonderful things to be gleaned from religion. As I said before, I grew up not going to church so there's plenty for me to learn. There's a time and a place for learning about religion though. A balanced discussion of all religions should take place in every public schools' history department. More specific study can take place outside of the school environment. My main concern is when specific religions try to muscle into science classes or are forced on non-believers through any level of government.

5. You are blindly following evolutionary theory just like the people who thought the earth was flat.

Evolution is certainly a theory. It hasn't been proven beyond a shadow of doubt. The Big Bang leaves a lot to be desired too. Plenty of Einstein's work has now been debunked. I'd love to hear another competing theory to evolution that was proven through intensive research and the scientific method. Intelligent design doesn't provide that. Putting everything on a higher being is such a cop-out. Giving up the quest for empirical data is not the message we want to send to science students in public school.

Okay, that's the last on this topic for a while. Tomorrow we'll be talking about how Britney lost all that baby weight, tonight's episode of "Lost", and we'll have composting tips for that rotten pumpkin on the front porch. Take care.