"Science" textbook for Christian schools can't even explain electricity

[Abigail Crabby]

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

No one is saying ALL Christian schools. However, what one is taught in a sectarian school may very well depend upon which religion runs the school. Catholic parochial schools, just to take one example, are *less* likely to teach this kind of thing than some Southern Baptist or Seventh Day Adventist Christian Academy. If the school is run by some evangelical sect in the United States, the chances are high that students will get a *very* skewed science education that barely rates being called either scientific or education.

The larger point is not about the specific school it is about the fact that Christian schools are using texts written at Christian universities where the faculty either does not realize that electricity is a rather well-understood phenomena (in which case they have no business writing a science text) or they know but are lying in the text to further their religious agenda (in which case they should not be writing *any* academic text). If they can't get the small concepts correct, how are they going to get the big concepts correct? The simple answer is, they aren't.

Cheers
Aj

I agree Aj - which is why I said no one in my family would ever attend where such drivel is being taught.

Sounds very odd that anyone with any education would write this, and pass it off to unsuspecting children.

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by Abigail Crabby

I agree Aj - which is why I said no one in my family would ever attend where such drivel is being taught.

Sounds very odd that anyone with any education would write this, and pass it off to unsuspecting children.

It doesn't strike me as odd what-so-ever. It makes perfect sense given that there is an agenda within certain sects of American evangelical Christianity to undermine the credibility of science in their own domains. Saying "scientists don't understand what electricity is or where it comes from..." is a prelude to saying "and we all use electricity so if they can't even explain something as everyday as electricity, how can we possibly believe them when they say we came from monkeys?" It's the prologue to the longer riff of "we're just trying to teach the controversy with Darwin". The problem is is that there isn't a controversy.

No serious biologist questions whether or not evolution happens. There's disagreement in the field about levels of selection (is it *all* gene-level selection or does selection happen at the gene and individual and group level) and there's disagreement about what role sexual selection plays into things but all of this takes place on the basis that evolution *happened* and what we are pursuing is understanding of how it works, not whether or not it did.

Cheers
Aj

[Linus]

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

It doesn't strike me as odd what-so-ever. It makes perfect sense given that there is an agenda within certain sects of American evangelical Christianity to undermine the credibility of science in their own domains. Saying "scientists don't understand what electricity is or where it comes from..." is a prelude to saying "and we all use electricity so if they can't even explain something as everyday as electricity, how can we possibly believe them when they say we came from monkeys?" It's the prologue to the longer riff of "we're just trying to teach the controversy with Darwin". The problem is is that there isn't a controversy.

No serious biologist questions whether or not evolution happens. There's disagreement in the field about levels of selection (is it *all* gene-level selection or does selection happen at the gene and individual and group level) and there's disagreement about what role sexual selection plays into things but all of this takes place on the basis that evolution *happened* and what we are pursuing is understanding of how it works, not whether or not it did.

Cheers
Aj

It also seems to go hand-in-hand with many of those "sects" decision to make a more "Conservative" bible and remove references where Jesus was seen as helping the poor and referencing the "Golden rule" and such. The more of this that I see, the more that I find the "Religious Right" to be a cult than a religion.

[SecretAgentMa'am]

Electricity is created when the Great Sky Gnome rubs the Great Sky Balloon on his head to make his hair stand up.

Duh.

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by SecretAgentMa'am

Electricity is created when the Great Sky Gnome rubs the Great Sky Balloon on his head to make his hair stand up.

Duh.

Is that step 2?

1. Get underpants
2. Rub great sky balloon
3. Profits!

Eureka! It works! A complete economic theory. Yay!

Cheers
Aj

[SecretAgentMa'am]

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

Is that step 2?

1. Get underpants
2. Rub great sky balloon
3. Profits!

Eureka! It works! A complete economic theory. Yay!

Cheers
Aj

I was totally thinking of the Underpants Gnomes when I wrote that.

[betenoire]

I was wondering at what juncture petting a cat that is under blankets in the winter comes into play?