Re: Religious Right in Texas

From: Darryl Maddox (dpmaddox@arn.net)
Date: Tue Nov 12 2002 - 12:43:17 EST

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    It seems to me that:

    Whether the
    "passages that describe Islam positively"
    "sections on slavery"
    "millions of years ago"
    "references to global warming"

    were taken out or left in should depend on whether or not they are factually
    true and if they are subject of some reasonable debate then perhaps they
    could have been left in with some kind of statement to that effect. Not
    knowing what passages were deleted or in what context they were originally
    presented in the textbooks leaves me not knowing whether I would agree with
    their deletion or not. Many "standard" beliefs have changed in geology in
    the 30 years since I got my degrees, and while I am still an old earth
    geologist, I am certainly not above telling my students that something in
    the textbook they are using is wrong, we just don't yet know what it is or
    we would not have written the book the way it is. It represents our best
    held beliefs based on the data and calculations we now have, but changes
    occur even from year to year so I would want to see the entire statements
    and their contexts before simply saying the groups had no room for complaint
    and they should have been left in.

    Darryl

    ----- Original Message -----
    From: "John W Burgeson" <burgytwo@juno.com>
    To: <asa@calvin.edu>
    Cc: <glenn.morton@btinternet.com>
    Sent: Saturday, November 09, 2002 12:11 PM
    Subject: Religious Right in Texas

    > The following has taken place in Texas. The YECs continue to win.
    >
    > School textbook changes made at the request of Phyllis SchlaflyÌs Eagle
    > Forum and Texas Citizens for a Sound Economy members will:
    >
    > * Delete passages that describe Islam positively;
    >
    > * Delete sections on slavery that critics called un-American and
    > Ïanti-ChristianÓ;
    >
    > * Change references to events "millions of years ago" to instead read "in
    > the distant past" or "over time" so as not to have ancient geological
    > events predate Biblical timelines;
    >
    > * Delete references to fossil fuels being formed Ïmillions of years ago"
    > so as not to conflict with Biblical timelines
    >
    > * Delete references to global warming which the Eagle Forum called
    > Ïanti-ChristianÓ and Ïanti-free enterprise.Ó
    >
    > John Burgeson (Burgy)
    >
    > http://www.burgy.50megs.com
    > (an eclectic web site about science/theology, quantum mechanics,
    > ethics, baseball, humor, cars, philosophy, etc.)
    >
    >



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