Update: The AMA is now live and can be found here. We’ll start answering questions at 11:30 a.m. CDT
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If you’re a supporter of sound, peer-reviewed scholarship in Texas public school science textbooks, we invite you to join us Wednesday for a Q&A with our friend Zack Kopplin.
Starting at 11:30 a.m. CDT, Zack and TFN staff will hold a redditAMA (“Ask Me Anything”). We’ll talk about Zack’s efforts to get creationism out of public school science classes in Louisiana, TFN’s efforts to do the same in Texas, and the Texas SBOE’s science textbook adoption process.
We’ll post a link to the AMA here, on our Facebook page and on our Twitter account as soon we have one.
Feel free to chime in with your questions.
Why Creationism supported so much more widely by Republicans than by Democrats?
That’s easy Fred. Back in the early 1960s, the Democrats fell in love with negroes. The Democratic Party had been a haven for negro haters throughout the country. When the Democrats saw the error of their ways, all of the people who wanted to keep on hating negroes felt compelled to leave the Democratic Party. The Republicans opened their arms real wide and said, “Y’all negro haters come on over here, and we’ll put you up in a nice tent and a warm, fluffy bed. The problem is that a great many of the negro haters from all over the country were poor or economically modest and didn’t have much use for an education. When I was in high school, the popular sentences of the children from this group were: “I don’t need no education. Gonna drop out of high school this year and get me a good job down at the plant—Udn…Udn…Udn.” Translated: “My genes made me dumber than schitt, school is scary and too hard, I like to work with my hands, $2.75 an hour is great pay for an idiot like me, and then I can buy a car.” The car is the “Udn…Udn…Udn” part. Most of them were extracts or distillations from Christian fundamentalist backgrounds of one sort or another. All of a sudden, you had the perfect storm in the Republican Party: millions of negro haters who had no interest in education or intellectualism, no money (but the hope of it someday), and locked into creation science nonsense because this is what people who are not particularly bright or educated do. Unfortunately, the Democrats made the mistake of giving their children free college educations, which means you now have people with college degrees who believe creation science/ID nonsense because their narrow little corner of religious doctrine tells them that they have to deny facts, be stupid for Jesus, and act stupid for Jesus.
And most of them are Republicans because the Republicans want stupid people that they can easily manipulate and screw. When your plan is to rob the American consumer blind, you want millions of people who will stand up and say with great confidence, “Screw me please. Please take every last dime of my money and my dignity as a human being. I’ll follow you blindly no matter what.”
Some test questions should be on appropriate tests. For example: What do scientists say is the age of the earth? When did dinasaurs go extinct? When did humans first appear?
Describe evidence of evolution.
Not to be too simplistic, but what can I as just an individual do to get real science back into the class rooms? I’m a retired geologist. I’ve volunteered to help on science projects/presentations in local schools, but haven’t had any takers. I’m speaking with the San Antonio Parks folks to volunteer to help with any geology related presentations/displays etc.
Here is a word to the wise Robert. It may not happen. Here in Tennessee I never heard anything significant (really pretty much nothing at all) about evolution until I got to college. Geology was not taught in my high school or any other high school that I knew anything about in those days. Geology is a very dangerous subject for Christian fundamentalist, homegrown Taliban rhubarbs because it is a whole bunch more difficult to address with fantasized pseudoscientific bull doody—and the fundies know it—and they fear it. Keeping geology out of high school is an absolute must because it, by its very nature, brings up all sorts of inconvenient subjects that touch on evolution at every turn—as well as astronomy and the big bang.
I went to school in Germany. Next to no geology or astronomy in the curriculum. But it had no connection to any religious bias. It was simply not considered important enough compared to other topics in the geography courses*. Although I went to a church run school, the only difference to a ‘secular’ one was that ‘religion’ was a regular mandatory course. Religion, let alone creationism, played no role at all in any science course (except maybe as a historical reference).
*a bit showed up in physics and of course the tides came up in geography.
Zack,
I’ve never seen a drop of oil discovered in texas or anywhere else using flood geology or creation/intelligent design
….isms(whatever the variant).
It might be good if we could find a creationist who could explain to all of us
how creation “geology” has built the Texas and Louisiana oil businesses. The mind boggles at the stupidity.
This is of course tongue in cheek as logic makes zero points with creationists.
So, I’ll settle for this. Was everyone aware that Babs Cargill has an M.Ed. in science education, not an M.S.?
TWU does not offer an
M.S. in science education. Babs touts her “Masters in Science” on her personal web page.
TWU’s department chair emailed me when queried annonymously, that they do not offer a Masters in Science. Just a little sleight of hand by Babster that should be asked of her out at the hearings by someone. “Ms cargill, do you have a Masters in Science Education?”….Yes? degree?…..So, its an education degree then not a science degree…thanks…
We all know truth does not matter to these people but it needs to be on the record.
What say you sir? Am I nitpicking here?
I’m just logically trying to understand how she could possibly be so dense.
Will Fraser
Oil and Gas Geologist
Why are Chinese, Slavic, Babylonian, and Native American Creation tales excluded but only Monotheistic (Genesis) Creation concepts supported?