I have discussed my neighbor on another messageboard, but I am not sure I have here.. so I'll give a little background.
I have EXTREME fundamentalist neighbors who has been VERY active in pushing their agenda in our community ever since I've known them, about 9-10 years. They have threatened lawsuits almost every year against our public schools (although they home schooled) for various reasons.. bringing in a national group that will back them for funding, etc.. Our community/schools cannot afford these lawsuits and this group often gets their way. These lawsuits were aimed at handing out anti-science/creation literature in the halls & parking lots at the public schools (blocking exits until you took their literature) .. anti-gay and anti-gay support programs.. anti-harassment programs (because one of the 12 protected 'safe zone' items was sexual orientation).. The science & history classes at the public schools ... they have often protested/challenged books and last year they were part of a group that took on our local public library. They were able to remove half of the library board by getting the community worked up by saying the library was a 'porn shop'. They wanted religion books placed in the science section.. and any books mentioning gays removed. It cost our town a small fortune.. and much division.
Last year 2 members of this extremist group landed positions on the local school board by misrepresenting their intentions and making it political even though school boards are not supposed to be political. They did not tell people they were going to attempt to undermine the curriculum and push for creationism to be taught. They would use words like 'cut the fat' and 'slash taxes'.. and 'get back to 'reading, 'riting, and 'rithmatic' and core classes'. "We need mechanics and factory workers.. we shouldn't be paying to prepare all of these kids for college!" I know they are hoping to slash & burn the school system 'bleed the beast'. They were both home-schoolers and want to run the public school into the ground, unless they can institute creationism into the schools.
Here is a letter my neighbor posted in our local news opinion page this week. It is part of an on-going series of articles she posts on creationism and the horrors of our public schools. Her husband is newly appointed to our school board.
YOUR VIEWS
Responding to schools’ evolution teachings
Another school year is under way. I’d like to share some thoughts to help parents.
I host a booth at fairs throughout Wisconsin. We educate folks in interpretation of scientific data. Parents come to my booth for help. I hear comments like: “Help! My son is losing his faith because of evolution being taught in school.” and “I’m sick and tired of evolution and millions of years being shoved down my daughter’s throat.”
After my son took biology at East, I began this outreach. He told me kids are confused about creation/ evolution and don’t know where to get answers.
Space allows only a few points:
* Don’t confuse small observable changes in plants and animals to mean they change into other organisms. Perhaps we can say, “Microevolution does not mean macroevolution.”
* Evolutionists highlight one organism, i.e. daisies or finches. Small variations are shown, but never a new organism. There’s tremendous variation in plants and animals, color, beak size, length of petal, etc. The fairy tale begins when those small changes are extrapolated to mean more than that. A new organism arising from small changes has never been observed and is therefore not scientific.
* When “millions of years” language is heard/read, our kids should ask, “Were you (or anyone) there?” After all, science is supposed to be testable, observable, repeatable. One can claim that, “given enough time anything can happen.” But, really? A great deal of faith is needed to believe that. Children in our schools shouldn’t be subject to such unsubstantiated ideas.
Dinosaurs aren’t really a mystery. Evidence of man with dinosaurs includes:
Drawings, clay dinosaur figures, architectural designs, legends, Chinese calendar, and surprisingly to evolutionists, unfossilized T-rex bones uncovered, having soft tissue and red blood cells. Do students learn these facts?
Good resources are: icr.org or answersingenesis.org.
I need to write a rebuttal letter.. but I am thinking about it very carefully. I have nothing to loose, she has already told me many times over that I am going to hell since I don't believe the earth is only 5-6,000 years old.
Honestly, it is not evolution which is causing people so much to loose their faith as it is extremist stuff like this. And the hatred.. and the holier-than-thou-ness. It is just so ridiculous. 'The only people who are going to be 'saved' are the ones who believe as *I* do'... blah, blah, blah.
I was a devoted, practicing Catholic most of my life.. but after a few personal events.. and radical extremists, such as my neighbor on a personal level and al qaeda and others on a global level, among other things/events, I slowly- over a period of 10 years- have come to a very negative conclusion about religion.. they are their own undoing, IMHO.