Real Education Matters

Yesterday there was a big victory for education and reality over ignorance and nonsense. Yesterday a judge ruled that the University of California system can deny credit to incoming students from religious schools who took "faith-based" "science" courses at their schools. See, the California University system has some basic standards of education for incoming students, as they should, they are an institution of higher learning. But religious schools wanted their fake science courses that indoctrinate their students with lies about whats real and whats not to count as real science classes, but the courts said no way.

Here is an example of a religious textbook that the court found doesn't qualify as science education:

Another rejected text, "Biology for Christian Schools," declares on the first page that "if (scientific) conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong."

Hmm....yeah, it doesn't take much to see the problem there!

Christian schools seemed to think this was ok:

Christian schools in the suit accused the university of rejecting courses that include any religious viewpoint, "any instance of God's guidance of history, or any alternative ... to evolution."

However the judge made it clear that this was not the case:

Rejecting claims of religious discrimination and stifling of free expression, U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles said UC's review committees cited legitimate reasons for rejecting the texts - not because they contained religious viewpoints, but because they omitted important topics in science and history and failed to teach critical thinking.

He nails a key point there. Learning facts is one part of education, and it is obviously an important one, but memorized facts can, and usually do, fade over time, especially on rarely-used subjects (for most people) like biology, chemistry and higher levels of mathematics, but the most important thing to be gained from education is the ability to think. Critical thinking, that is the foundation of education, learning, and expanding our knowledge and understanding of the world. Critical thinking is antithetical to religion. At its core it is predicated upon not thinking, on suspending critical thought in favor of blind faith. There is a place for that, it is a church, but a place of education is not compatible with the fundamental values (anti-thought) or the teachings (creationism, etc) of religion. So if you want to live a life of faith, ok, do that. If you want to live a life of faith but you still want a real education for some reason, that's fine too, but in doing so you have accept that education isn't going to make special accommodations for your particular beliefs, and they shouldn't have to, it isn't fair to people who actually learned the facts and how to think critically.

So why is it so important? Here's a case in point, a perfect example of why a real education is important, and why religion should have nothing to do with the world of the educated or public policy. Recently Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann, a champion of the Christian Right from Minnesota, tried to explain her ardent anti-environmentalism, and she eventually fell back on this gem of logic:

"[Pelosi] is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said that she's just trying to save the planet," Bachmann told the right-wing news site OneNewsNow. "We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago, they saved the planet -- we didn't need Nancy Pelosi to do that."

Oh yes boys and girls, this right-wing nutjob essentially believes we shouldn't do anything protect the environment, and we ought to just rape the hell out of the Earth, cut down the forests, strip mine the mountains, pollute the air and rivers, kill off endangered species, and of course drill the hell out of protected offshore sanctuaries, alllll because Jesus already saved the planet 2,000 years ago. Yes, Jesus did it, so Pelosi doesn't have to! That's funny, because I don't remember seeing Jesus lobbying for the Clean Water Act or chaining himself to a tree in an old-growth forest. In fact, I think he has been pretty MIA on environmental protection, I don't think we can really rely on him. And besides, even if you believe the completely debunked creationism nonsense in the Bible, do you think God would be really happy that he worked his ass off for six days creating this great planet for us to inhabit, and you thank him by trashing the place? Is that what you do with a gift? Is that how you show gratitude? Hey, thanks for the new pad, I think I'm going to shit on the floor now!

Oh yes, this nutjob has a history of outrageous anti-environmental comments (although none beat the Jesus line, they come close), like that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) doesn't actually contain any wildlife, and how Democrats are involved in some sort of demographic conspiracy to use high gas prices (which Republicans caused) to force suburban whites to move into the inner city.

Yeah, she is an ignorant, right-wing nut, and a perfect example of why you shouldn't mix religion, and paranoid bigotry, with public policy.

And she is of course up for reelection, and it will probably be a tight race, so please support her opponent, Elwyn "El" Tinklenberg, and if you live in Minnesota's 6th district, vote for him!