Check it out! Creation Science Fair! :D It's good to know that "Women Were Designed For Homemaking" and "Dinosaur & Man Walked Together"! Finally, all this hoo-hah science put to rest by nice, simple, easy bullshit!
I thought the government was spinning an interesting fantasy ("Once upon a time, in a land filled with weapons of mass destruction..."), but this is easily much better. Apparently you can just look up any questions you have in the appropriate religious literature, and there's your answer! How simple!
Emphasis on the simple...
You sure showed those third graders!
Re:Wow!
Ovid on 2003-07-18T07:35:02
While the science fair displays of the younger ones were certainly, um, not up to par, it should be pointed out the the high school science fair experiments are a classic example of the pseudo-science that many point to in order to support certain points of view. Consider the winner: "Using Prayer To Microevolve Latent Antibiotic Resistance In Bacteria". This was not a blind study. There are so many ways that a non-blind study can be unconsciously skewed by the researchers that no one is going to take such a study seriously
... unless they happen to be people who already support such a viewpoint and are unwilling or unable to perceive the flaws. Creation "science" isn't science. That's not to say that Creationism is wrong, but if I hear one more person tell me that "evolution violates the second law of thermodynamics", I'm going to scream. That merely demonstrates a either a deliberate creation of a straw man version of the second law or an ignorance of what the second law means. Unfortunately, that's the sort of flim-flam that passes for science education in general in the US (not just with the Creationists).
As for the second place prize won by a student in grade 12, housing 58 rodents for 30 days in "a cage with dimensions proportional to a section of the Ark", I can only say this is heartbreaking. This is the best the creationists could come up with? If Creation "Science" is truly concerned with science, than Creationists should not be afraid to point out flaws in scientific experiments. The truth is more important than winning agreement.
It's also interesting to note that the Muslim students who had been invited to participate had an entry "Allah (SWT) Created Me" which "was found ineligible for a prize due to a number of Biblical inconsistencies". It's not enough to be a Creationist, you have to be a Christian creationist. Why did they even bother to invite non-Christians? And worse, in my book, was awarding second place in the junior high division to "Women Were Designed For Homemaking". Great! Now they're not only being rude to those of other faiths, they're practically endorsing misogyny (maybe misogyny's a bit strong, since they clearly don't hate women who know their place).
That science fair had no science and portrayed Christians as being a bunch of discriminatory rubes. I know plenty of Christians for whom neither statement would be applicable. I do not believe for a second that accepting Christ as one's savior means that an honest search for truth is to be avoided, but that's what I see with Creationists.
Re:Wow!
jdavidboyd on 2003-07-18T12:25:36
Does this mean I have to let my wife wear shoes and come out of the kitchen?Re:Wow!
chromatic on 2003-07-18T16:53:21
I'm just saying, it seems awfully dishonest to lump everyone who disagrees with you into a monolithic group and then mock them based on the work of elementary school students. I watched a fourth grader write a report on vampires, once. I certainly don't believe that every supernaturalist believes some of the things he wrote.p>
Re:Wow!
chaoticset on 2003-07-18T17:30:06
If it seems like that's what I'm doing, I apologize -- it's not the case. The effect that these "teachings" had on the result is the humorous part, even though I don't find it entirely humorous.I'm expressing amusement that someone can "teach" children such things, produce documents ascribing their belief in such things, etc., and believe it. I have absurd beliefs, but I recognize that they are absurd, and most people with absurd beliefs do not. (And yes, I think all beliefs are absurd. They almost have to be.) I do my best to laugh about things, even awful things, because it seems better to laugh than scream.
So I picked out the most obviously humorous ones to mention in the entry. The rest are just as funny, but not necessarily obviously so.
Further, I can think that I may have seemed...gleefully obnoxious?...due to some issues of mood lately. So if the tone seems obnoxious, I chalk it up to that, and apologize. I'm not trying to be obnoxious -- I'm trying to locate humor (and hopefully provide it for others) in something that I find terribly, terribly sad.
Re:Wow!
chaoticset on 2003-07-18T13:48:18
I only wish I were laughing at the third graders.I'm not.
