'We are going to win. It is a free speech right for students to receive alternative views,' said Richard Thompson, president of the Thomas More Law Centre.
What issue is Thompson hoping to bring before court after court until the Supreme Court makes a ruling in his favor? The issue of creationism (oops, new name, intelligent design) in public school. Science is in favor of examinging things from many angles, so shouldn't the 'alternative view' of creationism be offered in schools? Isn't it unscientific to only offer one view? And isn't it anti-free speech to oppose someone who claims to be for free speech? That's how the creationists want to present the issue. But that's not what's really going on.
First off, are we getting alternative views or crypto-Christianity? If we were getting alternative views, we would be getting all of the superstitions about human origins presented with equal time. But that's not what the creationists want - they want an unnamed but you-know-who monotheistic origin, not a polytheistic origin (as many other religions offer). Second, science does look at all possible explanations as possibly true or helpful but then makes desicions about which ones are more accurate than others. Having a 50/50 choice does not make the possible choices equally true or false. There is no evidence at all that creationism occured, and there are mountains of evidence that humans evolved from earlier life forms through a process of natural selection (non-random survival of randomly-generated traits). Third, part of the deal with living in the United States is not having a state religion. Some great nations have a state religion: France, for instance, seems to have its head screwed on pretty good in many ways, and they have a state religion. But if you live here, you don't get to use state power (ie tax-funded public schools) to promote a religion, or any religion. Don't like it, move to France.
It isn't a scientific issue, and it isn't a free speech issue. It's another way Christianity is seeking to roll back the enlightenment.
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