Complex Numbers

Thumpers in the News

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/299253_inconvenient11.html

This week in Federal Way schools, it got a lot more inconvenient to show one of the top-grossing documentaries in U.S. history, the global-warming alert "An Inconvenient Truth."

I'm not going to comment on the validity, or lack thereof of the documentary. However,

After a parent who supports the teaching of creationism and opposes sex education complained about the film, the Federal Way School Board on Tuesday placed what it labeled a moratorium on showing the film.

"A" parent? As in, ONE? One person complains, and you pull the film?

"Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old.

Attempting to discredit a source by putting in his beliefs about the Earth's age is unworthy journalism. After all, he lost credibility with me from the get-go.

"The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. ... The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD."

Okay, so the Bible belongs in school, but not Al Gore?

This is about when the went off in my brain. I finally figured out why the Religious Right opposes the idea of global warming. See, at first I thought it was because they, the Republicans, and Big Business are all in bed together, and since Big Business wants to turn a blind eye to the possibility of climate change (it would cost them money), the others follow along. Then I figured it was because the Right Wingnuts read in that there Book that we have "dominion" over the Earth and all that crawls upon it, or however it's worded - which is patent nonsense, regardless of its source. My last theory was that they simply didn't give a shit because the Rapture's right around the corner, anyway, so why fret about using up the world?

But no, those reasons may enter into it, but now I understand the basic, fundamental (ha) reason the thumpers ignore anyone who says global warming is occurring:

It would mean that a substantial part of the world will be destroyed in a flood.

And God promised us that the world would never be flooded again.

So you see? Logic: God promised not to flood us out, and global warming would result in a flood; therefore, global warming must not be happening.

Lord, save me from Your followers.

School Board members adopted a three-point policy that says teachers who want to show the movie must ensure that a "credible, legitimate opposing view will be presented,"

This is the part that pissed me off the most. The damn thing was pulled because some superstitious, anti-intellectual Bible-thumper didn't like the conclusions it reached - a thumper who, moreover, thinks the world is only 14,000 years old! Now, he may have an opposing view, but there is no way in hell it is either credible OR legitimate - as science. It may be credible as religion, but then we'd be teaching religious doctrine in schools!

Please note I'm not saying I "believe in" global warming, here. I'm not qualified to say whether it's happening or not. Neither, I'd wager, is anyone on the school board in question, and certainly not the thumper who bitched.

Speaking of bitching thumpers, this one comes not from here but our neighbors to the north. Blame Canada!:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2007/01/09/bc-yoga.html?ref=rss

A school program to fight childhood obesity that includes yoga is drawing complaints from some Christian parents in the Quesnel area in B.C.'s Cariboo region.

They say yoga is a religion, and shouldn't be taught in public schools.

Okay, I'm not familiar with Canada's version of the separation of church and state, so I don't know if this has any legal force or not.

However, consider this: in the US, thumpers have been trying to insinuate religion into schools forever. The "under God" part of the Pledge, "moments of silence" for prayers, and so on. And I have heard that studies have shown that prayer has many positive effects on a person. Blood pressure, I believe, was cited, along with other general benefits.

But get this:

It doesn't matter TO WHOM you pray. You get the benefits anyway. And like some wag once said, as long as there are math tests, you're going to get prayer in schools.

While yoga certainly has its roots in religion, it's grown beyond that into something practiced secularly for general well-being. If we were to ban everything with its roots in religion from schools, we'd have to disallow the calendrical system - come up with some other way of counting years. Okay, that's a bit extreme for an example, but doesn't it make a difference HOW the yoga is presented? As well-being, or as a specific spiritual path?

"There's God and there's the devil, and the devil's not a gentleman. If you give him any kind of an opening, he will take that."

I say again: Lord, save me from Your followers.