Posted on 08/13/2008 9:44:45 AM PDT by Sopater
A federal judge has ruled the University of California can deny course credit to Christian high school graduates who have been taught with textbooks that reject evolution and declare the Bible infallible, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles ruled Friday that the school's review committees did not discriminate against Christians because of religious viewpoints when it denied credit to those taught with certain religious textbooks, but instead made a legitimate claim that the texts failed to teach critical thinking and omitted important science and history topics.
Charles Robinson, the university's vice president for legal affairs, told the Chronicle that the ruling "confirms that UC may apply the same admissions standards to all students and to all high schools without regard to their religious affiliations."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I suppose it might, to someone who hasn't thought about it.
In general terms there are physical phenomena that can be modeled by strict determinism. Billiard balls and clockworks are the common metaphors for this kind of analysis.
The other class of phenomena are those ruled by statistics. The casino is a good metaphor. Each roll of the dice is unguided, but the house is guaranteed a steady income.
Most really interesting phenomena need to be analyzed as versions of the casino. Quantum physics, weather, and living things. The fact there is a level at which "random" events occurs does not alter the fact that the house has a steady income. In evolution, change is random, but randomness does not characterize the direction or trend of populations. Selection prunes populations the way a gardener prunes a topiary.
Darwin's great insight was that there are gardeners and there are grazers, and both shape the tree of life.
wintertime- I know you and I don't agree on much, but you don't strike me as a bad person. Misguided, but not bad.
But comments like this make me actually concerned about your mental well-being.
I don't want you to take this as in insult- but I would suggest you seek some help if you really are this paranoid about the world around you. It's not healthy.
Isn't it pretty well self-evident that anyone who doesn't worship the God of Abraham breaks the First Commandment?
The 2000 election did it for me, Citizen Blade. That is when I had my epiphany.
I realized then that the liberal/Marxists are **not** good hearted people who were somewhat misguided in their thinking. I realized that they were seriously, at their core, people who did NOT have a sense of fairness or of good will.
After that election, I realized that a liberal/Marxist could never be a friend. They were either too stupid or too evil.
I think that it is 79% that believe in alien life forms.
Now, why do all the laymen make this error. Or, is it a deliberate lie?
Well...That has consequences, doesn't it?
Have you read the book “Shogun”? There was a reason that the Indian tribes rose up to overthrew Montezuma.
What we see in cultures that don't worship the God of Abraham is slavery, gulags, concentration camps, women as chattel, killing of humans by the 100 millions, human sacrifice, infanticide of baby girls, abandonment of the elderly, war lords, torture, and violation of what we consider First Amendment human Rights... etc.
Yeah!...Great life! (sarc)
Well...That has consequences, doesn't it?
Have you read the book “Shogun”? There was a reason that the Indian tribes rose up to overthrew Montezuma.
What we see in cultures that don't worship the God of Abraham is slavery, gulags, concentration camps, women as chattel, killing of humans by the 100 millions, human sacrifice, infanticide of baby girls, abandonment of the elderly, war lords, torture, and violation of what we consider First Amendment human Rights... etc.
Yeah!...Great life! (sarc)
Sorry about the double post.
Just to take one example off the top of my head, but the Japanese are not Judeo-Christians, and they do not do any of these things. India is overwhelmingly Hindu, and we don't see any of these things, either.
Well then we'll just have to make it illegal to worship any other God in order to protect our First Amendment rights.
What specifically are you referring to as the error lie: denying the fact that mutation is "random" with respect to fitness, or denying the fact that evolution really is directed, albeit not by aliens or angels?
Can you ost a source?
Amazing - we can actually show where people openly state that they want to use the schools and government to impose Secular Humanism on OUR children,
and someone with a grudge against Christians, for some reason, finds some obscure group and paints all Christians as wanting to use government to impose a theocracy.
Yeah, a Christian based (not imposed) society would be SUCH a threat to everyone in America... /sarc
And we’ve seen how much our society has “evolved” since the secularists have used gov’t to kick religion out of public education.
Just goes to show you, all the “intellectual objections” that evoatheists bring up are just so much BS. They have some narcissistic reason within them to reject Christianity and God. Until they address that, don’t bother arguing on their “surface” objections.
Uh?...Do you think that maybe Christians gave the Japanese an “attitude adjustment” not so long ago?
India is building on the foundations built by the Christian Raj. By the way, India only gained its independence in 1947?...So..We'll see!
Also....India has a problem with infant girl infanticide and girl baby abortion and its ration of boys to girls is way out of wack.
And...Christians stupidly let them do it!!!!
Christians should be doing three things IMMEDIATELY!!:
1) Getting their kids OUT of the atheistic government schools. Their own children are their most important mission field.
2) Getting the kids of their congregation out of the atheistic government schools. The children of their congregation are their next most important mission field.
3) Working to shut down government schooling by starving them of money, and electing representatives that will privatize education.
And we’ve seen how much our society has “evolved” since the secularists have used gov’t to kick religion out of public education.
Government education got its start in the U.S. because Protestant Christians of mid and late 19th century were fearful of Catholic immigrants and the Catholic religion. They simply could not imagine that government schools would ever be anything but Protestant Christian in philosophy. What STUPID people!
Any government powerful enough to force children into government schools that Protestant Christian in worldview, is powerful enough to force Christian kids into schools that preach atheistic Secular Humanism!
William Wilberforce and other Christian activists lobbied mightily for compulsory ( police enforced) government education in England and the U.S. If they could see today the atheistic Secular Humanism that these government schools have birthed, they would be shocked to the quick. Yes, I am shouting! I am exasperated!
You can start here.
http://myxo.css.msu.edu/ecoli/
This is observational evidence that mutation is random with respect to fitness. There have been laboratory observations of mutation and fitness.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1634489/posts
Public schools have existed in this country since before there was a US. Even Thomas Jefferson was a supporter of publicly-funded schools.
And publicly funded universities have existed in the West since at least the 11th century, with the founding of Cambridge and Oxford.
Where did I say this? Please post link.
Doing that would be breaking the Commandment, “Do not steal”. Who would do as you suggest is stealing a person's freedom.
Any Christian who would do that would also be breaking the First Commandment. They would be using the Lord's name in vain to steal personal freedom and freedom of conscience from their neighbor.
Christian who are abiding by the Commandments don't do as you suggest.
Secular Humanists don't have such scruples and do it all the time! Government schools are a perfect example.
I see you are moving the goalposts. Your original statement only said mutation is random. You now add “with respect to fitness”.
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