P. Rogue: Black.

[ddoss]

Holden: I don't consider it trolling when I'd honestly like feedback about anything I write about, whether I agree or not. I respect everyone's opinion, and often alter my own when what people say resonates with me. It seems we really do agree about religion though. I don't want a child of mine to be an "hardline atheist" just because I am.

Comments

[kejakalope]

"Above everything I want to do, is to teach my kids to think for themselves, to never let anyone think for them, even me."

As a non-parent, I greatly look forward to watching you try to hold onto that sentiment fourteen years from now, when the little bundle of joy walks through the front door with hair in a color you don't have a name for and wearing a COCK ROCK t-shirt.

And for the record, 'intelligent design' is an affront to the entire scientific field. It's faith masquerading as scientific method, and it has nothing to do with the god damned scientific method.

Yes, you church folk also have a theory. That's lovely. Your theory isn't credible enough to be taught in school. It can get in line about half a mile back behind superstring theory, right next to the hollow earth.

Ugh. Blatantly manipulative horseshit a three-year-old could see through. I don't worry about fairness; the topic doesn't warrant it.

[ddoss]

Intelligent design isn't even a theory, as science understands it. A big part of the problem is the gap between what scientists consider a theory, and what the public consider a theory. When a scientist says "I have a theory" it's like the theory of gravity. What the public considers a theory more closely corresponds to what a scientist considers an hypothesis, just a rough guess pending testing and evidence

[bebemochi]

I was sitting there thinking about intelligent design the other day because my next-door neighbor homeschools her kid, and I was wondering why. Like, is it a religious reason? I was wondering if she taught her kid intelligent design or evolution. Of course, her kid is five, but still, you can plant the seeds for evolution pretty early on. Like, I learned about dinosaurs a lot when I was a kid.
I'm rambling because I'm sleepy. Sorry. :P

[ddoss]

It does seem like a lot of the homeschool movement around here is based on religion. I think there are certain educational requirements, it strikes me as inordinately difficult to teach modern biology without evolution. Evolution is the pillar the entire subject is built on. I know that that some of the Christian universities, like the one ran by good ol' Pat Roberts, require a biology teacher to profess a belief in creationism. I wonder if their geology department teaches the Earth is only six thousand or so years old too.

They believe in dinosaurs, just that dinosaurs coexisted with man in the Garden of Eden. Some believe that the stories of the Loch Ness Monster and dragons in various legends are evidence of this.

[bebemochi]

Oh god, really? They think that? Jeez, these guys sound more like morons every time I hear more about them.

I really shouldn't say that, though. I mean, faith is exactly that, faith. You believe in something contrary to empirical evidence. I just don't personally get it, which is probably why as far as religion is concerned, I'm a pretty confused person. :P

[ddoss]

I can sort of understand the faith of believing in something without evidence, unprovable things like the existence of God and the afterlife. But the faith of believing in something directly contradicted by evidence seems just plain stupid to me. I say this in full knowledge that many people I hold very dear to my heart hold such beliefs. There is just something in the psychology of the believer that allows them to disregard provable fact in favor of superstition