Talking About Religion And Absurdity ...

... things could not get any worse in this respect - to whit (emphasis added):

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Bill in Texas would allow creationists to grant Masters of Science degrees

If a private college doesn't receive funds from any governmental organization, should they have to be held to any standards or requirements when they award degrees? No, one Texan lawmaker is insisting.

Texas State Representative Leo Berman has proposed House Bill 2800, which would exempt any private non-profit institution that requires students to complete “substantive course work” from having to acquire a certificate of authority from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board(THECB). “If you don’t take any federal funds, if you don’t take any state funds, you can do a lot more than some business that does take state funding or federal funding,” Berman says. “Why should you be regulated if you don’t take any state or federal funding?”

Because creationism isn't science, critics argue.

Berman admits that his 'inspiration' for the bill was the Institute for Creation Research Graduate School, a Young Earth Creationism institution that has been trying to achieve certification in Texas for two years. Young Earth Creationism, much more popular than the recent Intelligent Design Creationism, is essentially Biblical literalism – Earth is 10,000 years old, Noah's Flood occurred, Adam and Eve were real people. ICRGS insists that they teach more than just “Biblical Creationism," which is based only on the word of the Bible; they also have incorporated tenets of “Scientific Creationism” into their bylaws. Most of these relate to origins of Earth and the evolution of species. Originally the creationist research branch of Christian Heritage College in San Diego, the ICRGS was forced to split from that college when California regulators threatened to take away its certification. Now, the ICRGS operates mostly online, and its Masters of Science Degree is recognized by California and federal law. According to its website, however, Texas residents cannot receive a degree.

Degree-granting colleges and universities in Texas currently must be issued a certificate of authority by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The certificate allows the holder to grant a degree that a graduate would need to apply for a teaching position in a Texas public school. If House Bill 2800 was made into law, only state-funded colleges and universities would have to report to THECB; everyone else would be free to design their curriculums without any regulation.

Here's what "M.Sc." means:

A Master of Science (Latin: Magister Scientiæ; abbreviated MSc, M.Sc., M.S. or S.M.) is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in a large number of countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences.

It bears repeating: creationism is not science.

Creationism in fact belongs in theology (at best). Period.

And yet - here we are with such an absurd and ludicrous proposal to allow "private" (i.e. unregulated/unsupervised) institutions to give out M.Sc. degrees in non-sciences, in non-scientific religious/paranormal/supernatural beliefs.

What's next? B.Sc.'s in prayology? M.Sc.'s in demonology? Ph.D.'s in Spiritology?

A chiropractician who understands little about science as a Minister of Science and Technology?

I say again: welcome to the Semi-Dark Ages of superstitious ignorance.

And to think that, in the end, it's all in our heads.

Looks like constant vigilance on our part is de rigueur indeed if we are to prevent our modern, civilized nations from slowly and gradually becoming scientific/technological backwater societies ruled by parochial religious/supernatural beliefs ...

(More such absurdities can be found here, here and here, folks)

(Cross-posted from APOV)

Church of England apologizes to Darwin for rejecting evolution. Will Sarah Palin's church follow suit? Yeah right!

The Church of England will concede in a statement that it was over-defensive and over-emotional in dismissing Darwin's ideas. It will call "anti-evolutionary fervour" an "indictment" on the Church".

The bold move is certain to dismay sections of the Church that believe in creationism and regard Darwin's views as directly opposed to traditional Christian teaching.

The apology, which has been written by the Rev Dr Malcolm Brown, the Church's director of mission and public affairs, says that Christians, in their response to Darwin's theory of natural selection, repeated the mistakes they made in doubting Galileo's astronomy in the 17th century.

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"The statement will read: Charles Darwin: 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still. We try to practise the old virtues of 'faith seeking understanding' and hope that makes some amends."

Opposition to evolutionary theories is still "a litmus test of faithfulness" for some Christian movements, the Church will admit. It will say that such attitudes owe much to a fear of perceived threats to Christianity.

Sadly many in the Christian church have consistently attempted to stall or completely stop scientific progress multiple times in our history, especially when it challenges their belief system.
The church also attempted to deny the significance of psychology and challenged the findings of Sigmund Freud. They also attacked the work of Galileo, as well as Copernicus, and of course Charles Darwin , whose scientific findings clearly angered and frightened the church which resulted in a number of responses ranging from argument, to character assassination, to the actual prosecution of Galileo Galilei.

But in these modern times continuing to deny the enlightenment that science brings while promoting the teaching of superstition in the place of real education should be labeled child abuse in my opinion. And those who insist on forestalling the intellectual growth of our young people should be kept at a distance so that their negative impact can be minimized.

And that is just what Sarah Palin and her church are promoting. The watering down of a science that may present a challenge to their belief system. And the proof of that is in quotes such as this: "Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of information....Healthy debate is so important and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both. And you know, I say this too as the daughter of a science teacher. Growing up with being so privileged and blessed to be given a lot of information on, on both sides of the subject -- creationism and evolution. It's been a healthy foundation for me. But don't be afraid of information and let kids debate both sides." Sarah Palin October 2006.

Of course the problem with this concept of "fairness" is that only ONE of these can be considered science. Evolution has been tested, and challenged, and tested again for two hundred years and has stood up to evaluation by the greatest scientific minds in history.

Creationism requires nothing more then faith. There is NO scientific data that favors it over evolution, and therefore it deserves no place in any of the classrooms that our children attend. And NOBODY who has any doubts about that should be allowed to shape policy in this great nation, for if they do our nation may not remain "great" for very much longer.

Update: Apparently not EVERYBODY in England got the memo.