This seems like one of those facts that are too good to check, but I did. According to the West Bend School District website, there are no females on the board. There's a Dave Weigand but no Mary Weigand.
The headline of the article says it all - Creationist seeks to debunk scientific fact at Dane County Fair. On the one hand are facts, on the other hand, those who dispute facts. To be sure, there are many of those, but not enough to win spiritedly contested elections, as Kim Simac is about to find out, soul-sister of the lunatic from West Bend.
Look, everyone gets to worship as they see fit, but trying to push this nonsense into the public schools is dishonest and destructive. My teachers in Catholic school were witheringly contemptuous of such mindless anti-intellectualism. Christo-centrism in religion class, fine, but by God you teach history in history class (and it might have been the same teacher - AMDG). This ill-serves young people who want to go into nursing, for example - no science for you.
Then there is the hassle and liability these morons end up imposing on the entire community when they bring their religion to class and get sued - that's what happened in Dover, PA, some years ago.
First Supreme Court opinion I ever read was Edwards v. Aguillard (check out Scalia's dissent for Senator Bill Keith's unspeakably idiotic "argument," under section head II-A in the numbered paragraphs). To this day I'm amazed that people are still haggling over this.
The contrast between Brennan's and Scalia's writing style is the first thing that struck me, having never read a word of either. The one lucid, direct, and economical; the other bombastic, striving for effect, and transparently ideological. It looked like Brennan was just getting started; I bet he could've made a case on the other two prongs of Lemon without breaking a sweat.
Honestly, one wonders why the SJ is still in business. Abysmal reporting like this certainly isn't redeemed by the editorial board.
The UW has thousands of bio-tech researchers bringing hundreds of millions of dollars into the state. There have already been faculty losses because of the hostile atmosphere Fitzwalker created. Now the local paper decides to slap them in the face with a he said/she said giving equal weight to credentialed researchers and a religious crackpot.
IIRC, the Catholic Church doesn't necessarily believe in the literal 6 day creation story...
From Catholic.com "Catholics should weigh the evidence for the universe’s age by examining biblical and scientific evidence. "Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth" (Catechism of the Catholic Church 159). "
I just mention this because, religiously/scientifically, they're ahead of the curve on this. It's probably cause they still feel burned by that whole Galileo thing (which lead to them creating an awesome astronomy wing of the church).
My understanding is that the Catholic position is accepting all of the science (doing the science and developing its underlying logic, as a matter of fact) and all of its implications but reserving the right to determine when the "soul" entered the human family and then obviously interpreting all of that "soul" business. So there's no substantial contradiction at all between Catholic doctrine and what even Richard Dawkins will tell you about biology.
We both know that the real debate is what theory you put your faith into because neither one is as scientific as some may think.
ReplyDeleteEven if that were true, they're hardly on equal footing.
ReplyDeleteThat probably is true but they keep trying new arch supports for evolution to try and hold it up. :)
ReplyDeleteFeel free to elaborate.
ReplyDeleteThis seems like one of those facts that are too good to check, but I did. According to the West Bend School District website, there are no females on the board. There's a Dave Weigand but no Mary Weigand.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I said Mr. Mary Weigand is on the board.
ReplyDeleteThe headline of the article says it all - Creationist seeks to debunk scientific fact at Dane County Fair. On the one hand are facts, on the other hand, those who dispute facts. To be sure, there are many of those, but not enough to win spiritedly contested elections, as Kim Simac is about to find out, soul-sister of the lunatic from West Bend.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that's disappointed me about Wisconsin, its creationists are pretty poor quality.
ReplyDeleteLook, everyone gets to worship as they see fit, but trying to push this nonsense into the public schools is dishonest and destructive. My teachers in Catholic school were witheringly contemptuous of such mindless anti-intellectualism. Christo-centrism in religion class, fine, but by God you teach history in history class (and it might have been the same teacher - AMDG). This ill-serves young people who want to go into nursing, for example - no science for you.
ReplyDeleteThen there is the hassle and liability these morons end up imposing on the entire community when they bring their religion to class and get sued - that's what happened in Dover, PA, some years ago.
First Supreme Court opinion I ever read was Edwards v. Aguillard (check out Scalia's dissent for Senator Bill Keith's unspeakably idiotic "argument," under section head II-A in the numbered paragraphs). To this day I'm amazed that people are still haggling over this.
ReplyDeleteThe contrast between Brennan's and Scalia's writing style is the first thing that struck me, having never read a word of either. The one lucid, direct, and economical; the other bombastic, striving for effect, and transparently ideological. It looked like Brennan was just getting started; I bet he could've made a case on the other two prongs of Lemon without breaking a sweat.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, one wonders why the SJ is still in business. Abysmal reporting like this certainly isn't redeemed by the editorial board.
ReplyDeleteThe UW has thousands of bio-tech researchers bringing hundreds of millions of dollars into the state. There have already been faculty losses because of the hostile atmosphere Fitzwalker created. Now the local paper decides to slap them in the face with a he said/she said giving equal weight to credentialed researchers and a religious crackpot.
We're about to get all kinds of empirical evidence of prehistory as Congress takes us back to the neolithic.
ReplyDeleteIIRC, the Catholic Church doesn't necessarily believe in the literal 6 day creation story...
ReplyDeleteFrom Catholic.com
"Catholics should weigh the evidence for the universe’s age by examining biblical and scientific evidence. "Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth" (Catechism of the Catholic Church 159). "
I just mention this because, religiously/scientifically, they're ahead of the curve on this. It's probably cause they still feel burned by that whole Galileo thing (which lead to them creating an awesome astronomy wing of the church).
My understanding is that the Catholic position is accepting all of the science (doing the science and developing its underlying logic, as a matter of fact) and all of its implications but reserving the right to determine when the "soul" entered the human family and then obviously interpreting all of that "soul" business. So there's no substantial contradiction at all between Catholic doctrine and what even Richard Dawkins will tell you about biology.
ReplyDeleteI believe the current anti-Christ in Rome was the Vatican's point man on defending evolution before getting the top job.
ReplyDeleteWELSers find that appropriate I'm sure.
ReplyDelete