Terrapin Tables

...and it's getting worse in Florida, my friend:

"Similar suits could be filed by students who don’t believe astronauts landed on the moon, who believe teaching birth control is a sin or even by Shands medical students who refuse to perform blood transfusions and believe prayer is the only way to heal the body, Gelber added."

People can believe what they want - that's part of what makes America the (potentially) greatest nation in the world. In a truly great nation, however, people also need to be told to shut the hell up every now and then, and they need to understand their own limitations when they are faith-based and self-imposed. I don't want any Scientologist doctor treating me, I don't want a Muslim preparing my Sweet 'n' Sour Pork, I don't want a Buddhist prepping my funeral, and I don't want a Christian making scientific decisions. Someone - I nominate Chad - should be charged with travelling the nation and hitting morans with a big stick until they admit they are selfish, world-ruining, cocksucking asshats of the first variety.

I almost went to the IMAX in San Antonio this weekend to watch their movie on the Alamo. I'm glad I didn't. Since I see IMAX's almost exclusively in museums, or like the one in San Antonio, near historically significant locations, I think of them as being educational institutions. If they're not going to show something educational and truthful just because it might offend religious fundamentalists, I'm not going to support them with any of my money. And that bill in Florida is scary- letting students decide what they want to learn. You know, the Kutta-Joukowsky theorem kind of offends me. I think I ought to sue my professor for giving me a C on that exam.

Anyway, as much as I get worked up about evolution and science versus backward thinking religious fundamentalists, Irma put it into good perspective for me. I told her that people not accepting evolution was analagous to them thinking that the world was flat. Her reply was, "So what, it's not like they're going to fall off."

They might not fall off, but if it were taught in Alex's school that she might fall off, wouldn't that make you want to crush heads?

Yeah, I've already made the decision that when I put her in Sunday school, if that teacher starts trying to debunk evolution, I'm going to pull her out of the class. But at least that would be excusable since it's a religious class. I don't know what I'd do if it was in public school, tell her that the teacher was wrong, I guess. For now, though, I'm just doing my best to keep her mind open to science and teaching her what little bit she can understand at this age. I've been telling her that people are just another kind of ape, so hopefully she won't have that stigma to learning about evolution that a lot of folks seem to have. And she knows the difference between a chimp and a monkey, btw.