Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[The Sedalia Democrat]

T-shirts worn by the Smith-Cotton High School band have evolved into controversy among parents.

The shirts, which were designed to promote the band’s fall program, are light gray and feature an image of a monkey progressing through stages and eventually emerging as a man. Each figure holds a brass instrument. Several instruments decorate the background and the words “Smith-Cotton High School Tiger Pride Marching Band” and “Brass Evolutions 2009” are emblazoned above and below the image.

Assistant Band Director Brian Kloppenburg said the shirts were designed by him, Band Director Jordan Summers and Main Street Logo. Kloppenburg said the shirts were intended to portray how brass instruments have evolved in music from the 1960s to modern day. Summers said they chose the evolution of man because it was “recognizable.” The playlist of songs the band is slated to perform revolve around the theme “Brass Evolutions.”

The band debuted the T-shirts when it marched in the Missouri State Fair parade. Summers said he was surprised when he received a direct complaint after the parade.
While the shirts don’t directly violate the district’s dress code, Assistant Superintendent Brad Pollitt said complaints by parents made him take action.

“I made the decision to have the band members turn the shirts in after several concerned parents brought the shirts to my attention,” Pollitt said.

Pollitt said the district is required by law to remain neutral where religion is concerned.

“If the shirts had said ‘Brass Resurrections’ and had a picture of Jesus on the cross, we would have done the same thing,” he said.

Read more here.

[From me]

Well at least they are consistent. This is much ado about nothing. The shirt is not promoting evolution. I thought it was funny and I don’t believe in evolution. This is Political Correctness gone way too far in my opinion.

What do you think?

[LA Times]

This fall, evolutionary biologist and bestselling author Richard Dawkins — most recently famous for his public exhortation to atheism, “The God Delusion” — returns to writing about science. Dawkins’ new book, “The Greatest Show on Earth,” will inform and regale us with the stunning “evidence for evolution,” as the subtitle says. It will surely be an impressive display, as Dawkins excels at making the case for evolution. But it’s also fair to ask: Who in the United States will read Dawkins’ new book (or ones like it) and have any sort of epiphany, or change his or her mind?

Surely not those who need it most: America’s anti-evolutionists. These religious adherents often view science itself as an assault on their faith and doggedly refuse to accept evolution because they fear it so utterly denies God that it will lead them, and their children, straight into a world of moral depravity and meaninglessness. An in-your-face atheist touting evolution, like Dawkins, is probably the last messenger they’ll heed.

Despite the resultant bitterness, however, there is at least one figure both sides respect — the man who started it all: Charles Darwin. What would he have done in this situation?

It turns out that late in life, when an atheist author asked permission to dedicate a book to Darwin, the great scientist wrote back his apologies and declined. For as Darwin put it, “Though I am a strong advocate for free thought on all subjects, yet it appears to me (whether rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against Christianity & theism produce hardly any effect on the public; & freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men’s minds, which follows from the advance of science.”

Darwin and Dawkins differ by much more than a few letters, then — something the New Atheists ought to deeply consider.

Read entire article here.

[From me]

I don’t see the need to attack Christianity from the New Atheists anyway. If you don’t believe in something then why spend so much time disproving it? Isn’t that over kill? Civil debate is good. Arguments don’t help either side.

What do you think?

[Guardian]

The east of England may be the most godless region of the UK, according to a “belief map” published by a theology thinktank today. Almost half of adults there believe the theory of evolution makes God obsolete, and more than 80% disagree with creationism and intelligent design, which propose that humans were created by God in the past 10,000 years, and that life owes its complexity to divine intervention.

The map was drawn up by the thinktank Theos following a survey of 2,060 people across the country who were chosen to be representative of the adult population.

Read more here.

[From me]

My fear is that the US will become like the UK and all of Europe. 

What do you think?

[The Berkeley Daily Planet]

The Berkeley Unified School District is investigating a report that one of its elementary school teachers might have violated the separation of church and state by teaching creationism to her third-grade class, district officials said Tuesday.  Parents of children who attend Jefferson Elementary School told the Planet that Gwen Martin—who joined Jefferson over the summer and has been on personal leave since last week—was discussing the differences between fiction and non-fiction with her students on Aug. 29 when she told them that the only thing they should believe in was God. 

The parents who contacted the Planet did not themselves have children in Martin’s class. They asked not to be identified in print to protect their children.  Parents said that Martin had listed Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and Harry Potter under fiction on the blackboard, which promptly reduced some of the 8-year-olds to tears, after which she made the comment about God. 

They said that Martin then said that she didn’t believe in evolution or the Big Bang theory either. 

A group of Jefferson parents, concerned that the teacher’s alleged actions violated their civil liberties and the separation of church and state, took the matter to Jefferson’s new principal, Maggie Riddle. The matter ultimately reached the ears of district administrators. 

“We are investigating that there were reports that’s what happened,” Berkeley Board of Education President John Selawsky said Tuesday when asked about the incident at Jefferson. “It’s being dealt with. Since it’s a confidential personnel matter, that’s all I can say.” 

School board member Karen Hemphill said the district would take into account a lot of factors before making any decisions about the case.

“For one, she’s a new teacher, and then we have to consider all the facts,” she said. “Regardless of what may or may not have happened, we in the Bay Area are very sensitive to not mixing education with religion. Not only are you not supposed to, but we have a wide range of religious views. There are certain laws and court cases that define what is permissible and not permissible.” 

District Superintendent Bill Huyett refused comment on the status of Martin’s case, stating that it was a personnel issue.  Selawsky said that incidents such as the one reported to have occurred at Jefferson were uncommon in Berkeley. 

“This is the first time in my eight years as a board member that I have heard of allegations of teaching creationism and denying evolution,” said Selawsky, who is running for re-election for a third term this year. 

“You certainly don’t hear about this in the Bay Area,” he said. “In places like Kansas it’s an ongoing battle and a big political issue. There are strict stipulations in the state Education Code about what public school teachers can or cannot do. We heard about the incident from parents and from various sources.” 

Selawsky said that if the allegations were true the district would likely seek some form of discipline against her. 

Read more here.

[From me]

I love the line that says you don’t hear about this in the Bay Area.  Yeah, because you would be stoned like this poor teacher will be.  Some nosey parent who doesn’t even have a child in the class turned the teacher in.  I guess they haven’t “evolved” fully to keep their nose in their own child’s class.  I also love how they make the teacher out to be horrible because she made the students cry about Santa, the Easter Bunny and Harry Potter.  

I think California has “EVOLVED” too far!

What do you think?

[CNN]

The Church of England owes Charles Darwin an apology for its hostile 19th-century reaction to the naturalist’s theory of evolution, a cleric wrote on an Anglican Web site launched Monday.The Rev. Malcolm Brown, who heads the church’s public affairs department, issued the statement to mark Darwin’s bicentenary and the 150th anniversary of the seminal work “On the Origin of Species,” both of which fall next year.

Brown said the Church of England should say it is sorry for misunderstanding him at the time he released his findings and, “by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand (Darwin) still.” The Church of England said Brown’s statement reflected its position on Darwin but did not constitute an official apology.

The church’s stance sets it apart from fundamentalist Christians, who believe evolutionary theory is incompatible with the biblical story of the Earth’s creation. Darwin was born into the Church of England, educated at a church boarding school and trained to become an Anglican priest. However, his theory that species evolve over generations through a process of natural selection brought him into conflict with the church.

The Church of England did not take an official stance against Darwin’s theories, but many senior Anglicans reacted with hostility to his ideas, arguing against them at public debates.

At an Oxford University debate in 1860, the bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce, famously asked scientist Thomas Huxley whether it was through his grandfather or his grandmother that he claimed to be descended from a monkey. Critics included the Rev. John Stevens Henslow and Adam Sedgwick, both scientists who had taught Darwin at Cambridge. Sedgwick wrote that he found some of Darwin’s ideas “utterly false and grievously mischievous.”

Brown said that from a modern perspective, it was hard to avoid the thought that the reaction against Darwin was based on what would now be called the “yuck factor … when he proposed a lineage from apes to humans.” Brown called for a “rapprochement” between Christianity and Darwinism.

Read more here.

[From me]

Apologize for what? Darwin’s theory is just that a theory. If I found out that God used Evolution it wouldn’t destroy my faith but I see no where in Scripture where it talks about Evolution.  Genesis clearly says that God created the heavens and the earth and God created man.  It doesn’t say he created an Ape that became man. The church owes no apology but Darwin will answer for his terrible theory.

What do you think?