PZ Myers: The war between science and religion - Part 2/12

Faith has intruded into education like never before. In America schools are fighting to keep evolution in their science curriculum while others are fighting to keep the religious movement called creationism out.

This is not only a fight in the United States. In Alberta the government funds up to 70% of some Christian fundamentalist schools. In Ontario catholic schools funded by all taxpayers frequently deny admission to non-Catholic students. In Quebec, the new faith and ethics course denies equal time to secular ethical worldviews like humanism.

Dr. PZ Myers has been a longtime critic of intelligent design and has written extensively on the topic on his popular blog http://www.scienceblogs.com/pharyngula . Earlier this year the Catholic League asked the University of Minnesota to take legal action against Myers after he publicly criticized those who had sent death threats and hate mail to a young man who took a communion wafer back to his seat and didn't consume it as expected.

Dr. Myers has shown frequent contempt for religion on his blog. He once ripped out pages of the Q'uran and threw them in the garbage with old coffee grinds and banana peels. His university dismissed the call for action by stating that their faculty is allowed to express themselves however they see fit.

Dr. Paul Z Myers, PhD is a professor of biology at The University of Minnesota, Morris campus. He works with zebra fish in the department of evolutionary developmental biology. His blog, Pharyngula is the most widely read science and atheism blog on the Internet. He is a self-avowed godless liberal and as such is one of the most vocal skeptics on all forms of religion, pseudoscience and superstition.

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[FranklyImShocked]

You really have to feel sorry for America.

But if you keep spending more on war than you do on education then this is the sort of thing that happens.

[biggregg5]

PZ is hard not to like...He seems to be very sincere.

[xlr8up]

@FranklyImShocked

Keep voting for Obama, you'll keep getting wars, 4 new wars to date, and now Obama is after Iran.

[leconfidant]

As a Buddhist, I'm very much in favour of people believeing whatever religion makes them happy, but this is just dreadful! 50% don't believe in evolution. That's astonishingly stupid. How does America manage this? Is it a hoax?

[aadrian13]

Man this guy is boring... returning to Dinesh vs. Hitchens.

[CrystalR73]

Yes, America is #1 in starting wars, fighting wars (for other ppl, not the American ppl), control our news (tv, newspapers, etc), fear mongering, lying, deceit, persuasion, controlling every aspect of our lives, manipulation, greed, at making ppl, sheeple. The list could go on, & on!!!

#WakeUp!

[peoplearemessedup]

@FranklyImShocked HOW DARE YOU SAY AMERICA IS NOT #1 AT EVERYTHING GRRRRRR AMERICA RULES AMERICA FTW okay that should trick the military censors good point! P.S. I'm not a terrorist

[dookiecheez]

It use to be a sad thing for me to see that America's position in the world is in decline, but now because I see how a truly insane conservative creationist fringe has a stranglehold on America it's starting to seem like a good thing.

[Klazzt]

Sadly, I was never taught anything about evolution in my junior high or high school biology classes. I knew evolution was true, I was just never taught anything about it in the classroom. A shame, since I decided to study biology. I had to teach myself all the proof and information about evolution. Of course, I love science, so learning it has been fun but the school system really failed since they should have taught me and my fellow students this stuff or at least given us a good idea.

[corncat]

Mmmmm...... hyperbole.  Yummy

[Tihbialdunav]

Religious schools- the shame of US...No Christians come out of there, as Christianity is LOVE, not systematic threats and abuse!