More scary religious people.
Aug. 18th, 2006 05:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreFrom alt.atheism:
Well, I spent this afternoon at a Christian home school conference and thought I'd share a few observations.
First, the registration form already told you about their expectations. Under "Name", there were two blank lines, the first preceded by "Mr.", the second by "Mrs." No place for modern women here. I scratched out Mrs. and wrote Ms., then handed it to the registrar who was giving me the basic welcome spiel. He looked over the form and actually stuttered in the middle of a sentence when he saw my evil rebelliousness. He was so shaken up, he forgot to give me the lanyard for my dorky little name tag. Unable to believe anyone could be that shocked by "Ms.", I figured at first that maybe he was just distracted by something else, but as I went towards the door, I saw him look at my form again and shake his head. Go figure.
Before I get to the religious texts, I want to mention a sad incident. One publisher who had a rep there, The Critical Thinking Company, had some really interesting books. When I was little, I would have killed to have had some of them. Not only do they cover typical school subjects, they have a series of books called "Critical Thinking" aimed at 12-18 year olds, and they present every logical fallacy we ever run into on a.a., explain why they're fallacies, and provide excellent comprehension tests at every stage. Their science books were great, all hands on with complete emphasis on what the kids can observe and duplicate. While I was looking at them, I saw no reference at all to any sort of religion. I asked the rep if her company were a secular publisher (I wanted to say "normal" but didn't want to be too antagonistic), and she said, "No. You see, when it comes to school books, you have books that include God and try to include him in every chapter, then you have books that are all anti-god. We're just in the middle, neutral." I pointed out that she just gave the definition of secular, and she looked a little surprised and said, "Really? Oh, OK." *sigh* It was interesting to see that mindset first hand.
Anyway...
I went primarily to get a look at science and history books, just to see what they're teaching, and right off the bat I found a great publisher. When I picked up the first American history text on the table, it flopped open to John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry (part of the lead up to the Civil War). Since he was a "godly" man, I wondered
how they'd present him. Well, according to this book, written for 15 year olds, "[t]he abolitionists were angered by the Dred Scott decision which promoted slavery. John Brown, who had already caused a disturbance in Kansas, decided he must act." For those unfamiliar with the "disturbance", better known as the Pottawatomie Massacre:
On the night of May 24th, 1856, Brown banged on the door of James Doyle and ordered the men to come outside. Brown's men attacked them with broadswords. They executed three of the Doyles, splitting open heads and cutting off arms. Brown watched as if in a trance. When they were done, he put a bullet into the head of James Doyle. Brown's party visited two more cabins, dragged out and killed two more men -- five in all.
Flipping to the front of the book, I learned that the Puritans, who had settled in Holland to avoid religious persecution in England, were driven out by the Dutch labor laws which were enacted *specifically* to force Puritan children to work 18 hours a day and miss family worship times. I think the reason given was that the Dutch feared their godliness.
Another text demonstrated that the US is a Christian nation because when framing the Constitution, the year was given as 1787, rather than using Year 1, like those vile French people did after their godless revolution. This is proof they intended to keep the new nation as part of the Christian world. This book was on sale cheap so I bought it, and I expect many minutes of amusement when I read the whole thing.
Some of the math books were a hoot. One of the books taught by having the student create home budgets. Every problem started by requiring money to be set aside for a tithe, and every one included "house payments". Apparently good Christians don't rent houses, and they certainly don't live in apartments. Other problems specified that Mandy earned $300 a month working at a Christian day care facility, and we had to figure out how poor Mandy was going to tithe without starving.
The science books were about what one could expect. I got one book as a free gift, and it explains evolution is absurd because spiders know the exact second when to shed their old skins. "What infinite care our Creator-God has taken in the design of the spider!" Glad that's out of the way. The author is now free to examine how easily the scientists are fooled. He cites the wedding of Cana when Jesus turns water into fine wine. In order to be "fine", the wine has to have been be aged at least
several years when it was created, which is proof that God can manipulate time at his will, and it explains why the Earth looks old to stupid people. No, really. This book came with a companion DVD which I suspect will be entertaining.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see any demonstrations of a creation ministry's "dramatic black light chalk art" depicting Jesus as creation's missing link, but at least I got a brochure, just in case I ever need to be taught "the scientific fact that design = a Designer!" which they say right after they brag they'll teach children to question
"irrational logic".
Health had no surprises. I have a wonderful flier here for a seminar for girls which covers such important topics as "Fashion: Pure or Lure?", "Is Virtue the new Vogue?" and "Not Yo Momma's Sex Talk". That last one will be presented by a certified abstinence instructor. Makes me wonder how you become certified at that. Do you have to learn to say no in 25 different languages?
There were plenty of other subjects to look into, of course. I learned you can't expect to write well unless you "honor the portion of God's image" in yourself, and you should never write too much because Jesus warned us we'd be "judged by every idle word". Also, prayer defeats writer's block.
I think the best overall book was a comprehensive course written by David Noebel (Tim LaHaye's buddy). "Thinking Like a Christian" tells you everything you need to think about:
* Worldviews: Both Secular Humanism and Marxism are religious world
views;
* Theology: Only one thing can protect people from God's wrath on the
day of judgment: God's mercy;
* Philosophy: Atheists trust science and experience, neither of which can be rationally demonstrated to be the source of all truth, but the New Testament is true because its truths can be tested.
* Biology: DNA = deoxyribonucleic acid (well, he was bound to get one right), but evolution is false because if there's no creation there was no Adam and Eve and no need for Jesus, and then Christianity just collapses;
* Psychology: No worldview other than Christianity has true insight into the spiritual and mental realm, and finding meaning in suffering in a feature unique to Christian psychology;
* Ethics: God is holy and never acts on whim, so the values he has handed down to us are by definition good;
* Sociology: Family, church and state are all institutions ordained by god, so there's no way to retreat from a secular sphere to a spiritual sphere; it's all spiritual, so screw you, secularists. I've taken a little liberty with that last paraphrase.
* Law: Government only exists to apply God's laws;
* Politics: Government is appointed by God, so as long as it is serving the purpose for which God created it, the Christian shows allegiance to God by submitting to human government, but if that government turns away from God's law, then it's the Christian's duty to rebel against the government in favor of obeying God's law;
* Economics: Capitalism stifles man's sinful tendencies, and it doesn't cause the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer, rather it encourages the rich to create more wealth. And it's biblically based.
* History: Christianity invented the concept of linear history which supplanted the idea of a constant cyclic repetition of the same events. Also, there is no such thing as an accident because God charges *every* moment of *every* person's life with purpose.
Does everyone feel smarter now for reading that?
Well, I spent this afternoon at a Christian home school conference and thought I'd share a few observations.
First, the registration form already told you about their expectations. Under "Name", there were two blank lines, the first preceded by "Mr.", the second by "Mrs." No place for modern women here. I scratched out Mrs. and wrote Ms., then handed it to the registrar who was giving me the basic welcome spiel. He looked over the form and actually stuttered in the middle of a sentence when he saw my evil rebelliousness. He was so shaken up, he forgot to give me the lanyard for my dorky little name tag. Unable to believe anyone could be that shocked by "Ms.", I figured at first that maybe he was just distracted by something else, but as I went towards the door, I saw him look at my form again and shake his head. Go figure.
Before I get to the religious texts, I want to mention a sad incident. One publisher who had a rep there, The Critical Thinking Company, had some really interesting books. When I was little, I would have killed to have had some of them. Not only do they cover typical school subjects, they have a series of books called "Critical Thinking" aimed at 12-18 year olds, and they present every logical fallacy we ever run into on a.a., explain why they're fallacies, and provide excellent comprehension tests at every stage. Their science books were great, all hands on with complete emphasis on what the kids can observe and duplicate. While I was looking at them, I saw no reference at all to any sort of religion. I asked the rep if her company were a secular publisher (I wanted to say "normal" but didn't want to be too antagonistic), and she said, "No. You see, when it comes to school books, you have books that include God and try to include him in every chapter, then you have books that are all anti-god. We're just in the middle, neutral." I pointed out that she just gave the definition of secular, and she looked a little surprised and said, "Really? Oh, OK." *sigh* It was interesting to see that mindset first hand.
Anyway...
I went primarily to get a look at science and history books, just to see what they're teaching, and right off the bat I found a great publisher. When I picked up the first American history text on the table, it flopped open to John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry (part of the lead up to the Civil War). Since he was a "godly" man, I wondered
how they'd present him. Well, according to this book, written for 15 year olds, "[t]he abolitionists were angered by the Dred Scott decision which promoted slavery. John Brown, who had already caused a disturbance in Kansas, decided he must act." For those unfamiliar with the "disturbance", better known as the Pottawatomie Massacre:
On the night of May 24th, 1856, Brown banged on the door of James Doyle and ordered the men to come outside. Brown's men attacked them with broadswords. They executed three of the Doyles, splitting open heads and cutting off arms. Brown watched as if in a trance. When they were done, he put a bullet into the head of James Doyle. Brown's party visited two more cabins, dragged out and killed two more men -- five in all.
Flipping to the front of the book, I learned that the Puritans, who had settled in Holland to avoid religious persecution in England, were driven out by the Dutch labor laws which were enacted *specifically* to force Puritan children to work 18 hours a day and miss family worship times. I think the reason given was that the Dutch feared their godliness.
Another text demonstrated that the US is a Christian nation because when framing the Constitution, the year was given as 1787, rather than using Year 1, like those vile French people did after their godless revolution. This is proof they intended to keep the new nation as part of the Christian world. This book was on sale cheap so I bought it, and I expect many minutes of amusement when I read the whole thing.
Some of the math books were a hoot. One of the books taught by having the student create home budgets. Every problem started by requiring money to be set aside for a tithe, and every one included "house payments". Apparently good Christians don't rent houses, and they certainly don't live in apartments. Other problems specified that Mandy earned $300 a month working at a Christian day care facility, and we had to figure out how poor Mandy was going to tithe without starving.
The science books were about what one could expect. I got one book as a free gift, and it explains evolution is absurd because spiders know the exact second when to shed their old skins. "What infinite care our Creator-God has taken in the design of the spider!" Glad that's out of the way. The author is now free to examine how easily the scientists are fooled. He cites the wedding of Cana when Jesus turns water into fine wine. In order to be "fine", the wine has to have been be aged at least
several years when it was created, which is proof that God can manipulate time at his will, and it explains why the Earth looks old to stupid people. No, really. This book came with a companion DVD which I suspect will be entertaining.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see any demonstrations of a creation ministry's "dramatic black light chalk art" depicting Jesus as creation's missing link, but at least I got a brochure, just in case I ever need to be taught "the scientific fact that design = a Designer!" which they say right after they brag they'll teach children to question
"irrational logic".
Health had no surprises. I have a wonderful flier here for a seminar for girls which covers such important topics as "Fashion: Pure or Lure?", "Is Virtue the new Vogue?" and "Not Yo Momma's Sex Talk". That last one will be presented by a certified abstinence instructor. Makes me wonder how you become certified at that. Do you have to learn to say no in 25 different languages?
There were plenty of other subjects to look into, of course. I learned you can't expect to write well unless you "honor the portion of God's image" in yourself, and you should never write too much because Jesus warned us we'd be "judged by every idle word". Also, prayer defeats writer's block.
I think the best overall book was a comprehensive course written by David Noebel (Tim LaHaye's buddy). "Thinking Like a Christian" tells you everything you need to think about:
* Worldviews: Both Secular Humanism and Marxism are religious world
views;
* Theology: Only one thing can protect people from God's wrath on the
day of judgment: God's mercy;
* Philosophy: Atheists trust science and experience, neither of which can be rationally demonstrated to be the source of all truth, but the New Testament is true because its truths can be tested.
* Biology: DNA = deoxyribonucleic acid (well, he was bound to get one right), but evolution is false because if there's no creation there was no Adam and Eve and no need for Jesus, and then Christianity just collapses;
* Psychology: No worldview other than Christianity has true insight into the spiritual and mental realm, and finding meaning in suffering in a feature unique to Christian psychology;
* Ethics: God is holy and never acts on whim, so the values he has handed down to us are by definition good;
* Sociology: Family, church and state are all institutions ordained by god, so there's no way to retreat from a secular sphere to a spiritual sphere; it's all spiritual, so screw you, secularists. I've taken a little liberty with that last paraphrase.
* Law: Government only exists to apply God's laws;
* Politics: Government is appointed by God, so as long as it is serving the purpose for which God created it, the Christian shows allegiance to God by submitting to human government, but if that government turns away from God's law, then it's the Christian's duty to rebel against the government in favor of obeying God's law;
* Economics: Capitalism stifles man's sinful tendencies, and it doesn't cause the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer, rather it encourages the rich to create more wealth. And it's biblically based.
* History: Christianity invented the concept of linear history which supplanted the idea of a constant cyclic repetition of the same events. Also, there is no such thing as an accident because God charges *every* moment of *every* person's life with purpose.
Does everyone feel smarter now for reading that?
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Date: 19 Aug 2006 00:32 (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 Aug 2006 08:11 (UTC)