So.
Here it is, my first real BLOG. Where to begin...
It's 2004. The twenty first century. I'm in America. America is supposed to be the most progressive nation in the world. The land of the free. The only true bastion of individual freedom - of speech, of religion, of the pursuit of happiness. Let's start with speech.
Howard Stern was just ousted from all radio stations owned by Clear Channel - owner of somewhere around 40% of all radio stations in the country [someone correct me on that if I'm wrong...]. Also, on-air personality [and Stern wannabe] "Bubba The Love Sponge" [can you think of a more assinine name? me niether] was just fired by CC from his syndicated show. CC did this as part of their new indecency policy. The message I'm getting here is that if Clear Channel doesn't like it, a large portion of Americans won't hear it, be it words of music. Clear Channel is also the proud part-owner of XM satellite radio, SFX [owner of many large venues nationwide including Connecticut's Meadows Amphitheatre and Oakdale Theatre] and countless billboards [through SFX, I think]. I imagine they own more than that and are probably setting their sites on television next. They are dangerously close to a monopoly of the radio waves at this point and are working hard to become one. And they are censoring with extreme prejudice [read: zero-tolerance policy] all of their many media outlets. Cleaning up radio. Censoring speech. In America. In 2004. I'll just let that hang in the air.
Religion. This is admittedly a sore subject with me - a non-christian, non-jew, non-muslim, anti-organized religion kinda guy. America was founded on the principle of religous freedom - by christians. I'm guessing that they had no idea in the 1700's that there would be any qualms about this - that there would be a need to take into account all ideologies - including atheism. It seems as though many christians feel, to this day, that they have some special divine right to this nation and it's laws. In God we trust. Big *wink* from the government on which God we're talking about here. One nation, under God. Big *wink*. Here we are in the 21st century, and the term "creationism" is actually still in use. In classrooms. Science classrooms. In America. What the fuck?
My thought is this: if you're going to teach creationism as a possible scientific explanation for the creation of our planet, you must meet 3 criterion:
1) You must teach creationism based on all of the world's major religions.
2) Before teaching this, you must prove that all of these are scientifically plausable, as science has done with evolution and the various hypotheses regarding the formation of the universe. The resultant syllabus must first be published and pass scientific muster by an independent panel of scientists before being taught.
3) you must also teach the current scientific reasoning [ie: evolution etc.] alongside these other "theories", allowing your students to debate the merits of each.
Once you [as a science teacher] have met these criterion, you are free to teach creationism as science all year long. I think this is the only fair way to teach "creationism" [I shudder just typing the word...], as it does not favor any one religion [read: Christianity] over another, and forces a teacher to account for his or her teachings as more than a weak interpretation of Christian gospel.
Of course, this will never happen. You know why. Because our government, from a local level upward to the presidency, is mostly christian. My point? Church and State are inexorably joined here, as everywhere else in the world. There's no getting around it. This needs to change. I'll write more about this as I think of it.
The pursuit of happiness... if you're straight. Enough said there, see directly above for the reason why gays are being shut out of marriage in the US.
Well, I'm going to end this first BLOG on a positive note. Krista and I have a child. A beautiful 2-year old daughter named Maia. She will never think her God [if and when she chooses one] is better than yours. We will teach her this. Amen.
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