From: Arlo J. Bensinger (ajb102@psu.edu)
Date: Tue Nov 09 2004 - 01:06:01 GMT
All,
> Published on Saturday, November 6, 2004 by the Associated Press
>
> Wisconsin School OKs Creationism Teaching
>
Just further proof of the campaign of aggressive de-enlightment going on in
America today. It's almost as if they point back to the dark ages as the "glory
days" of mankind, when the church controlled all "truth" and kept it safe from
"liberal academics with an agenda". Well, hopefully barleywine will make a
comeback too (pilsner is so boring), just about the only positive thing i can
think of about the dark ages (and i have to be able to order it by a
"tankard").
The interesting thing is, if they pushed for a "comparative mythology" class,
they likely would have no trouble getting any "liberal academic" to sign on.
They could teach the occidental creation myth, and compare it with the inuit
creation story and the scandinavian sagas (god knows, a giant man encased in
frozen saltwater and licked by a cow is pretty good stuff to a kid!). They
could teach critical thinking regarding why humanity has a seeming historic
need to "understand creation", and have explained it in culturally appropriate
terms the world over. And how the gnostics and other mystery traditions saw the
stories as literally untrue, but evidencing in their words (or wordcount) deep
esoteric histories and truths. One could hope that this would lead towards
cultural understanding, cross-cultural competence and greater global respect
for the dreaded "other".
Even better, from a MOQ perspective, they could teach how mythologies have been
used to bind static social patterns, to control biological behaviors, and to
restrict intellectual Quality and DQ. They could then be asked to critically
think about the evolving social milieu, ponder which static social patterns are
still needed, and which must give way, morally, to intellectual Quality. The
"fear of homosexuality" agenda could be discussed as originating (just thinking
on the cuff here) in the social level need to preserve populations, and ask
that in a world of global crowding, do we need static patterns to preserve
population growth? Adherence to one particular "creation myth" was used as a
means of social preservation, creating a nationalistic fever to prevent
"foreign" encroachment.
Again, I'm just kinda rattlin' off the cuff here, but you get the idea.
Sadly, no comparative mythology and static social patterns in wisconsin, the
kids will likey be taught solely the occidental seven-day story (and likely the
first one in genesis, not the second), told esotericism is (probably) a liberal
agenda clouding their literal interpretation, that the earth is something on
the order of 6,000 years old (dinosaurs are another liberal myth too i
suppose)... ah yes, how fun it will be to be the laughing stock of the world...
arlo
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