The tired old religion vs evolution debate goes on, and on, and on

Tomorrow is Darwin Day, the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin. The Seattle-based Discovery Institute that pushes “intelligent design” theory and anti-evolution propaganda, plans to put its own spin on “honoring” Darwin this Thursday, calling it Academic Freedom day, which can also be described as Freedom to Teach Your Child to Be Stupid Day.

LINK: Americans United’s Sandhya Bathija says,

Instead of “Darwin Day,” Institute strategists will observe what they call “Academic Freedom Day,” promoting events that “give students and youth workers a way to express their support for free speech and the right to debate the evidence for and against evolution.”

The think tank, which was behind Ben Stein’s documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, masks its intentions to push a creationist agenda by working in the name of “academic freedom.” The Religious Right-backed outfit claims that students’ “academic freedom is trampled everyday” because students are “censored” from critiquing Darwin’s theory of evolution in science classrooms.

These creationist idiots just don’t get it. Their religious beliefs have no place in a science classroom. No one is “trampling on their academic freedoms”. If they wish to offer debate to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, then do it with sound science and not bring your “faith” into it. They have their churches, and they have their own church schools where their children are free to attend to be trained to be ignorant of Science and evolution. It’s very sad for the children who are brainwashed with lies and false information, but religious folks have the freedom to pump whatever crap they want into their children’s brains.

Because of the Institute’s influence, four states are already mulling “academic freedom” bills this year: Iowa, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Alabama. These bills seek to require science educators to teach the “strengths and weaknesses” of evolution, or use other code language to push a creationist agenda.

It’s not enough for them to believe what they choose to believe, but these amendments are attempts to witness to all children and to push their religion into the public school classrooms.

Thank human reason there are other people who believe in the god fantasy who have managed to reconcile their faith and evolution.

That’s the message many religious leaders plan to send to their congregations this week in observance of Darwin Day. Nearly 1,000 clergy members will discuss the relationship between religion and science in an event called “Evolution Weekend.”

And from Ethics Daily.com:

With the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin occurring on Feb. 12 and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his work On the Origin of Species also happening in 2009, many religious leaders hope to use services that weekend to make “it clear that those claiming that people must choose between religion and science are creating a false dichotomy.”

“One important goal is to elevate the quality of the discussion on this critical topic–to move beyond sound bites,” explains the Web site for Evolution Weekend. “A second critical goal is to demonstrate that religious people from many faiths and locations understand that evolution is sound science and poses no problems for their faith.”

If the Religious Right dumbasses took time to understand what evolution actually is then there wouldn’t be any need to debate theology vs science. They are two separate things. Fortunately, many religious folks do understand this.