Poor, Stupid Christians

You really have to feel sorry for Christians, don't you?  I mean, they are, and I hate to put it like this, but they really are stupid, aren't they?  They believe in the most outdated things.  Can you even imagine someone believing that a divine being spoke the universe into existence in this day and age?  Why, it is positively medieval!

Such is the tone of comments on a friend's Facebook post about the bill that just passed the Indiana senate.  This bill would allow the teaching of creationism based on religious views to be taught alongside evolution in public school science classes.

This piece is not to discuss whether or not creationism should be taught in science class, should be taught at all, or should be taught in public school.  It is not about the validity of creationism, nor is it about whether the government should legislate curriculum, especially a curriculum that may have a religious component.  The purpose of this blog post is to take issue with comments like the following.

• Oh hello, everyone, welcome to Texas!
• Wow. Indiana is really setting the bar high. Maybe we should teach alternate theories of gravity too.
• Cut to me moving the kids to nova scotia and becoming a home school mama.
• It overwhelms me how sad I an for Hoosier Education. I wish they could understand the ramifications of their education policies!!!
•  So happy I am not teaching Biology any longer. When I began teaching in XXXX, we were "required" to teach creationism in addition to evolution....my lesson that minute was, "Creationism is based on faith. To learn more, go to Sunday School."
• May have to move to New Zealand sooner rather than later. NZ is about as far away fron the Indiana Senate as I can get!
• Seems the legislators have not evolved beyond simian thinking.

One person posted this link, which refers to teachers and legislators "peddling creationism," calls creationism "garbage," and concludes, "Once upon a time, I thought the goal was to excel and provide the best education possible; in Indiana, the dream is a school system that is less than half shitty."

Disturbing aspect of responses #1:  Does anyone else notice the virulent hatred of the tone of these responses?  The same could be said of the comments to the Indianapolis Star article linked above.  I am not sure whether the dripping sarcasm does more damage from its bitter acidity or the height from which it drips, flowing from noses so firmly stuck in the upper atmosphere.

Disturbing aspect of responses #2:  We all know the cause for this fierce opposition.  It is that creationism = Christianity in the minds of many, and Christianity must have no voice in the public square.  It does not matter that other faiths that espouse creationism are named in the senate bill.  The simple fact is that the whole thing smacks of religion, and because religion is still synonymous with Christianity, it is written off as a bad thing.

Disturbing aspect of responses #3:  Several of those who made these comments are colleagues or former colleagues of mine.  I recently wrote of the corrosive toll that teaching in a public school can take on Christian teachers, and this what I mean.  Are these people nice?  Of course they are.  We exchange pleasant conversation in the hallways and for the most part would never discuss any of this.  I have certainly never been attacked for my Christian faith.  Yet the attack is there, lurking in the air we breathe.  The anti-Christianity ethos pervades our educational system, and just as it is impossible to walk through a highly radiated region without getting radiation poisoning, so it is impossible not to feel weary to the point of sickness by the perspective that shapes everything about what I do for a living.