Church Wants End to Darwin School 'Monopoly'

[ZombieHorde]

10 June 2010
Reuters

The Russian Orthodox Church has called for an end to the "monopoly of Darwinism" in schools, saying religious explanations of creation should be taught alongside evolution. "The time has come for the monopoly of Darwinism and the deceptive idea that science in general contradicts religion. These ideas should be left in the past," Archbishop Hilarion said at a lecture to Foreign Ministry officials. "Darwin's theory remains a theory. This means it should be taught to children as one of several theories, but children should know of other theories, too," he said Wednesday.

The atheist Soviet state used Charles Darwin's theory of evolution to disprove the biblical teaching that God created the world. The theory, which biologists say gives a verifiable explanation for how life forms develop through natural selection, now dominates in Russian schools as it does in science teaching in most countries. Hilarion said the theory that one species could evolve into another had never been proven. Children "should know about the religious picture, the creation of the world, which is common to all the monotheistic religions," he said.

Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a veteran dissident, said Russian liberals would fight any attempt to introduce religious teaching into the classroom, particularly in science. "It's a dangerous idea, and we will do all we can to stop it," she said. "We overcame communism as the state ideology, and certain forces want to replace it with Orthodox Christianity." She said it was unlikely that religious teaching would replace Darwin in the national curriculum, but it could find its way into some schools with enough pressure from the church.

Hilarion heads the church's external relations department. His lecture was dedicated to fighting "fanatical secularism" of liberals hostile to religion and called for dialogue with moderate secularists and cooperation with Catholics against common foes.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/church-wants-end-to-darwin-school-monopoly/408050.html

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Does "fanatical secularism" equal not wanting to teach mythology as science in science classes?

[BrklynLiberal]

1. I guess this kind of crap must be contagious....

Is it a virus or something? Would antibiotics help?

[louis-t]

2. So, which religion should be taught in school?

Hindu? Catholicism? Protestant? LEAVE RELIGIOUS TEACHING WHERE IT BELONGS, IN THE CHURCH. Jeez.

[dmallind]

3. While hypocrisy is nothing new in this discussion, this one is serious chutzpah

"....saying religious explanations of creation should be taught alongside evolution. "The time has come for the monopoly of Darwinism and the deceptive idea that science in general contradicts religion".


If science does NOT contradict religion (or more accurately vice versa) why would the religios "explanation" need to be taught alongside evolution in the first place and why would there be a problem with this "monopoly"? Wouldn't it be the same thing as the religious explanation anyway if religion did not contradict science?

[FiveGoodMen]

4. Fuck that church

That is all.

[stopbush]

5. The ignorance is astounding.

The argument from authority is risible.

"Just a theory." Why does that phrase trip so easily out of the mouths of those who are "just assholes?"

[laconicsax]

6. So a church wants schools to stop teaching reality.

Because as we all know, knowledge of reality is toxic to religious indoctrination.

[DeSwiss]

7. BULLSHIT n/t

[and-justice-for-all]

8. The facts should be taught, not a fantasy...

religion can not hold up to the mountains of empirical evidence that Evolution has.

Evolution is right, religion is dead wrong.

[onager]

9. Great. From one totalitarian mind-set, back to another.

The stuff about a "Darwinist monopoly" sounds like the Russian Orthodox church is cribbing from American fundamentalists. And their Useful Idiots like Ben Stein Whine. Even the language is exactly the same - "only a theory," etc.

In 2008 I visited Hungary and the Czech Republic and heard some interesting stories about what happened after Communism fell. In those countries, it was the Catholic church that tried to muscle right back in and reclaim its old undeserved perks and authority.

In Hungary, the Church wanted to open a school - for boys only. The Hungarian government said the school would take boys and girls, or it wouldn't open at all. And Hungary is a majority Catholic country by a huge margin.

The Czech Republic proudly calls itself the most atheistic country in Europe. The Czechs I spoke to are very blunt about the church - they don't trust it, because they saw many of its leaders collaborating with the Russian Communist leadership for decades.

It probably helps that the Czechs have a history of resistance to Rome that goes all the way back to Jan Huss in the 15th century. (Huss was invited to a debate by the Pope, and while traveling under a writ of safe passage, was arrested and burned at the stake.)

In Prague, you can still see the window that figured in the famous "Defenestration of Prague." In 1618, the Pope sent two emissaries to try and cool down Protestant fever in Bohemia.

Arguments apparently became heated, because the Papal emissaries were tossed out of a window - an event that kicked off the Thirty Years War.

The Papal emissaries survived their fall. The Pope said they were guided to the ground by angels.

The Czechs say they were lucky enough to land in a pile of horse shit.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

13. One of them must have been Biff Tannen's ancestor.

Bifunzio Tanneni?

"MANURE! I HATE MANURE!"

[ChadwickHenryWard]

16. "Open a school - for boys only"

Yeah, that's not suspicious.

I've never heard of the "defenestration of Prague." That sounds like a good song title.

[BolivarianHero]

10. Not going to happen...

Putin's cronies won't do that to the Russian education, and the "communist" oligarch opposition won't either.

[Silent3]

11. Abuse of the word "theory" obviously translates well.

Presuming this guy was speaking in Russian. It would seem that in Russian too there is both a scientific sense of the word "theory", and a colloquial "just a wild guess" meaning, meanings religious zealots conveniently confuse.

[RagAss]

12. They're making themselves a target for the next revolution....

Brilliant.

[Leontius]

14. How does evolutionary theory disprove that God created the

world? Without refuting creationism, ie young earth, seven day creation, all of creation fixed in its present form, men riding dinosaurs etc, which I have no interest in discussing as I do not believe it. What in evolutionary theory disproves God?

[ZombieHorde]

15. Evolution does not disprove the existence of some divine, super-magical entity,

evolution disproves the existence of many people's interpretation of the Christian god.