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If Children are Our Future, We are in Trouble!

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posted on Aug, 6 2008 @ 09:07 PM
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I am tempted to post this in some humor forum on BTS but nonetheless I feel the topic merits serious discussion. I'm not suggesting there is any organized conspiracy behind all of this but I think this does show the effect that dogmatic fundamentalist belief systems have on our ability to learn and think critically.

What follows is a link to science fair winners from something called the "Fellowship Baptist Creation Science Fair." Please note that I am not arguing against the beliefs of these people. While I personally disagree with all organized religion, I have no intention of starting a Christian-bashing thread. I respect the rights of individuals to raise and educate their children as they see fit. What bothers me most is that these science projects are being put on a pedestal as examples of "high quality and academic excellence."

Science Fair Winners

I don't think that Christianity or Creationism need be at odds with critical thinking and the scientific method; however, some of these examples show very little evidence of either.

Here's one example:


1st Place: "My Uncle Is A Man Named Steve (Not A Monkey)"
Cassidy (grade 5) presented her uncle, Steve. She also showed photographs of monkeys and invited fairgoers to note the differences between her uncle and the monkeys. She tried to feed her uncle bananas, but he declined to eat them. Cassidy has conclusively shown that her uncle is no monkey.


That beat out 2nd Place: "Pine Cones Are Complicated", which could at least have some potential for learning and scientific value in attempting to show "how specifically complicated pine cones are and how they reveal God's design in nature."

One honorable mention demonstrates how "Pokemon Prove Evolutionism Is False".

These examples were from elementary school children. OK, we can cut a little slack, right? Here's one from middle school:


1st Place: "Life Doesn't Come From Non-Life"

Patricia (grade 8) did an experiment to see if life can evolve from non-life. Patricia placed all the non-living ingredients of life - carbon (a charcoal briquet), purified water, and assorted minerals (a multi-vitamin) - into a sealed glass jar. The jar was left undisturbed, being exposed only to sunlight, for three weeks. (Patricia also prayed to God not to do anything miraculous during the course of the experiment, so as not to disqualify the findings.) No life evolved. This shows that life cannot come from non-life through natural processes.


OK, a noble attempt perhaps, but the basic premise seems pretty flaky. A multi-vitamin? Hmm...I think she might have been missing an ingredient or two. Trying to evolve life in a jar is a rather ambitious experiment. I would think that any decent teacher would try to explain to a student why this is quite simply beyond the resources of most 8th graders to attempt in any serious fashion. Instead, you end up with this kind of farce for a project.

At least 1st prize didn't go to this one:


2nd Place: "Women Were Designed For Homemaking"

Jonathan (grade 7) applied findings from many fields of science to support his conclusion that God designed women for homemaking.


I hope I don't need to explain that one any further! Honorable mentions included "Dinosaur & Man Walked Together" - Donny (grade 6) and "Rocks Can't Evolve, Where Did They Come From Mr. Darwin?" - Anna (grade 6).

Those almost sound like ATS thread titles!

At the high school level, first prize went to:

1st Place: "Using Prayer To Microevolve Latent Antibiotic Resistance In Bacteria"


This one actually might have some value - you can read the details yourself if you click the link.



2nd Place: "Maximal Packing Of Rodentia Kinds: A Feasibility Study"

Jason (grade 12) project was to show the feasibility of Noah's Ark using a Rodentia research model (made of a mixture of hamsters and gerbils) as a representative of diluvian life forms.


Again, this one might demonstrate at least some level of education, but I am wary of the idea that hamsters and gerbils are representative of the variety of all living organisms on earth prior to the ancient flood which most cultures remember.

Among the honorable mentions for high schoolers, "Thermodynamics Of Hell Fire" - Williamson (grade 12).

Again, I am not bashing beliefs here, but I honestly find some of these examples hilarious. The first few really astound me - sure, the younger kids can be excused for not having a strong basis in the scientific method yet...but what kind of message does it send when first prize is awarded to a girl who did nothing but introduce her uncle and show some monkey pictures? That project had absolutely no educational value and it seems that the award was given simply on an ideological basis. That would be fine if this was billed as a Faith Project Fair or something like that, but to call it science is an awful mistake.

And if you want a more secular perspective, check out the link below:

41 Hilarious Science Fair Experiments

It was while reading the comments on that page that I found the Creationism science fair projects. The link above doesn't give you much info about each experiments, but a picture tells a thousand words and you can see that most of these kids are much better off than the fundies!



[edit on 6-8-2008 by shipovfools]



posted on Aug, 6 2008 @ 10:19 PM
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lol very lol

im a catholic and i find those experiments to be utter ... i cant even think of a word im so speechless !

ok fair enough there only kids but the teachers who are perpetuating this garbage should be taken out to the car park and shot ... and possibly all their family members just incase this kind of stupidity is contagious..

*shudders* be afraid be very afraid...



posted on Aug, 7 2008 @ 08:29 AM
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Shipovfools,

I have given some thought to those concepts myself. Particularly about the monkey thiing.

I have actually decided that most people are not that different from monkeys ...spiritually and physically.

I happen to know that when you plant a human for so many hours and years in front of a television set ....feed and water them.....they act just like monkeys...monkey see, monkey do.

Alot of public education today has become television education.

I watch grown people ...who cannot express an idea or concept outside of an example or description of a movie or television program they have watched. In otherwords they have very few real life experiencess...their knowlege is television knowlege..their values and experiences are the values and experiences of others....they are actually living second hand. Vicarious lives....Very monkey like. They are watchers...not doers or thinkers. They often just react to an external stimulus....not even thiers.

But what you realize when you step back and think it through ..looking at the big picture...is that this result is all very scientific. Science is making human monkeys here....Monkeys out of humans.



Well done....well done!! Science should be proud...especially the science of psychology.

Thanks,
Orangetom



posted on Aug, 7 2008 @ 11:09 AM
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This is too funny. You have to give them kudos I suppose for coming up with original ideas. After reading the first link and seeing how much that "doctor" of biotheology (I wasn't even aware such a field existed) LOVED Creationism and god it doesn't surprise me that these kids have a skewed view of science.

I think a better thread title would be "If Creationism Was Our Future, We'd Be In Trouble". The kids (for the most part) came up with original ideas and followed the scientific method. The projects must have had some strict regulations as to the content. I gather this from this line:

This is also the first year that Muslim students from the Al-Jannah Islamic school have been invited to participate; two of their students presented a project on human anatomy entitled "Allah (SWT) Created Me" which, while it was found ineligible for a prize due to a number of Biblical inconsistencies, did win a special Interfaith Outreach ribbon.

I think this just shows its not the children that are the issue, it's the organizations they are subjected to. I don't agree with this push your beliefs on your kids thing but I have to agree with you OP: Parents are the ones responsible for their child's upbringing.



posted on Aug, 7 2008 @ 11:44 AM
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I wonder what that kid's mother had to say about women being made for housework and not able to make equal pay because they don't do equal work? I can see the creationist stuff, but some of the ideas come right out of the 1950s.
The link to the crazy science fair projects is hilarious.
Thank you for the post.



posted on Aug, 7 2008 @ 08:34 PM
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Originally posted by Scurvy
I think a better thread title would be "If Creationism Was Our Future, We'd Be In Trouble". The kids (for the most part) came up with original ideas and followed the scientific method.


I agree. I guess I fell into the ATS trap of over-generalizing for the sake of sensationalism!

I'm sure some of these kids are quite clever, and I guess that's the saddest thing about it...if they were free to let their imaginations and logical abilities run to their full extent, unconfined by an imposed belief system, they could have some amazing potential. Science is about questioning and testing EVERYTHING in order to find out how the world works, but if your religion tells you supposedly everything you need to know, then any experiment bound by that belief system is inherently only seeking evidence to prove a pre-determined conclusion.

Which, come to think of it, isn't really all that different from what many (myself included) of us conspiracy theorists tend to do! Hmmm...now there's some food for thought.



posted on Aug, 8 2008 @ 11:06 AM
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reply to post by shipovfools
 




I'm sure some of these kids are quite clever, and I guess that's the saddest thing about it...if they were free to let their imaginations and logical abilities run to their full extent, unconfined by an imposed belief system, they could have some amazing potential. Science is about questioning and testing EVERYTHING in order to find out how the world works, but if your religion tells you supposedly everything you need to know, then any experiment bound by that belief system is inherently only seeking evidence to prove a pre-determined conclusion.


What I am saying is that for many children and also adults too..planting them in front of a television..feeding and watering them on occasion is precisely like a drug..putting them on drugs. This one just happens to be a non chemical mind drug. You are not free to think or conduct ones self with any kind of originallity or dicipline.
Also alot of Science went into the invention and conversely the marketing of what is used or promoted through the television...hence dont get all enthralled over this arena of science. And television/movies is precisely where alot of folks...particularly children today get their "reality." Their "Belief system."

Thanks,
Orangetom




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