Creationist lawsuit thrown out 13 Sep 2007 Larry Caldwell, a well-known proponent of antievolutionism, tried and failed to get “the controversy” taught in the school district of his kids’ school. He failed, so he sued the school board because he was “discriminated against… for being Christian”. The suit was just thrown out. What bothers me is not that antievolutionists would again try to use the legal system to change the definition and content of science – we have come to expect that in this political battle (and it is nothing else but a political battle. There’s no science or even decent philosophy there). What bothers me is the comment by one of the school board members: School board member Jan Pinney said Caldwell’s lawsuit amounted to “sour grapes.” “For two years all our energy was spent fighting this issue,” Pinney said. “He had more time before the board than anybody has ever had in my 12 years on the board.” Two years? The school board spent two years catering to this moron, while there were undoubtedly real educational issues to attend to? The fact that they even gave him a hearing is charity enough. This is incredible. General Science Politics
Administrative Happenings 21 Jan 2008 So, I just found out that I’m teaching this semester, which is a comfort (money will come in, and we can eat) and a pain (I am going to Arizona in March, so we will have to sort out some guest lectures or something). The subject is philosophy of the… Read More
Accommodationism Why do believers believe silly things? The function of denialism 26 Jan 201420 Feb 2014 Bishop Butler wrote in a sermon in 1729: Things and actions are what they are, and the consequences of them will be what they will be: why, then, should we desire to be deceived? [Sermon 7] It’s an interesting question. Why should we seek to be deceived about the consequences… Read More
Censorship I told you so 24 Oct 2008 I told you so 1: High cost of internet filtering and controls stricter than Iran’s, oh and critics bullied. I told you so 2: Terrorism laws unsafe, court rejects charge of breaking laws that did not exist when the “crime” was done Read More
Caldwell was, if memory serves, already well known in the area for being both a lawyer himself and suit happy. A certain amount of eggshell walking was prudent. But the bozo still can take satisfaction of having damaged, by distracting the board, the educations of numerous children, which, after all, was his intent from the get-go.
“. . . already well known in the area for being both a lawyer himself and suit happy.” Don’t know about ‘suit happy, but certainly as a lawyer previous to ’04. Most important was his alliance with at least two board members. Along with that was the eggshell walking that accompanies the possibility of denigrating one’s religious belief, or at least the expression of one’s belief system. Fortunately, despite his ‘disracting the board’ the education of numerous children was not (significantly?) damaged. The education of children occurs in the classroom, where I reside, not in the board room. I did not allow, as much as humanly possible, the distractions to negatively influence the education of my students. Instead, it was the children in my own home that suffered damage as I spent tired hours from staying up late with my children to combat Caldwell and/or missed events that I’ll not recover -I missed one of the only three wins from my son’s little league season that year. He was ‘fired up’;I was happy for him but don’t really know how he played, I wasn’t there – dealing with Caldwell’s nonsense (he requested, via protocol, all of the materials I use to teach Evolutin). Caldwell’s time in front of the board didn’t really occur over a two year period. June of ’03 to June of ’04 is the time period when we defeated Caldwell. During the remaining time, the battle occurred in the courts.
If I may say so, kudos to you for doing the right thing by your students and the school district. I am sorry that your kids had to bear the brunt of that raving moron’s idiocy.