Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site randvax.ARPA
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!harpo!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!randvax!edhall
From: edhall@randvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.origins,net.politics
Subject: Re: Louisiana Creationism Law
Message-ID: <1790@randvax.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 17-May-84 12:16:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: randvax.1790
Posted: Thu May 17 12:16:35 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 19-May-84 00:52:40 EDT
References: <930@ihuxq.UUCP>, <38@mouton.UUCP>
Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica
Lines: 45
Xref: 89 908

+
>         Many Conservatives believe that pure anti-creationism as taught
> in many public schools undermines a person's self-worth concept,
> deteriorates the human psyche, drives a person to alcohol and other drugs,
> and thus subverts a nation's productivity and efficiency.  That's why
> alcoholism is the USSR's number one problem, and why alcoholism and drug
> addiction is becoming the USA's number one problem.
>
>         Now do you see why many Conservatives believe that pure
> anti-creationism should be diluted with creationism, and that pure
> anti-creationism advocates may well be "Commies", "Commie-sympathizers,"
> or unwitting dupes of the international Communist conspiracy?  [~ :-)]
>
>                         -Dave Caplan
>
I'm speechless...  If there is an ounce of logic in the above, I'd like to
hear about it.  I see no connection whatever between the teaching of
evolution, and alcoholism and drug-abuse.  I see no reason for labeling
evolution as `anti-creationism'.  (Methinks it is more likely to be the
other way around, but that's a bias.)  And how does this tie the teaching
of evolution into the international Communist conspiracy?

Why don't any of the `many Conservatives' I know believe any of what Dave
Caplan says?
Maybe they are unwitting Commie dupes.  Or perhaps they realize that
the evolution/creationism controversy is an honest one, and not one
based on a Communist hoax.  And maybe they realize that there are
factors far more important in producing self-worth than ones belief
in ones origins.  They are far more likely to see lagging productivity
as a symptom of excessive government control than as a result of the
teaching of evolution.

Branding all you disagree with as a Communist conspiracy has absolutely
nothing to do with traditional Conservatism.  Now, Conservatives take
the Communist threat very, very seriously, but they don't see a Commie
under every bed, nor consider every `Liberal' cause to be Communist-
inspired.  However, certain members of the Radical Right have appropriated
the Conservative label, and have used it to add respectability to their
militant advocacy.  Don't be fooled; many of these people want far more
profound changes to our society than almost any Liberal, and justify
their use of the term Conservative by manufacturing a `past' that is
almost entirely mythical.

		-Ed Hall
		decvax!randvax!edhall