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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.origins,net.politics
Subject: Re: Education of creationists' children
Message-ID: <1231@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 27-Nov-84 14:39:38 EST
Article-I.D.: dciem.1231
Posted: Tue Nov 27 14:39:38 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 27-Nov-84 16:53:24 EST
References: <886@ihuxn.UUCP>
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 48

==============
To sum up, I think that creationist children should not be
required to attend classes that they deem offensive to 
their religion.  At the same time, we should make sure that
creationists will not force pseudo-science into the science
classroom.
-- 

Yosi Hoshen
==============
There is a very serious point here, and I may not do you justice by
this summary quote. But it should provoke a good argument if we can
avoid dogmatism of all kinds.  I am cross-posting this to net.politics,
where the argument should continue (follow-ups should remove net.origins
from the Newsgroups list).

I originally suggested that the right to determine their children's
education might be taken from creationists (I should have said SOME
creationists, perhaps, but the more extreme claim will do for now).
This suggestion was provoked by a series of bewildering pseudo-physics
comments made by a creationist, that showed that he had been denied
a significant chunk of the heritage of human Civilization.
What is more disturbing, he seems not to be aware of his deprivation,
as a slave may not be aware of his lack of freedom.

When a child needs a blood transfusion in order to stay alive, courts
in some jurisdictions will take that child from its parents' custody
if their religion prohibits transfusions.  Denying a child access to
its cultural heritage, or to large parts of that heritage, can be
almost as damaging to the child, and more damaging to the society
in which the child grows up.  We have to live with the children of
creationists, and it is evident for all to behold how dangerous such
people can be to the health of an enquiring society.

The crimes that are committed in the name of religion are many, but
among the worst must be included refusing a child the nutrition it
requires for mental growth.  Would you leave a child with parents
who starve it for food?  No?  Why then would you leave it with parents
who starve it for mental food?  Malnutrition of the brain has the same
general effects in both cases.

I take an extreme position here in order to provoke discussion, not
because I see a truly black-and-white solution to the problem.
-- 

Martin Taylor
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