Blow to creationist "education" drive

20goto10 · 24-06-2010 10:39am #1

http://ncse.com/news/2010/06/legal-defeat-icr-005583 ICR lose their legal battle against Texas eduation boards decision not to grant them a state certificate of authority to offer a master's degree in science education.

Nice to see they don't own all the judges....yet.

Shenshen · 24-06-2010 11:33am

Hang on a sec... reading the article, this is about them not getting temporary certification after moving to Texas from California and waiting for their full certification, which apparently they did have while in California.

While I agree that they shouldn't be allowed to offer science degrees in any shape or form, it's still kind of scary to know that not to long ago, they did.

20goto10 · 24-06-2010 11:44am

Yes but they were only accredited by the "Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools".

The issue was not, strictly speaking, about accreditation, but about temporary state certification, which would have enabled the ICR graduate school to operate while it sought accreditation. When in California, the ICR graduate school was accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools, which requires candidate institutions to affirm a list of Biblical Foundations, including "the divine work of non-evolutionary creation including persons in God's image." TRACS is not recognized by the state of Texas, however, and after the ICR moved from Santee, California, to Dallas, Texas, the ICR expressed its intention to seek accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Zombrex · 24-06-2010 6:03pm

This is interesting.

As a side but some what on topic I often wondered what would happen when all these college kids from these crazy Christian colleges got out into the real world and found their degrees in "Biblical geology" or what ever are in fact worthless in terms of educational qualification.

I anticipate a lot more fights over accreditation with people trying to get government organisations to recognize their particular nut case degrees (and thus qualify them for government jobs).

Galvasean · 24-06-2010 7:17pm

Meh, they'll be the new Bachelors of Arts&Film Studies. In other words, completely unemployable.

robindch · 24-06-2010 9:10pm

Wicknight wrote: »

I often wondered what would happen when all these college kids from these crazy Christian colleges got out into the real world and found their degrees in "Biblical geology" or what ever are in fact worthless in terms of educational qualification.

Happened to a friend of mine from down the country around ten years back. She went off to some Midwestern fundie-factory to do a degree in "Christian Education" which she thought was equivalent to a European degree in Education. She spent three or four years doing the fundamentalist thing -- creationism, "church planting", hermeneutics -- the whole kit and kaboodle. She got back home and found that the degree she'd received wasn't worth the paper it was written on, even when applying for a teaching job in a religious outfit. So she did another few years studying here in Ireland for a real degree in a real college.

Last time I spoke to her a few months back, she was doing part-time clerical work in an office.

Zombrex · 25-06-2010 8:30am

robindch wrote: »

Happened to a friend of mine from down the country around ten years back. She went off to some Midwestern fundie-factory to do a degree in "Christian Education" which she thought was equivalent to a European degree in Education. She spent three or four years doing the fundamentalist thing -- creationism, "church planting", hermeneutics -- the whole kit and kaboodle. She got back home and found that the degree she'd received wasn't worth the paper it was written on, even when applying for a teaching job in a religious outfit. So she did another few years studying here in Ireland for a real degree in a real college.

Last time I spoke to her a few months back, she was doing part-time clerical work in an office.

I can see in the future though in America the Conservative Christian lobby demanding that the degrees be recognized for state jobs under various arguments, such as freedom of religion.

MrPudding · 25-06-2010 9:34am

Wicknight wrote: »

I can see in the future though in America the Conservative Christian lobby demanding that the degrees be recognized for state jobs under various arguments, such as freedom of religion.

Why should freedom of religion extend to education accreditation?

MrP

Zombrex · 25-06-2010 2:02pm

MrPudding wrote: »

Why should freedom of religion extend to education accreditation?

MrP

The argument they would no doubt use is that "materialistic evolutionary viewpoint" is a religion, and the government cannot take one side or another. They cannot just accept people who subscribe to it, they must also accept people who think the world is 6,000 years old and that dinosaurs walked with man.

This is an argument they have tried with regard to teaching of evolution in science, that it breaches freedom of religion by the state throwing its weight being a "religious viewpoint"

Yes, ridiculously dumb but we are talking about Creationists here.

Dades · 25-06-2010 2:27pm

Hmmm, I don't think freedom of religion would ever be used in the above case.

Didn't they come up with "Intelligent Design" to deflect away from the fact that the whole thing is religious based? They knew this was the only way it could ever be part of a science curriculum.

20goto10 · 25-06-2010 2:52pm

I think intelligent design is meant to be taken as a serious competitor to science. As that nut job Steven Baldwin said on big brother, the fact that you are breathing oxygen is only a fact because someone told you it is. So if someone tells you god is a fact, then why is that any less true?

And to think you used to be able to get a degree in this stuff!!

ColmDawson · 26-06-2010 12:52am

My eyes are very tired tonight — I just read the thread title as "Blow to creationist 'education' drivel".

Galvasean · 26-06-2010 8:31pm

Same difference.

AtomicHorror · 27-06-2010 10:15pm

The atheist-materialist conspiracy strikes again!

Blow to creationist "education" drive

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