U of CA Rejects Creationism

[micatala]

The Boston Globe ran a short article on Saturday last entitled University of California sued over creationism.

According to the article, UC admissions officials have refused to certify some science and other courses, particularly those using curriculum developed by Bob Jones U and Abeka Books. As a result, The Association of Christian Schools International has filed suit in federal court.

A UC spokesperson said the University has the right to set entrance requirements. She futher stated:

These requirements were established after careful study by faculty and staff to ensure that students who come here are fully prepared with broad knowledge and the critical thinking skills necessary to succeed.

The questions for debate are:

1) Is the UC system justified in refusing to certify courses they deem to be of poor quality because of the creationist viewpoint of the courses?

2) Does the Association of Christian Schools have any grounds for filing suit? What are they?

I am particularly interested in science courses, especially those pertaining to evolution. However, the article does note that some non-science courses, including one entitled "Christianity's Influence in American History," have been rejected.

I do not know at this point any of the particular rationale for the rejections, what was found objectionable in each case, etc.

[jcrawford]

I will see if I can get a hold of science books by either of the above-mentioned publishers, as this is where the evidence that the faculty and others at UC would have been looking at.

Get your hands on the 2004 edition of Lubenow's "Bones of Contention" while you are at it in order to get the latest big picture of neo-Darwinst and anti-Christian race theories. After you've read it, you can put it up on your bookshelf along with Charles Darwin's 1871 racist tract on the "Descent of Man."

[jcrawford]

Now, it seems to me that evolution is one of the core concepts in biology. It is what ties all of the rest of it together. Without it, not much makes sense.

Obviously, you are not a medical doctor for whom neo-Darwinist racial theories add not one whit of contributory data to the treatment, care or cure of any medical disease.

[juliod]

Religious discrimination and racism are the same thing in an historical and legal context

Do you have an opinion on the academic requirements of the U's of CA in light of the standards invloved in a competative selection process? Or not? I mean, that's the topic at hand.

DanZ

[jcrawford]

The word 'viewpoint' that appears prominently in the suit is ambiguous and will I think be played on as much as possible by the plaintiffs.

Yes, they are attempting to create a whole new field of legal right. That of the "viewpoint". You can see where this is headed. ExxonMobile has a "viewpoint" that they are not polluting, so they will have immunity to all civil or criminal laws.

I this case, it is the coonservative christian view that their substandard classes should be certified because it is their "viewpoint" that up is down and black is white.

This will all please the far right. They've been looking for a legal definiition to replace science in the court for a long time. Standards like "scientific certainty" and "best available scientific knowledge" have dogged many conservative attempts to evade responsability. Now the judicial activists can cite "viewpoint" as a legal means to ignore facts in favor of corporate or conservative interests.
DanZ

Viewpoint discrimination as a legal concept has been around for at least 10-15 years and has been the legal basis on which several Christian lawsuits have already been won against those who would censure Christian free speech. Where have you been for the last 10-15 years? Sucking up neo-Darwinist race theories as taught by state universities like UC?

[jcrawford]

I'm not sure why you are not receiving any warnings from the moderators, since you are deliberately trying to derail every topic you post in.

Maybe the Christian moderators recognize one iota or modicum of truth in Lubenow's theories of neo-Darwinst racism and are willing to give neo-Lubenowists as much broadband as supporters of neo-Darwinist race theorists ever since Darwin and his ilk tried to derail Christianity from its mission.

[jcrawford]

Religious discrimination and racism are the same thing in an historical and legal context

Do you have an opinion on the academic requirements of the U's of CA in light of the standards invloved in a competative selection process? Or not? I mean, that's the topic at hand.

DanZ

Haven't you garnered the fact that I think that the UC admission officers are a bunch of neo-Darwinist racists yet? Don't tell me that you still subscribe to neo-Darwinist racial subdivisions of the whole human race into several different and 'separate species' which progressively evolved from inferior forms of non-human species of African apes!

No wonder you don't know what's going on or can't define the meaning of race or racism for public consumption.

[Cathar1950]

Dejavue any one?

jcrawford wrote:

This is a long post so suffice it to say that there is no 'scientific' evidence that Creation teachers are "talking at you" rather than involving you with neo-Darwinist racist theories of African people originating and evolving from African ape ancestors before Asians and Europeans did.

So are you saying the asians and Asians and Europeans evolved from diffrent apes or at the same time.
The law suit will not hold up!
I bet even the Christian lawyers don't use Lubenow book in their case.
jcrawford wrote:

Lubenow points out in his published thesis on neo-Darwinist racism, that racism may be based on religious discrimination and vice-versa, as is well documented in history. Since UC has been charged with religious discrimination, I am fully justified in asserting my opinion that the UC admissions policies in this case are also racist.

You are quite right and I agree with your legal opinion here wholeheartedly. By the same token though, neither do Christian Americans, African Amercans or any other Americans have to believe in UC's teachings, applications and admissions policies based on Darwin's racist theories that African people evolved, mutated and descended from some common ancestor of non-human African apes once upon a time in Africa by 'natural selelection.'

His book is not a Thesis it a book.

Christian Americans, African Amercans or any other Americans don't belive in his book. Some might but they are ignorent. His will never come up in the law suit so what is it doing here?

[micatala]

I don't make this request lightly, as I believe in hearing all points of view and responding to each individuals posts "at face value." However, given the history of posts by jcrawford in this thread and in the Bones of Contention thread, I would humbly suggest those of us in this thread ignore his posts, either by adding him to the ignore list, or just bypassing them.

[micatala]

Whether the Calvary Chapel school is accredited or not, we should still consider the evidence provided by the texts themselves.

If they are accredited, this evidence will be the principle evidence that UC would want to bring forward. If they are not accredited, UC could also point to that fact and to the underlying reasons for the non-accreditation.

[Jose]

The suit indicates that the texts are printed by such places as Bob Jones University Press. It's instructive to look at the sample chapter of their Biology text. Frankly, it gives me the willies. As an admissions officer (which I'm not), I'd reject any courses based on this text, too. Not only does it say outright that one of the most fundamental of biology's basic theories is "absurd," it has a lot of outright misrepresentation in it. It has a lot of non-science, non-biology Christian stuff in it too, but that's not the problem. The problem is the omission and misrepresentation of science, and the statement--as fact--that one should replace this scientific gibberish with Christian faith. With such a background, there's no way students would be prepared for the biology courses at UC.

..and skip that racism stuff. It belongs in the Bones of Contention thread, and need not be considered here at all.