1. notleia says:

    Wait, what was the point of this article? We go from the problems of dialog to a not-particularly-funny satire on science to a heavy pro-homeschool message.

    • Kirsty says:

      Homeschooling isn’t mentioned or even implied!

      She says parents should not “abandon our children’s education to secular teachers”. But she doesn’t say that children should not be taught by secular teachers. Rather, Christian parents should not abdicate all responsibility to those teachers, but “look at the schoolwork our kids are assigned,” and “teach them to be discerning.”

      • notleia says:

        “Abandon our children’s education to secular teachers” and “the opposition’s tactics” and “travesty being perpetrated around us” is right up the alley of the heavy pro-homeschool peeps that I’ve encountered.
        If you’re going to complain about atheists using science against Christians and/or the concept of science itself, I think it needs a better handling than “Your thought system is fantasy, like orcs and elves!” “Oh yeah? Well, YOUR thought system is fantasy!”

        • Andun says:

          Actually, “your thought system is fantasy” is a perfectly legitimate criticism to level against those who claim that science requires people to believe that everything came from nothing, that the second law of thermodynamics used to operate in reverse, and that everything we know about the creation of complexity is nothing more than a series of meaningless anecdotes when compared with the vast sweep of history during which random unguided chance supposedly developed every molecule, cell, and organism in existence. In fact, “your thought system is fantasy” is really the only thing one can say to those who accuse Christians of scientific illiteracy while abjectly refusing — on philosophical principle and without empirical evidence — to acknowledge the fact that all creation screams out “Someone made me!”

          Theists and atheists both live by faith. The difference is that theists are at least self-aware.

        • dmdutcher says:

          There are Christian private schools, but yeah, you have to be careful here. Most science really isn’t that controversial, and you don’t want to try and argue something that’s out of your depth and setting your kids up for heartbreak later. Especially with budding SF readers.

        • Kirsty says:

          That doesn’t make sense. You’re accusing her of promoting a heavy pro-homeschool message because she says some of the same things that those people say, despite the fact that her comment is clearly assuming that Christian parents will be sending their children to secular schools.

          You can’t assume that someone supports something just because they ageee with some of the same things (by that reasoning, any Christian who said ‘God is Great’ would be a muslim!)

  2. bainespal says:

    It’s the philosophers I have a problem with.

    ….But we must not categorically demonize philosophy any more than science, just because many philosophers have arrogantly tried to define the whole universe by their own terms. I think the church could use more sincere, humble philosophical thinkers, like C.S. Lewis.

    You’re right, though. We can’t accept what the world parades as truth, and I think “the world” is simply the passing zeitgist of society. We should be more diligent in ensuring that we do not compromise for the sake of conformity.

    We must be equally diligent to guard against the arrogance that naturally arises in our own hearts whenever we react against something, even if we’re reacting against something bad. Theologians can be as arrogant and blind as scientists or philosophers. Christian scientists or teachers can be as arrogant about their own theories as any secular evolutionist or Big Bang theorist, and it only makes it much worse when Christians stand on Scripture to defend their favorite theories or political aspirations as God’s own truth.

    I’m not attacking or disagreeing with this post. I’m just offering a caution.

  3. So what was the title of the book that was responsible for this posting? I’d be interested in knowing. 😀

  4. Yes, yes, yes.

    We all live in a fantasy world (i.e. one which, according to our own scientific laws of thermodynamics, implies the preexistance of the supernatural). Those who deny this reality have only science fiction for support, and their sci-fi isn’t even hard: it’s as soft and squishy as the Force. No evidence of life’s origin on Earth? “Unknown aliens did it!” The Big Bang Theory defies scientific proscriptions against the spontaneous generation of matter and energy? “Matter and energy are eternal, of course!” Information science points to an intelligent Designer? “Science isn’t about ‘truth’; it’s about what can be proved or disproved by human beings!” Men and women who say such things are not lovers of knowledge, though they may toil in labs and string acronyms after their names. Instead, the’re so terrified of a magic system they can’t deconstruct that they’ve become the high priests of a speculative religion.

What do you think?