Decline in US education standards due to godlessness!
The solution to America’s educational dilemma is admitting that:
- For decades we have taught the lie of scientism.
- For decades we have promoted godlessness and atheism.
- For decades we have allowed concern with populist topics like sexism and racism to overshadow all other concerns, including education itself!
It may come as no surprise to learn that a website called “The Scientific Case Against Evolution” is full of odd opinions and not many facts. But the opinions given on education within the post quoted above struck me as particularly peculiar and worthy of further investigation.
If the USA has falling educational standards, what god-filled, science-hating, equality-denouncing country is soaring above all others?
The answer is Finland. Finnish schools are successful for many reasons – let’s look at some obvious and not so obvious reasons.
1. Obvious – teaching is a prized and highly educated profession that demands a Masters degree, pays well and is respected in society.
2. Obvious – classes are much smaller than in other countries (around 14 students per teacher) so these well qualified, trained and supported independent professionals actually have time to interact with pupils as individuals, and have the freedom to teach as they wish.
3. Not so obvious – children are given LOADS of room to be children: to learn with space and not under pressure. School doesn’t start till they are 7 years old. Break times are much longer than in other countries. There’s little or no homework until they are teenagers. There is no testing until they are 16 years old.
4. Obvious – education and health are fully state funded and any child in any part of the country has equal access to the same education as all their peers.
Perhaps the USA has nothing to learn from Finland, and they need only continue with the highly pressurised, unequal schooling system they have, adding more religion and removing science and equality education.
But something tells me that concentrating on the four measures listed above would have a more positive impact on their failing education system. Apologies this post ends with an opinion, but I’m pleased to have sprinkled at least a few facts in there.
Any inaccuracies on the Finnish system can be swept up by Raut, our resident star of the Finnish education system (hopefully). Any concerns about the US system can be swept up by our resident star of the US education system, Colorstorm (hopefully).
In case he’s a dishonest theist (who’d have thunk it, given how honest and Christian they are supposed to be) this is what I left under his/her post:
Can you explain why top school systems in the world are in secular countries which also don’t teach about God in school? I grew up in Canada, where we didn’t learn about God, in an extremely multicultural classroom, where abortion was legal, and then gay marriage became legal at least a decade before the U.S. and somehow we still manage to maintain a better school system. Your thesis is absolute bunk.
Also you seem to be very confused about what averages mean. Using the average to describe the state of education is like using the average on an exam to explain the highest and lowest score on the exam. It’s meaningless. We still have amazing schools here in the U.S, that can put up against many schools internationally, but we also have ridiculously poor schools and districts as well. There is a great deal of educational inequality.
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To do some additional math, in 2009 the total personal wealth in the U.S. was determined to be 54.2 trillion dollars, which mean that every american has a personal wealth of 180,000 dollars. Clearly that’s BS. Using the average to describe the state of the education system is ridiculous.
Your points here by the way are spot on. All this testing and metrics is all to determine how much money a public school should get. Education is no longer seen as a public good, but as something that should be run like a business and have spreadsheet like numbers to determine whether is a worthy school to be supported. The educational inequality creates competition among schools, prevents them from sharing best practices. The educational inequality also creates large inequality in what teachers get paid in many places, making it harder to keep good teachers at schools that need the most help.
It’s somewhat infuriating to see someone actually get it all wrong about why education is the way that it is in this country. If he/she went to school at a time when the education system was supposedly better, they certainly aren’t making the case for the good old days by their totally obtuse rant.
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Infuriating but not surprising. Blame it all on atheism when there are many other obvious factors at play. I hope other countries can learn from Finland though.
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Godlessness is a hindrance to good education. You see atheists want evolution taught in schools and parents can’t have this!
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I think I see where you’re coming from, and sympathise … but Yanks ain’t Finns, and Finns ain’t Yanks.
If comparing chalks then match a chalk against a chalk and not against/with a cheese. No?
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And, dammit — kids from the youngest should be taught the Bible (in summary, sheesh!) and a few other ‘holy’ works.
This after they’re given the Law of Contradiction, of course … then set ’em loose and see what they come up with. Boom boom! (It’s a universal …)
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Are human children not simply human children? These points are so basic (teacher training and esteem, class ratios etc) that I doubt cultural differences affect their effectiveness.
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From a lifetime of arrogant unachievement I can state that genuine self esteem can only be earned, not taught nor instilled (or freely given away with the little plastic submarine in the cornflakes packets).
For many arrogance comes with the turf—my own was earned the hard way. And I do mean hard.
Ya wanna boost a kid’s self esteem? Set the little bugger a task that will stretch his resources (but IS within his power)(that’s rather important) then get out of his way … it’s called Challenge, and overcoming challenges is much more better than giving them a little star every time they sit up straight …
Bugger, I feel a post coming on—
—thanks for that (you’ll keep~!)
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Promoting atheism? What on earth is this babble?
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Scientific evidence of flat earth I believe. No facts required, just opinions on a whim.
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Well, I see he quotes Dennis Prager and links to Conservapedia all in the same article, which is really saying something. I wish the interwebs had stuck to kittens and people falling down. These nuts really shouldn’t have a platform.
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Leave me alone, ya bully …
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Your conspiracies are gentle, like watching an episode of Ancient Aliens. Dennis Prager and Andy-most of Jesus’ parables were free market parables-Schlafly are uncut nuts.
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But in some way it’s good to have it all out in the open. Hopefully.
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No, it’s not. My mother sent me a Prager video (climate change hoax) a few years ago, saying, “See, I thought there was something strange about all this.”
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It’s good she’s questioning things. It’s good we’re all sceptical. I’m sure human beings are always learning valuable lessons and if we destroy ourselves on the way it’s the creator’s intention.
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Obviously so. Being omniscient He knew even before He created everything exactly how it would all turn out—
—Free Will? No contradiction here—He can do ANYthing, no?
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I had to explain to her (very, very slowly) that Prager University was not an *actual* university, with departments and qualified staff, rather a You Tube channel run by a nutcase. She insisted CO2 was not a problem. I gave up after an hour.
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Sounds like fun content, think I’ll have a look later on. In my experience it’s best to leave relatives to their wonky outlooks.
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Isn’t that how you ended up with Brexit 😉
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That was fun! Listened to gun control, climate change and fine tuning videos. I’m sure the next generation will be so savvy in terms of fact checking. Maybe just this older generation are the information confusion casualties while we get through initial bumps in the information super highway.
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Narrator: She wrote, forgetting the author of the post *had* quoted Prager as a credible source of information.
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Ahh, but they/we are still learning from our mistakes.
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Too late to clean up the mess, Red. It’s in the carpet.
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It’s never too late to clean up the mess. How are your dogs?
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Brother died (in my arms) last year. I was a mess after that. A week later a little pup ran under the car (it was parked, was outside a party) and the next thing you know she’s in the front seat on her way to her new home. A few weeks after that we found a frightfully sick old girl. Couldn’t say no. So, all six are doing well. Sam had cancer, but $R10,000 later (and ongoing chemo) she’s her usual naugfhty self. Have you seen your pup?
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Awww, I wish we had six dogs! Sounds like heaven. I’m waiting for a homeless dog to find us in Scotland. The official dog home won’t release dogs to houses with kids under 14 because they are potentially traumatised, and I refuse to buy from a breeder and encourage that kind of industry. Our doggy here died of natural causes last year. She’d had a rough life and was surviving on one damaged kidney, so she did well to reach 9/10 I think.
There seem to be less homeless dogs here in Argentina. I think it’s a result of social media, uniting people who care about homeless dogs and giving structure to castrating those they can’t so less are born in bad circumstances. Could be wrong though, just casual observations. Anything similar happening there?
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Yep, but it only takes a few bad ‘owners’ to screw everything up.
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Is Brother the name of a dog or your actual brother? Either way, sorry to hear you had such a difficult loss.
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This was Brother. Now he’s in a banana leaf box on the bookshelf with some composted soil and seeds to some tree… Open bags, mix and plant. Can’t quite bring myself to take him on that last walk, though.
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Oh wow, he’s gorgeous. I think his constituent parts will enjoy being part of a tree for some time. A fitting next phase for any sentient being remains.
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Agreed
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Just browsing old posts. I see SOM has disappeared, 18 months since his last post. You must be missing him. Do you remember Brandon? His blog is erased. Blogging is weird – all these people you never meet who disappear!! What if next time I come back you’ve given up? Makagutu could be the last one standing.
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Brandon resurfaced as something else. Out of the blue I had this person say “I hate you.” I asked had we met? Took a while, but he eventually told me who he was. I think SOM’s back in jail. I’ll be here for as long as I’m in Brazil. It’s a nice window, I like the view.
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Oh that’s just weird! And that he ‘hates’ you. I have fond memories of him. Although my memory is hazy. Browsing through old posts I see names that are familiar as friends I can’t remember how long we interacted or what happened.
Poor SOM, I wonder what he did. I think he’s more likely in rehab. Would you ever leave Brazil? Surely after all this time you’re there for life. Your partner and dogs would hate Australia.
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The animals are what’s keeping us here. Can’t bring them to Oz. But that’s OK. Fruit is cheap.
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And sorry to hear about your pup. She had a good life because of you. That’s what counts.
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Hey V-
U have heard me demolish the false science of the likes of magicians and clowns such as Degrasse and Nye the lying science guy.
Now here you are pretending to be deaf. Sooo, in front of a world wide audience, would u please like to explain these words and terms without the help of liars:
-sea level
– horizontal
-plumb
-a snap line
-plane
–
And please please PLEASE TRY TO EXPLAIN how ships ALLEDGELY disappear over a ‘curve’ at oceans edge at 3 miles…….
…..when ANYBODY atop K2 sees nothing but a perfect level horizon in a 360 degree look. ZERO curve.
Hello? Science? Knock knock anybody home?
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I do so love your comments. I think I agreed that it would be useful if scientists modified their presentation vocabulary but can’t recall you demolishing anything.
As for the rest, I’m not sure why all the world’s seafarers and airline workers have involved themselves in this vast atheist conspiracy with 99% of scientists in the world. I wonder what they hope to achieve by claiming we live on a sphere. Any ideas?
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TkxV- but let’s not degrade the convo by trying to defend evolution, atheism, or even Christianity, (since I am fair minded doncha know). Lol
But try to focus on defending what is provable, such as water finding its level, how ships supposedly disappear because of a curve, how planes traverse the earth, how flight routes make ZERO sense on a ball.
You know, science, things observable, testable, and repeatable.
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@ColorStorm, how is your god observable, testable or repeatable? If you have any trust in science that fits that definition of the scientific methodology, you must know, that all gods are alike in one respect – They need to be taken on faith and faith alone as they are not observable, testable, nor repeatable. Why? Because none of them really exists, perhaps? Because they are all equally not real? You know on faith any nonsense can be taken, and no matter how much faith people have, it never makes their beliefs true. Does it?
As for your problems of understanding the scientific consensus of the planet you and I inhabit being a sphere; there is a scientific explanation to your objections. It is a fairly well known scientific theory based on observation, testing and repeated testing. It is called gravity. You must have heard of it? Please, look it up. It is what keeps the water on the surface of the spherical planet. It explains the flight paths of aeroplanes and such. It is not that complicated really, if you dare to challenge the primitive claims made in primitive Iron Age culture during a time when some other cultures had already reached the necessary observations, calculations to come to the conclusion, that the planet is indeed spherical, and even calculated the circumference fairly accurately. They tested the hypothesis and repeated the tests succesfully.
If the planet was not curved there would exist no horizon. Correct? If the world was flat, it would mean, that from your home you could see the peak of the K2. Do you see it?
The fact that you do not understand what Neil deGrasse Tyson, or Bill Nye are saying, does not equal you having “demolished” anything at all.
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@ rautakyy
Of course I understand Nye and DeGrasse. They argue against logic and common sense. They are both clueless as to WHY supposedly disappear over a curve.
If you cared to look into why, instead of also assuming what they submit, you would come to understand that what is popular is not necessarily true.
I have science on my side. They have theories. Surely you know the difference yes?
As to my god’ being observable, and testable? You are correct, THAT god is nothing, for they are all a dime a dozen.
However there is ONE GOD before whom you currently stand, and He of course has no competitors, and yes, He is observable and testable because we have His word as enough proof.
His word is good, and the testimony of scripture confirms what your conscience tells you regarding the nature of man, his history, and his destiny.
No other source material on earth presents such facts that mankind need not grope about in the dark………such as DeGrasse does as he grasps for straws.
24 hrs in the day is testable and provable, as are years. Do you possibly think that time is accidental?
Do you possibly think that an ‘accidental’ beginning of life was engineered without an Engineer?
Where in your worldview do you leave room for common sense?
As to your idea about K-2 and altitude, there isn’t enough space here, nor do I have the desire to explain what should be obvious.
But tkx for the dialog.
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Have you travelled much outside the continent of North America ColorStorm? I don’t know if you’re familiar with the globe of earth as it is currently understood by most? I’ve travelled all the way around it on occasion, and annually travel from the northern to the southern hemisphere. I’m still confused for the millions of people like me who change time zones and fly in one direction only to arrive back at the starting point, and observe the night sky changing depending where we are on the planet, and observe water going down the plughole in a different direction. Are we being tricked both by your god and a vast vast network of liars? Why? What would it achieve? And I’m really really concerned about ships falling off the edge….or are they magicked to the other side as if it was a globe?
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Geez violet- no wonder you are concerned-
N. America, S America, the Bahamas, Iceland, Asia, Russia, ALL exist on a horizontal plane. The state of Kansas alone is 400 miles of plane————-flatter than a pancake- impossiBALL on your sphere. Impossible according to the known theory of globular hypothesis. I don’t care what so called scientists say- I don’t care how many CGI images are fronted to a gullible audience.
As to a conspiracy? Nope. Assumptions carry the day, as well as theories which exist on paper only. People are just plain lazy thinkers, especially when it comes to things that ‘everybody assumes.’
I heard a so called learned and respected man say ‘everyone knows and ASSUMES the earth to be a rotating ball………..’ but when asked for proof of his supposed assumptions of reality, he instantly became mute.
Not ONE person alive has seen the earth move one inch. Not one person alive. Innuendoes yes. Rumors yes. Hearsay yes, all of which will be thrown out of any courtroom……….as long as the jurors know what EVIDENCE and PROOF mean.
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So airline pilots and sea farers are just ‘lazy thinkers’ who travel round a flat earth and get back to the other side by, what…magic?
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No violet. They circumnavigate, just as the word suggests. There is no north south navigation. Wake up.
Also, not one of them have seen or experienced the alleged spinning motion of 1,037 mph while simultaneously orbiting at an insane dizzying speed of 66,067 mph, which NO MAN HAS SEEN, NOR EXPERIENCED IN REALITY.
Maybe in your video world of Disney or CGI you could be so amused. And btw, not one of your readers could argue against this logic———–and win. Why?
Because you do not appreciate true science. Water never lies, and I have the mountains as well to testify that I speak the truth. Ask Everest if it ever moved one inch…………
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I must confess I don’t understand your answer. It’s nice to read though and that’s probably all that matters.
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Vi-
There is NO circumnavigation north to south- Never. Not once, Search and ask yourself why. Your answer will be much more valuable to you discover why that is.
When you when you say ships ‘go around,’ most certainly they do. Ship captains would be lost as fog though if their cartography relied on a balled destination on their table.
Not even to mention what a common compass proves.
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Is it a common belief where you live?
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In a world where reality is king, of course it is common………..
I’m afraid V not many people are interested in having their assumptions given to them as a birthright challenged.
It is quite the charge to accuse the earth of the preposterous offense of not being able to sit still, while birds fly without a care, trees grow and remain in the same place all their life after never having their zip code changed, and where underwater divers do not fear the shoreline having moved when they surface, so yeah, reality is a btich to sacred theories. 😉
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Okay, you’re funny ColorStorm, it’s taken me a few years to get it. Holiday is nearly over but a response some thought and see if I can squeeze it in. You’re patient and consistent, I’ll give you that.
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Oops went too soon, kind of makes sense…
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@ColorStorm, I totally agree with you that what is popular is not necessarily true. Then if we want to find out what really is true, what would be the most objective method of finding out about the truth? I hope we can agree that it is science. To understand science one should come to terms with the terminology of science first – right? Like what it means that something is a scientific theory. As in the theory of gravity (this one explaining – among other things – the shape of the globular planets) or the theory of evolution (this one explaining how biology works during long periods of time), both confirmed over and over again by other branches of scientific research and discovery.
You wrote: “However there is ONE GOD before whom you currently stand, and He of course has no competitors, and yes, He is observable and testable because we have His word as enough proof.” But I simply do not stand before any gods. I do not see, smell, hear or sense them in any way. I can not observe your ONE GOD. Any more than all the other gods. They are on the same level in that sense. Can you observe your ONE GOD? How? How do you test your god? By reading the scriptures (alledgedly his words) describing your god is as much a testimony of your god existing as the scriptures and oral traditions about all the other gods existing. All the gods, including your ONE GOD, are on the same plane of not having any actual evidence other than anecdotes in that test. Are they not? Reading about Krishna is not the same as observing Krishna any more than reading about Jesus is not the same as observing Jesus. Is it? I have read the Bible through and found it wanting as anything other than an ancient myth by ignorant people. Have you read it?
Since you asked: “Do you possibly think that an ‘accidental’ beginning of life was engineered without an Engineer?” I see what you did there, but I am not sure if you yourself did. Do you? Your setting of the question is simply a bit silly. Was me hitting my foot on a stool engineered without an engineer? Nobody engineered my foot hitting a stool as far as I can possibly and honestly tell. Did they? But it did happen. How pointless would my life and personal descisions become if someone had already preordained all that is going to happen, including me hitting my foot, even though I did not make any descisions to hit my foot? Accidents do happen. Or have you never had an accident? We can wittness them in our everyday life. Can we not? Can we wittness any engineers engineering accidents? NO we can not.
I do not know what caused the life to appear, but it is very likely that it did happen by an “accident”. Or more likely through a series of accidents, that had no purpose to cause life. Both cosmologists and geologists have confirmed that the one planet among trillions and trillions (the suns of we can bear wittness to every night just by looking up) is indeed very very old, so there has been plenty of time to all sorts of wondrous accidents to happen within the framwork of the physical, material universe we inhabit and parts of wich we are. If we compare that accident of amino acids forming into a self replicating formula and eventually what we now call life to the timespan we do know by mathematics and physics to be the age of the universe and the size of the universe as observable in the star lit sky, the accident of life on this one planet is no such wonder at all. About gods we have no knowledge other than anecdotes and wild guesses by ignorant people in ancient times who did not have the mathematical skills, telescopes, microscopes, or other scientific benefits we today posses, but of accidents we all have our own experiences. Therefore a god is a lot less likely explanation to the appearance of life than a mere series of accidents.
Yet, the honest man acknowledges that we do not know for sure what caused life to appear as long as we do not have exact scientific understanding of what happened, only the inference of how it was possible without invoking any unnatural forces, such as the many mutually contradicting gods mankind has invented to serve as explanations to what is not yet known. Be honest and do not pretend you know what caused life to appear, unless you actually have anything substantial, measurable, observable and testable about it.
There is no north-to-south circumnavigation as such on the seas because of the land mass of Antarctica, any more than there is equatorial circumnavigation of the globe because of the land masses of Asia and Africa. But submarines have several times gone under the northern polar cap of floating ice and even planted flags in the sea bottom on the very north pole. So, I do not see what your claim about that was all about. In your opinion, if two sailors set sail from the Africa for Philppines one towards east and the other towards west can they both reach Philippines, or does one run into the edge of the world? I am merely asking to understand you.
Is your explanation as to why you can not see the K-2 from your home so extremely complicated that you can not give a simple version of it here? Or is it because you have none? Obviously it is not as self evident as you claim as I have no clue as to what you are referring to. My common sense seems to give completely different conclusions than yours.
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Tkx for the lengthily 2 comments rautakky,
but based on your explanation of how we find truth, ‘science’ as you say, I cannot disagree more, so it would be pointless to address every other concern you make.
‘Science,’ as you must know, is subject to overt failure, as it has been proven, is proven, and always will proven.
‘Science,’ as a method, is like a weather forecaster; every so often they are correct. Yet, the ‘scientists’ who hide behind theories and assumptions, cannot even agree among themselves, therefore, your ‘truth’ statement, is not only inaccurate, it is a twin helper of lies.
‘Science’ cannot prove the earth oscillates at 67,000 mph in a ridiculous orbit that exists only in the minds of Walt Disney etc
Per your K-2 observation, you cannot even see a building a mile away in your own town because of hills and valleys, etc,- for God’s sake man, take an art class on perspective and the vanishing point.
The horizon ALWAYS arises to the level of the eye. At ANY height.
Everest and K-2 are still as death, as a testimony to common sense and facts.
I pity the climber who thinks the eagles below him are also part and parcel of the spinning globe………. and I pity the bird who thinks things are not as they appear- and I pity the climber who things he is spinning and orbiting…………….
Things ARE as they appear, and true science always agrees with truth.
Youi can keep your assumptions, I have no use for them.
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@ColorStorm, you wrote: “Per your K-2 observation, you cannot even see a building a mile away in your own town because of hills and valleys, etc,- for God’s sake man, take an art class on perspective and the vanishing point.” Are you saying that the kilometres tall mountain is hiding behind some hills and nearby buildings? With a telescope you can look at the moon and relatively see much smaller mountains on the surface of it, even though it is much, much further away, than the K-2. It would have to be, even if the world was flat, would it not? So at very least from the top of a very tall building or a nother mountain and with a help of a telescope one should be able to see the massive Himalayan range even from the Americas if the world was actually flat. Yet this does not happen, does it?
You also wrote: “‘Science’ cannot prove the earth oscillates at 67,000 mph in a ridiculous orbit that exists only in the minds of Walt Disney etc.” Exept that to be precise science does prove the orbital speed of the planet is 30 km/s, that is 109044 km/h. This speed has been calculated according to observation and the calculations have been repeated and tested again and again. Our ability to send satellites and use GPS and even n number of great big space stations (of wich you may have heard) is based on an application of this knowledge. Just like the moonlanding. Or are you also a conspiracy theorist of that event also? Is the world simply a terrible web of lies upon lies to you? How do you bear it?
You can observe the planets orbital speed yourself, by looking at the speed of the sun in the sky and by comparing that to the calculated mass and distance of the earth from the sun and to it’s size and mass. That is roughly how science works and it is not even yet at an especially complex calculation. The orbital speed of the planet is a fact, not likely to change. However it may, as new information appears. As with everything in the real world we do not know what we do not yet know, and if we go looking for answers we might always find out something that we did not previously know, that in turn changes our entire perspective. Even if there was a god who thought that they knew everything, that god would not know what that god did not know. It would be a logical impossibility (regardless if the name of this god was spelled God or GOD). Would it not? Hence, even that god could be wrong about a great deal of things. Funny. If we were to look at the moral understanding of the Biblical god, it is obvious that, that particular god has been wrong about a good number of things. The Bible even goes at length to describe some of those mistakes, like when the Biblical god totally botched with humanity and had to start anew and send the first humans from the Paradise for breaking his rules (the first humans in the story were alledgedly deviced by said god unable to even understand the rules or the consequenses of braking them), or when the Biblical god again botched with humanity and had to drown all the humans and all the animals (save few in a boat) to start anew. What is the purpose and content of those stories, if not to tell humanity, that this particular god is constantly making mistakes and tends to avenge “His” own mistakes and shortcomings as a creator on the created?
Only a coward would face reality with telling themselves there is such certainty on any issue, that their perspective can not be changed even if new information arises. For only a true coward would find the possibility of not knowing everything on some issue, far too terrible to face and would rather be reliant on some ancient truth-statements they tied their identity to. Is that not so? That fear motivates people to cling on to their truisms and rigid docmatic sources for those comforting “truths” they rely on – Especially so when the dogmas promise people they are the chosen for some eternal life in bliss? For generations and generations and in almost all organized religions this has led people to give livelyhood to various ritual experts, priests, shamans, mullahs and what have you, to remind them of the unfalsifiable, unverified and frankly made up, but pleasing promises (and titilating threats) in the alledged (but unproven) afterlife. Has it not? After all the more pleasing afterlife is merely a merchandise people buy by paying for the livelyhood of the priesthood. Is it not? An imaginary game of wishfull thinking, tradition and comfort, without any concrete evidence other than mere anecdotes.
The reliability of scientific discovery lies in it’s very malleability. That it alters according to better information as it is presented. Science discovers facts. Science does not rely on truisms, like a religion. But religions change too. They change at approximately same rate as culture around them does, just simply a few steps behind. That is why most Christian folk in the world recognize today that they live on a spherical globe. Religions always drag behind sciences because there is no divine revelation that actually provides any insight to what the world is like.
Sorry about the long comment, have fun. 😉
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Not sure why you keep mentioning rautakky ‘religion’ as some kind of proof that asserts the world is stationary, JUST AS IT APPEARS, but it surely is a bonus when scripture agrees with common sense and facts.
It is I who defends true science, where you and like minded folks put your faith in other men who have ‘done their math’ so to speak.
And herein lies your dilemma. THEY pretend to know this obscene 67,000mph ball hurling theory—— which exists not in reality- not in provable fact, but on paper only.
I’m not sure why you cant admit this. I am more of a true scientist because assumptions are a dime a dozen, and I reject them for that very purpose- they are assumptions-theories- they are not proven, they are fantasy- yet……..
………..the very scriptures which you mock- prove me correct- because there is more true science in God’s word- if men would but only pay attention.
Why don’t you read Genesis unaided by the vapid opinions of DeGrasse and belittle that which they do not understand- why don’t you look into the ‘Kinds’ of Genesis which silence all false science and godless theories?
After all, He who made the lion and the whale, knows far more than you, me, of the so called greatest of evolutionists.
I am embarrassed for any man who looks at a star lit sky, and DARES to say the heavens above are only a random act of cosmic serendipity.
True science always agrees with what has long been revealed, after all, God has been long before Darwin wore his first diaper.
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@ColorStorm, how would you possibly know “who made the lion”? The starlit sky abowe “JUST AS IT APPEARS” seems very random indeed. Does it not? How do you determine what is random chance and what is somehow organized by an intelligence?
Meanwhile in the real material and measurable universe, as science and scientific theories – like the theory of gravity – determines the stars are infact set in somewhat organized manner, but not as far as we possibly can know by any intelligence, rather by the phenomenon we recognize as gravity. If gravity and all it’s effects are by deliberate design, then there is nothing random at all in the entire universe at all. If there was nothing random at all, then the entire concept of random chance would be pointless. There would be no reference point between deliberate and chance. Would there? Do you live in a universe, that has no random chance? If such a thing as random chance does not happen, what are you talking about?
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Hi Raut ally-
As to your ‘random,’ yes, I would agree the stars above would be such, IF……… there was no continual and perpetual PATTERN, as in, the same constellations, day after day, year after year, of reliable witness to the testimony of He whose word is good , so good that we need not guess.
Random speaks to a plane flying into a building, a train wreck because of poor communication between engineers.
God is no poor communicator.
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I’ve said it before, dammit— the earth IS flat!
Just look out yer window … whaddya see? A ball floating on nothing in nowhere , or a flat world (with lumps, if you live in Tibet)?
And the call ME a dum animal; sheesh!
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Yes, can tell you weren’t actually educted in NZ.
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When I wus edjucated we didn’t have no duct tape, I was held on my chair by the cane.
Brrrrr …
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I was enjoying the nice thread above, doggies and Brazil and all that. Then suddenly, like a decrepit and particularly arrogant vulture that had consumed too much of a particularly foul road kill, ColorStorm came in and shat out a whole string of nonsense posts. I have never hit the scroll button more quickly.
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The writer of that post introduces self: “Emergency Room Physician. Student of science and student of scripture. Defending truth in a post-truth society. I believe that Truth exists, and I believe it is our duty and privilege to seek it out, amidst ignorance, frivolity, and misconceptions.”
I read their whole post, and it was a waste of time. However- they have four likes. Are they really worthy of your attention and refutation?
The phrase that leapt out to me was “fanciful cosmology”. This led me to the article cited in his note four, by an actual scientist, forsooth! That seems a more substantial target for your barbs than this poor physician.
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It seemed a good prompt to think about what does make a successful education system. You used to love this kind of thing, it was your post inspiration too. Maybe if I blogged on a daily basis it would get old and irrelevant for me too. But once or twice a year it’s interesting for me to find things like this and look at topics I don’t usually examine.
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I agree with him that values, as well as facts, should be taught in schools. We disagree about which- he calls anti-racism “Populist”, a word I don’t think applies, I find the positive value of diversity in heritage, gender and sexuality something schools should demonstrate. He now claims trilobite fossils prove the Flood. That actually makes me feel ill: I know he is wrong, of course, but his bland assertion- actually I am unsure of the mechanism, but I find it destabilising. He should not be allowed to practise as a doctor.
I like your ideas on education, of course.
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@Violetwisp, your facts about Finnish school sytem are correct as far as I know. It has been a while since I went to school and as I am no teacher, nor do I have children I have no first hand experience on the matter.
On the other hand we have religion taught in our schools. The younger generation of teachers is mostly against this, but it is still a bit too much for the politicians of the biggest parties to tackle the issue. There has been a lot of talk about how different religion classes should be arranged for the rapidly growing Muslim (and Catholic and atheist etc.) minorities, but this should not present much of a problem since the same problem was faced by the Finnish school system already right after WWII because of the influx of Orthodox refugees at the time. During the war the Finnish Lutheran church had been eager to evangelize the eastern and newly conquered Carelian Orthodox Finns into “proper Christianity” and they used some fairly questionable approaches. However, after the war, this new part of Finnish society had to be treated like humans and the Fascist approach had gone out of fashion. Now something similar is rearing it’s ugly head again as the “immigration critical” right-wing populist Finns Party (formerly “True Finns”) is riding the precarious wave of xenophobia against the Muslim immigrants. Why, their second in command is a woman who is a teacher of religion. That person is the only Creationist parliamentary representative in the entire Finland – at least who is open about her ignorance. She has also been found guilty of copying her masters degree, so she is a total fraud. But apparently even in Finland, if your leading (and dear I say only) political agendas are fear and hatred, your voters are not the sort of people who would abandon you even, if you were found totally ignorant (a Creationist), or totally dishonest (plagiarist).
When I was in school decades ago, I went to Lutheran religion classes. I would have had the option of leaving out from them because I have never been a member of any church, but my atheist dad thought it was good for me to learn what the religious people were on about. It was kind of hilarious, when I had just learned that Santa Claus is a fairy tale, and suddenly I had to deal with adults who thought, that this Jesus character( of whom I had hardly heard before) was for real, but who obviously fitted the same frame of story telling as Santa.
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I think it’s good to have religious education, but I was intrigued to read that in Finland it’s tailored to the kids’backgrounds and wishes of the parents. I think I prefer the system in Scotland where they examine world religions in general and get to understand different traditions. But the Scottish education system is in disaster mode apparently so probably not best to follow our example in anything. My sister knew a Finnish teacher who tried to teach in Scotland and found it intolerable – absolutely no trust in individual teachers to do it their way. Such a shame.
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Well, the guidelines by the national educational board are that religion class should not be confessional, but there are some teachers in backwater areas, especially in the Bothnic region in Finland who are crossing the line constantly, as their areas are almost exclusively populated by religious fundies.
There is this alternative class wich would roughly translate as worldview studies, wich is meant for students who do not belong to any particular religion, or to whom their particular religious education can not be provided. When I went to school it was new, and rarely provided. I attended it in Gymnasium (a volunteer general education prepping for university or advanced technical school. Most often attended by the age groups of 15-19) and at that time it was still a rather raw and unfinished product – at least where I went to school. It however gave a chance to learn one art that is not taught in Finnish schools at all, and if I understand correctly is highly valued in the US school system, the art of argumentation. For all my years in the religion class were a waste of time in comparrison on understanding how sound and valid arguments are formulated.
I think that at least the Finnish school system is failing the students in the most important lesson they could possibly give, but do not. That is, the use of logic. How to evaluate all the claims made by different people presenting themselves as authorities on this or that subject. A 7-year kid is totally able to assume the concepts of logical fallacies as I have wittnessed in my relatives. The internet would be a fine way to communicate and spread information unless it was filled with nonsensical claims, that most of the readers seem totally unable to evaluate on any logical farmework.
Even so, I am proud to say, that the one most important thing about school systems, that we have gotten right in Finland is as you already mentioned, the fact that when a school is struggling to reach their educational standards, they are not punished by diminishing their budget, rather the opposite, given the support they need. I think this is the sort of wisdom we need more in all human conduct. We are globally at the moment on the brink of competing each other to death, but competition is culturally seen as such a basic virtue in contrast to any evidence, that as a value base it will either die out, or kill us. We could compete on who shall be the best in saving the nature from human greed, but in the end such competitions do not help us, if we have winners who reached the finnishing line by leaving others behind. Because it is not enough if some are named the winners, when everybody should help each other, rather than compete who is the best. In competitions the losers tend to outnumber the winners. Why would we want a world like that?
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Pingback: Being discombobulated | Clare Flourish
Reblogged this on OBJECTIVE AIMING.
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To have quality education, what helps is utilizing America’s teaching system back when America was number one in the world. Hire quality teachers, focus on the basic skills early, but utilize creative lessons, not to mention vocations and interests (i.e. music, art, etc.), and hold students responsible for their work, meaning non-passing students repeat grades or go to summer school until they pass. Quality teachers means well-educated teachers who provide quality lessons, but again, the children are responsible. And homework is absolutely necessary for students to have individual time to review.
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