The Glade 4.0

I'm not Arathain, but I'll go ahead an give my answer. Grades 9-12, in a Catholic High School.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Ditto

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

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Hokanu
Duty is a magnificent blessing because it is the sign of trust from the universe.
END OF LINE.

Interesting. Was Wicca and neo-Paganism covered? How balanced was the explaination of the various religions? Pardon my skepticism, but I could see these easily being "here are all the other religions out there and why they are wrong..."

For the same reason that we don't generally discuss the scientific merits of things like spontaneous generation, the ether, the flat earth, and the Classical Elements-- other than in the context of "this is what not to do" or "this is how we disproved X"

Wicca was mentioned, but it was accorded as much time as it's number of practitioners merited.
Neo-paganism was a bit "neo" 20+ years ago to merit more than passing reference.
The various religions were accorded time and materials relative to their influence on the world/culture currently or historically. I can tell you that those classes left me more well-informed about those religions than some of their "believers" or people who have claimed to have "researched" them.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

There's a lot of stuff to talk about.

Problems with Radio Carbon Dating

http://www.essortment.com/carbon-dating ... 37183.html

http://www.answersingenesis.org/article ... -the-bible

Problems with Primordial Soup

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Primordi ... 4402.shtml

Was there a worldwide flood? If there was worldwide flood, the billions of dead things laid down in rock layers all over the earth could have happened in a relatively short time instead of over billions of years.

http://www.earthage.org/EarthOldorYoung ... _flood.htm

I'm not saying everything here is perfect, or that I can disprove everything an old earth scientist can say. I'm saying there is something for students to have an intelligent debate about and form opinions, if you are interested in such a thing.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

We can demonstrate that the earth isn't flat or that dirt contains more than one substance. We can't demonstrate how old the earth is. I can't prove that the earth is 6,000 years old any more than you can prove its 6.8 billion. All we can do is look at data though the basis of the two general theories. So why not both of them instead of one.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

The religion class in my catholic school promoted me to explore alternative religion just cause it got me curious. I think it would be good to have a class that critically examines the different religions and their teachings in all schools. Only for 9-12 though, young kids tend to be less critically developed.

will address tomorrow

Did you read this article? There is nothing in here about a 'problem' with the theory--in fact it suggests an alternate model but makes no assertions that the basic premise (that energy-processing molecules can develop spontaneously given the right conditions).





Ok. I'm dumping anything as a 'legitimate source' that refers back to the bible as the ultimate arbiter of right and wrong. Statements like:

which is basically akin to saying "well if the science doesn't match the bible, it couldn't possibly be that the bible is wrong."

You promised a non-biblical debate. this ain't it.
The problem is that you're trying to argue a point with no scientific merit.

No one would look at all the evidence presented and say. "By my calculations the Earth is 6000 years old."
You can argue AGAINST the dates of various evolutionary, geologic or astronomic models, but nothing other than the Bible points to an actual earth age of 6000 years old. There are places where our understanding of the science is incomplete, but NOTHING here argues for a 6000 year old date. (even in these braincell killing sites you're listing)

The theory put forth in Genesis requires the human population to increase from literally two people all the way to seven billion in less than four thousand years. Not to mention spreading out from a single point to cover the planet. This is, quite frankly, completely impossible.

Technically, 8 people to 7 billion in less than four thousand years. (Noah, his wife, their sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their respective wives.)

Which is by far the least of the problems of treating the first 6 chapters of genesis literally.

I'm going to play devil's advocate here and say that this is not a condemnation of Christianity. Fundamentalist Christians who believe in a literal interpretation of Genesis represent far less of an minority than, say, Muslims who believe suicide bombing pizza parlors is the will of Allah. The vast majority of Christendom accepts evolution and the scientific appraisal of the age of the universe. This very small segment of Christianity gives the rest of them a bad name in an area they do not deserve. It just seems like a bigger percentage in this part of the world, because of their geographical concentration in certain parts of the USA where they hold an inordinate amount of influence.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
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Grade 9 specifically, at my Catholic High School.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

One of the most interesting arguments against a biblical flood is simply that there isn't enough water on the earth to completely submerge all of the Earth's continental landmasses. The amount of water on the earth is essentially a constant value, so if there ain't enough to do it now, there wasn't enough to do it back then. I think it was some History Channel program about the Noah story that I saw it on.

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Women are from Hoboken, men are from Trenton. ~ Jimmy Kimmel

That doesn't, however, preclude a localized flood in the area the author was familiar with that, as far as he knew, was the "whole earth". Pretty much anything prior to Abraham is obviously highly allegorical. Genesis, in general, is there to get basic concepts, most importantly the Old Covenant and the presence of the Israelites in Egypt, on the table in order to get to the time of Moses. It packs an awful lot into only a short span of pages.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

For me it was much later, as a scout leader, when my son was 10.

And I note a high percentage of Catholics on this forum. (I was also raised Catholic.) Interesting.

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Memento Vivere

I have local knowledge.
That sandbar was not there yesterday!

MD

Oh, that I understand. The show postulated a very different Noah than one most Christians think of based upon the fact that a Noah story is present in a lot of the pre-biblical religions/cultures in the Mesopotamian area, and that there is some evidence of a major storm/flood in the Persian Gulf that fits the time period. According to their theory, Noah was a trader from Ur that got washed out to sea when a huge storm hit him while he was in his river barge. Their thought was that the Noah story was so prevalent in the area that it was included into the Bible when the Old Testament was first compiled.

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Women are from Hoboken, men are from Trenton. ~ Jimmy Kimmel

I don't know about in a catholic school, but in public school it was balanced based on number of followers, except for the big three. These were split into the major denominations and awarded time based on followers of these. So if Baptism had the same number of followers as Taoism, they were awarded the same approximate amount of time, in theory, but the reality is that the different base religions need more time since they are so different. The differences between the methodist church and other protestant churches don't need that much time.

Paganism did not get much time, and rightfully so. It actually got more time than it deserved, as it was important discussion point in the spreading of the real religions.

It was a very interesting course.

"real religions" ?

Lighten up.

Stop being offensive.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

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"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

I thought it was funny.

It's ok. They know. How could they not? They're the ones making it up as they go.