alt.education

jcon wrote:
> Thank you for ruining my day by bringing this to my attention.
> For the record, the simple statement "A civics textbook
> invokes 'Original Sin'" would have been enough for me.
>
> The sad thing is that the textbook authors are too stupid
> to even understand the irony of the phrase "lead the
> students in voluntary prayer".

"lead the students in voluntary prayer" - I almost spit laughing when I
read that line.

Sounds like this argument for god:

1) We make you pray.
2) It is voluntary.
3) Therefore, god exists.


>
> -jc
>
>
> On Apr 13, 4:53 am, buckeye wrote:
>> Egregious errors in civic texthttp://www.taaonline.net/news/index.html
>>
>> Center for Inquiry raises concerns over errors in civics textbook
>>
>> The Center for Inquiry (CFI), an international think tank promoting science
>> and secularism, released a 25-page report today detailing what it calls
>> "egregious errors" sufficient enough to warrant "immediate correction," in
>> a widely used civics textbook found in many secondary schools around the
>> country, including advanced placement courses.
>>
>> CFI believes that the textbook American Government: Institutions and
>> Policies, 10th edition, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006) contains
>> inaccurate and misleading statements, in particular in its analysis of
>> global warming and certain constitutional law issues. In response, CFI's
>> legal experts have analyzed the textbook and prepared a critique that sets
>> forth recommended changes.
>>
>> Derek Araujo, a lawyer and executive director for CFI's New York office,
>> spearheaded the textbook review project. Araujo stated that he was
>> "surprised and dismayed that a textbook used in advanced placement courses
>> would contain clearly erroneous statements about significant issues, such
>> as global warming and school prayer." Araujo recruited leading scientists,
>> including Stuart D. Jordan from NASA, to provide their assessment of the
>> book's treatment of global warming.
>>
>> CFI's critique focuses on six areas: the science of global warming; the
>> legality of school prayer; the significance of the Supreme Court's decision
>> in Lawrence v. Texas; the alleged influence of the religious concept of
>> "original sin" on the structure of the Constitution; the meaning of the
>> Establishment Clause; and the significance of the Supreme Court's decision
>> not to hear a case (what lawyers refer to as the denial of a writ of
>> certiorari).
>>
>> Ronald A. Lindsay, CFI's general counsel, characterized the errors as
>> "significant and inexcusable. For a civics textbook to state--as this book
>> does--that the Supreme Court will not allow students to pray in schools
>> betrays either a serious misunderstanding of the law or a willingness to
>> have the textbook serve as a propaganda vehicle for the Religious Right."
>>
>> CFI maintains that it is very important for civics students to obtain
>> accurate information about our Constitution, our legal system and public
>> policy issues, and that instructional material should be objective and free
>> of ideological bias.
>>
>> The textbook critique was researched and written by Araujo, Lindsay, and
>> Jordan. A downloadable PDF copy of the full report is available online:
>> Click herehttp://www.centerforinquiry.net/uploads/attachments/CFI_Textbook_Crit...
>>
>> ***************************************************************
>> You are invited to check out the following:
>>
>> The Rise of the Theocratic States of Americahttp://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
>>
>> American Theocrats - Past and Presenthttp://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
>>
>> The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and Statehttp://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
>>
>> [and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
>> Church and State in general, listed below]
>>
>> HRSepCnS · Historical Reality SepChurch&Statehttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
>>
>> ***************************************************************
>> . . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
>> respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
>> take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
>> page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
>> 256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
>> Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
>> . . .
>> ****************************************************************
>> USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
>>
>> "You pilot always into an unknown future;
>> facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
>>
>> That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
>> many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
>>
>> It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
>> plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
>> almost every media turn.
>>
>> *****************************************************************
>> THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
>> SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
>>
>> http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
>> ***************************************************************