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An Atheistic Religious Viewpoint vs a Theistic Religious Viewpoint

COPE (Citizens for Objective Public Education) was incorporated in 2012with a specific mission to promote objectivity in public school curricula regarding religious content, so the teaching is religiously neutral. Religion, defined as beliefs about ultimate causes and the meaning of life, includes both theistic and atheistic beliefs. According to U.S courts, religious content must either be omitted or presented in a religiously neutral manner. COPE is particularly concerned when public schools present ideas that clearly favor an atheistic religious viewpoint while excluding a theistic religious view.

 

In 2013 the Kanas State Board of Education adopted the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). COPE then examined the proposed learning objectives and found they did not present Darwinian evolution in a religiously neutral manner. Continue reading An Atheistic Religious Viewpoint vs a Theistic Religious Viewpoint

Selecting Leaders with Christian Worldviews

The following article is an expanded version of an article in the November issue of the AFA Journal.

 

Selecting Leaders with Christian Worldviews

American citizens represent a number of worldviews, but the two major views are Judeo-Christian and Secular Humanism. Strangely in recent years, the dominant culture-shaping forces have been from the minority views of Secular Humanism held by the leadership in fields such as entertainment, education, and often in politics. Humanistic tend to have atheistic or agnostic religious beliefs and considers human reasoning and human solutions superior to Biblical teachings and traditional laws of God. This has resulted in a number of secular laws and regulations legalizing such things as abortion, homosexual marriage, transgender “rights,” and required teaching in public schools that all life arose naturalistically.

 

When Christians failed to vote

Christians are often surprised when their traditional beliefs are supplanted by ideas with which they strongly disagree. Continue reading Selecting Leaders with Christian Worldviews

Worth the Risks? Depression, Increased Suicides, Strokes, Cancer

Worth the Risks? Depression, Increased Suicides, Strokes, Cancer

 

Leaders in businesses , entertainments, and sports are showing great compassion for transgender citizens and treating their fight for bathroom and locker room access as a civil rights issue. Numerous opinion articles in newspapers urge readers to show love for everyone and stop discriminating against people who identify as transgender. However, we urge you to look deeper at what is being promoted and reconsider the unintended consequences, especially regarding children. If we truly love others who struggle with gender identity, we should look at what medical authorities are advising.

 

Why sex reassignment surgeries were discontinued at Johns Hopkins University medical center

 

Johns Hopkins University was the first medical center in the U.S. to perform gender reassignment surgeries. This was begun during the 1960s. Patients reported that Continue reading Worth the Risks? Depression, Increased Suicides, Strokes, Cancer

Is Evolution a Fact?

Background: A number of well-qualified, respected scientists and scientific organizations claim that evolution is a fact. Other qualified, respected scientists and scientific organizations disagree. Different opinions are also held by individual citizens, school boards, and even courts. To make things even more complicated, there is more than one definition for evolution. It can refer to minor changes in living things over time, or it can refer to Darwin’s idea that major changes in living things gradually occurred over millions of years. Continue reading Is Evolution a Fact?

Is the Word Creator Allowed in Science?

This is not the first time the mere mention of Creator in a scientific article, class, or other public forum has created an uproar.  An article entitled “Biomechanical characteristics of hand coordination in grasping activities of daily living,” was published in the on-line scientific journal PLOS ONE in January of 2016. The authors wrote about how human hands have an amazing ability to grasp things and perform a multitude of other coordinated tasks. In the article hands were said to have the “proper design by the Creator.” If the article had said that hands had been properly designed by Nature, there would have been no objections.  But because of the use of the word Creator, there was a flood of complaints as many furious readers called, emailed, and twitted their criticisms. Some called for the editor to be fired while others demanded that the article should be immediately retracted. Some even thought the PLOS ONE Journal itself should be shut down or boycotted. Continue reading Is the Word Creator Allowed in Science?

Genesis vs Darwinism

Many Christians believe the true account of our beginnings is recorded in Genesis. Now, compare this to what schools teach children about origins. What is taught in schools is not what is taught in Genesis. There is admissible and inadmissible evidence that is allowed in science classes. The explanations that agree with Darwinian evolution are admissible in schools, but the explanations that agree with Genesis are inadmissible. The key to understanding this disparity is that Continue reading Genesis vs Darwinism

Exposing Weaknesses of Darwinism

The apostle Paul saw a vision of the end times in which he saw evil spirits that looked like frogs coming from the mouth of the dragon, the mouth of the beast, and the mouth of the false prophet. (Rev. 16:13) Frogs, known for their the repetitive croaking, may be a symbolic picture of a technique that is often used to convince people that something is true even when there is little or no evidence for it. “Millions and millions of years” is one of the repetitive phases we have all heard that emphasizes the supposed age of the universe, the earth, and ancestral living organisms.

Many books, movies, documentaries, and teachers declare with one voice that the earth is billions of years old and that dinosaurs lived on the earth millions of years ago. Young children, who are invariably fascinated by dinosaurs, are routinely told this as a fact. Continue reading Exposing Weaknesses of Darwinism

Admissible and Inadmissible Evidence Part III

Admissible and Inadmissible Evidence in the National Science Standards is continued below as Part III. The condensed version of this article is published in the April 2015 edition of the AFA Journal.  http://bit.ly/1Fb7tO1

Public school students are in a position where everyone is taught Darwin’s proposal that all living things, including humans, originated from a common single-celled ancestor. Regardless of whether or not a disclaimer is added that God may have guided the process, Darwinian evolution is taught in public schools without scientific challenges and as the only scientifically accepted possibility for our origins. Attempts to include scientific creationism or intelligent design have been struck down by courts as state-sponsored religious ideas.

The case of COPE vs. Kansas Board of Education has yet to be decided. Parents are suing the Board because the state-approved science curriculum teaches an exclusively atheistic explanation for origins. Continue reading Admissible and Inadmissible Evidence Part III

Admissible and Inadmissible Evidence in the National Science Standards- Part II

Admissible and Inadmissible Evidence in the National Science Standards is continued below as Part II. The condensed version of this article is published in the April 2015 edition of the AFA Journal.

 

Although naturalistic evolution from a common ancestry has been taught in public schools for over 50 years, NGSS is more systematic, dogmatic, and deceptive in its approach than most previous standards.  The deception is extremely effective because it begins at age 5 in kindergarten. The new standards will continue to present evidence in a manner that supports the idea that all life evolved from a common ancestry. Furthermore, most scientific challenges to unguided evolution will remain inadmissible. The big difference is that evolution will be taught progressively in this way from grades K-12.

 

Studies have shown that young children from all backgrounds have an inborn natural inclination to favor purposeful design as the best explanation for life, including man.  Most young children instinctively believe that God made all living things, because living things look designed. Due to this instinct and the subconsciously recognized improbability that complex organs happened by chance, they find naturalistic evolution to be illogical – which in fact it is.  Psychological studies have found that very young children can be effectively persuaded to accept natural evolutionary ideas with picture books and visuals when they are taught these ideas at an early age. -1

Continue reading Admissible and Inadmissible Evidence in the National Science Standards- Part II

Admissible and Inadmissible Evidence in the National Science Standards

 

American jury trials are probably the fairest way in the world to determine the guilt or innocence of an accused. Time-tested rules permit the person or group on trial to be both prosecuted and defended in a way that doesn’t favor either side. The prosecutor and the defender examine the same set of evidence, but present the jury with different possibilities regarding what actually happened. Our system of justice works because the jury is given the opportunity to consider the full set of evidences, as well as the arguments from both sides before making a decision. The right to a fair trial is such a cherished part of America that citizens would be outraged if they heard of a judge who allowed the prosecutor to freely present evidence and arguments to the jury, but declared the defender’s entire case inadmissible based on an unproved and controversial assumption.

 

A very important legal case, COPE vs. Kansas Board of Education, is now making its way through the courts.  Although the lawsuit is a civil case, it has many parallels to the example of the unjust judge. There have been several court cases where Christian parents were accused of trying to insert their religious beliefs into science classes.  However, in this case, it is Christian parents who have valid reasons to claim that they are being wronged by a situation in which their religious beliefs are being ruled inadmissible while the ideas of another opposing religious belief are being freely allowed. They find themselves in a situation where a state policy seeks to replace their theistic religious beliefs with a non-theistic religious worldview. The dilemma arose when the Kansas State School Board adopted a new set of science standards known as Next Generation Science Standards or NGSS.

Continue reading Admissible and Inadmissible Evidence in the National Science Standards