Sheryl Berklacy

Recent Activity

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  Sheryl commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Petition: Thank Politicians Who Say "No" to Creationists

  Creationism is not science and should not be taught alongside evolution.
  
  It is one of many creation stories. Public schools should not promote religion.There are religious studies classes. There are religious schools who teach only creationism. Churches have schools and universities. They don't pay taxes despite the fact that their local school districts lack funding.
  
  Can't you see the can of worms this would open? How many religions do you think are in this country? How many creation stories do you think there are? How do you propose the government choose which ones to promote?
  
  I am alarmed about the unwarranted religious intrusions into our lives. The last thing we need is a theocratic government and another Dark Ages.

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  Sheryl commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Petition: Thank Politicians Who Say "No" to Creationists

  You should watch a great documentary by Bill Maher called Religulous.

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  Sheryl commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Petition: Thank Politicians Who Say "No" to Creationists

  Dr. Gotelli's meaning is clear. Creationism is not science and should not be taught alongside evolution.
  
  It is one of many creation stories. Public schools should not promote religion.There are religious studies classes. There are religious schools who teach only creationism. Churches have schools and universities. They don't pay taxes despite the fact that their local school districts lack funding.
  
  Can't you see the can of worms this would open up? How many religions do you think are in this country? How many creationist stories do you think there are? How would you choose which ones to promote?
  
  I am alarmed about the unwarranted religious intrusions into our lives. The last thing we need is a theocratic government (another Dark Ages.)
  
  

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  Sheryl commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Petition: Thank Politicians Who Say "No" to Creationists

  To quote an excerpt from Dr. Nick Gotelli:
  "Academic debate on controversial topics is fine, but those topics need to have a basis in reality. I would not invite a creationist to a debate on campus for the same reason that I would not invite an alchemist, a flat-earther, an astrologer, a psychic, or a Holocaust revisionist. These ideas have no scientific support, and that is why they have all been discarded by credible scholars. Creationism is in the same category.
  
  Instead of spending time on public debates, why aren't members of your institute publishing their ideas in prominent peer-reviewed journals such as Science, Nature, or the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences? If you want to be taken seriously by scientists and scholars, this is where you need to publish. Academic publishing is an intellectual free market, where ideas that have credible empirical support are carefully and thoroughly explored. Nothing could possibly be more exciting and electrifying to biology than scientific disproof of evolutionary theory or scientific proof of the existence of a god. That would be Nobel Prize winning work, and it would be eagerly published by any of the prominent mainstream journals.
  
  "Conspiracy" is the predictable response by Ben Stein and the frustrated creationists. But conspiracy theories are a joke, because science places a high premium on intellectual honesty and on new empirical studies that overturn previously established principles. Creationism doesn't live up to these standards, so its proponents are relegated to the sidelines, publishing in books, blogs, websites, and obscure journals that don't maintain scientific standards.
  
  Finally, isn't it sort of pathetic that your large, well-funded institute must scrape around, panhandling for a seminar invitation at a little university in northern New England? Practicing scientists receive frequent invitations to speak in science departments around the world, often on controversial and novel topics. If creationists actually published some legitimate science, they would receive such invitations as well.
  
  So, I hope you understand why I am declining your offer. I will wait patiently to read about the work of creationists in the pages of Nature and Science. But until it appears there, it isn't science and doesn't merit an invitation."

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  Sheryl signed the petition | almost 3 years ago

  Thank Two Lawmakers for Saying No to Creationists