Greg the White wrote:

One thing I never considered until now is the teachers and teachers' union. We always hear about students and parents being offended, but what about teachers wondering about their jobs? If a religious club at school is growing, and there are lots of prayers being tossed around during school hours, does a science teacher feel like they're being pressured by another force? This can cause problems with the union who would want some kind of faith argument stopped ahead of time. Something for me to think about.

I'm confused, if there's a religion club at the school and such, why would this impact science class? I can't help but feel like you're running off a lot of assumptions, none of which you mentioned.

Eddie_Hyde wrote:

Dr. Jeebus wrote: Greg the White wrote: One thing I never considered until now is the teachers and teachers' union. We always hear about students and parents being offended, but what about teachers wondering about their jobs? If a religious club at school is growing, and there are lots of prayers being tossed around during school hours, does a science teacher feel like they're being pressured by another force? This can cause problems with the union who would want some kind of faith argument stopped ahead of time. Something for me to think about. I'm confused, if there's a religion club at the school and such, why would this impact science class? I can't help but feel like you're running off a lot of assumptions, none of which you mentioned. What Greg means is that a club could grow powerful enough to affect somebody's job, say the science teacher is being pressured/threatened into teaching creationism over evolution, and this would piss off the union.

See, we have no evidence anything like that is the case though. It's certainly possible and if so would be wrong (Creationism belongs only in religion and philosophy classes, not science class; science class is reserved for things that can be proven to be true or false, not things that are impossible to prove one way or the other), but nothing in this story even hints that such a thing was possible. That scenario is also based on the assumption that the mere existence of a religious club is a threat and that they will by definition be trying to force their beliefs upon others. There is no evidence of that in the news story, nor is there even anything making that implication without evidence. I don't see why that whole "innocent until proven guilty" thing that our courts use shouldn't apply to a simple, and most likely harmless, school club.

UsaSatsui wrote:

Creationism and Natural Selection* are not mutually exclusive. I am sick of people who say otherwise. *I'm also sick of people who call it "Darwinism".

I agree completely, but I don't think anyone was saying that they were mutually exclusive here.

Greg the White wrote:

Dr. Jeebus wrote: Greg the White wrote: One thing I never considered until now is the teachers and teachers' union. We always hear about students and parents being offended, but what about teachers wondering about their jobs? If a religious club at school is growing, and there are lots of prayers being tossed around during school hours, does a science teacher feel like they're being pressured by another force? This can cause problems with the union who would want some kind of faith argument stopped ahead of time. Something for me to think about. I'm confused, if there's a religion club at the school and such, why would this impact science class? I can't help but feel like you're running off a lot of assumptions, none of which you mentioned. I meant that it influences an atmosphere. Some school sports, for example create an atmosphere that welcomes people in, and soon students are leaving classes for pep rallies, some kids get to leave school early for games, the community holds fund raisers, and it becomes a part of the school's atmosphere. This can apply to any club, and one that has a significant religious movement can affect how students and faculty view how their faith and study should interact with one another.

I disagree completely that this can apply to any club. this only applies to acivities with scheduled, competitive events involving more than one school. no one gets to leave shool early to prepare for Latin club because they can meet anytime.