"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

~Voltaire (1694 - 1778)

This is great! I always wanted to get a degree in bullshit.

An "educated" idiot is still and idiot.

I guess those pictures of dinosaurs saddled up and men riding off into the sunset would be real nice.

I'm "from" Texas. Left for college and never went back. Not a bad place to be "from", but it's a weird place -- and getting weirder from what Mother tells me.
But I really don't care if the "creationists" open a school or not. Actually it's even better that they do since it will assure a reasonable job for those of us who actually know what science is. (Maybe it should b e considered a "Theological Seminary". Makes more sense that a technology institution!)
But then my view of "intelligent design" is that the "designer" was/is the ET aliens [of Roswell fame!] who have been popping in and out of human history for a million years or so. Hey! SOMEBODY had to build the pyramids.

This might not be such a bad thing- it would be nice to have someone fully learned in whatever scientific evidence there is for a creation theory. That doesn't mean students have to believe that Adam rode a T-Rex to work or ate Brontosaurus burgers, but there are certain scientific findings which are nearly or completely unexplainable by current scientific principles that may be better informed through "creation science." After all, the head of the US Genome mapping project found God through the event, because he felt that such precision and complexity was a testament to a higher being.

First-let bush retire to Crawford...
second-cede Texas back to Mexico where it belongs..
third-build a retaining wall between Texas and the rest of the US to employ the unemployed of the US...
fourth-science education improves 1000% in the US, where it is sorely lacking...
fifth-watch the US excel in science and math...

Creation science and a higher being are totally different things. Creation science is arrogant ignorance while higher beings are reality. Please note higher BEINGS and not higher being

Creation Science is an Oxymoron. You can have Creation or you can have Science, you cannot fuse them together.

And then we wonder why we're approaching the bottom of the ladder in maths and sciences. Sad, sad, sad.

So you're a Texan, eh, Beeblebrox? That explains a lot :)

Honestly, why ask why? Idiots happen, either by design or education. These folks have perfectly functional brains, but have taken an oath not to use them to actually think with.

This unswervable kind of faith is the worst thing about our species. Used properly (that is, with appropriate and periodic review), belief makes our lives much easier: we don't have to keep figuring out how to open doors -- we "believe" that turning the knob will do it.

But applied to cosmic-level topics that unfortunately DO affect our lives on Earth, belief of the unshakable variety is a definite disadvantage.

Recent survey study found that only thirty percent of HS graduates could be called science "literate." That is, they had to simply explain what a particular concept a certain science buzz-word referred to, as in "Global Warming is the term for a warming of the Earth's average climate due to accumulation of greenhouse gasses."

With that level of activated ignorance in the culture, there's no wonder that ignorance ground-zero (also known as Texas) would do something like this.

Well, I liked the graphic of them linging up 2x2. I wonder if we'll be that calm on our way to the bomb shelters?

There is no science in "creation science." The incredible thing about the human brain is its ability to steer one into believing the absurd, that which has no basis in fact and which will never be subjected to a scientific test. An example? How we got here. How the universe came to be. We don't know and we will never, ever know.

"With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another."
~ Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742 - 1799)

Will this be followed by a Master's in Easter Bunny Research?

Ok,Ok...not everyone from Texas is an idot!! Just because the one in D.C. owns a ranch here. Hey it was purely an accident!! Some of us don't claim him!!
I know for a fact that there are strange people with different...nay...should I say odd beliefs from everywhere in this country. Take a look at Washington or Mass. with it's "School of Rock"

Although I believe there is much more to us than this mortal coil, creation science is, as pointed out, most definitely an oxymoron. It is possible that a God created the Universe, but that creation would have happened with the big bang--let there be light!(mostly joking..but there is definitely more to the universe than we know). As far as our children and education, what we need to work on, before anything else, is to instill in them a love of reading, and a love of numbers. Forced regiments have the exact opposite effect. Parents should lead by example. If a child sees their parents reading a lot, it's going to probably cause the children to take an interest in reading. There's something about reading which helps develope the brain like no other activity. A love of reading usually evolves to a love of knowledge. But forcing children to read, without first developing that interest, makes them associate reading with dis-pleasure. I believe this is no accident, but part of an elitest agenda (and I have proof of this)to "dumb down" Americans so they will accept the limited, servant lives they end up leading as adults. For the rich to exist they need a large population of servants (serfs)to do all the real work, while those that know how to manipulate the system sit back and get rich..while being waited upon by their servants.

These people have made GOD into a laughing stock. And in turn they are destroying this country. They want Armageddon.
And they will use the U.S military to start it. And the military is letting that happen.
I cannot understand why the military would kill with out a question?? This is just what happened in Germany under Hitler. This country is past being stupid. Its at the point of no return if people do not wake up.

“A lie, repeated often enough, will end up as truth. “
--Dr Paul Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda

I wonder how they are going to organize enrolling process. Do the students need to take some motivation tast to be enrolled?

Excuse me, but I fail to see any value in ridiculing religious beliefs. It rather tends to distract one from the REAL issues - the loss of our civil liberties after 911 and the destruction of the Constitution. Can we stop picking fights with people who very well could end up our allies? I find the motives of this reporter highly suspect. An excellent way to perpetuate infighting over a real NON-ISSUE amongst the hostages (most of the American people) to a renegade regime at the beck and call of powers who wish only to enslave. Might I suggest that offering academic alternatives to the mind-numbing Darwinist science and pseudo-sciences such as psychiatry and eugenics, so cherished by the Nazis of old, is not a cause for concern amongst real progressives.

Beam me up Scottie, but mythology and superstition, and dogmatic behavior NEED and MUST be ridiculed. Just as any lie must be addressed in a similar way.

Guess what Scotty G - Religion was the cause of 9-11. Religion put the Bush regime into power. Religion was instrumental destroying America from the inside. Religion deserves to be ridiculed if not eradicated.

"History furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes." - Thomas Jefferson

In the beginning, God became the heavens and the earth.

Why not? We have African studies, Chicano studies, woeman's studies.

The first verse in the Bible is incorrect. The original translation is In the beginning Gods (Elohim) created the earth. Science is the most accurate study we have. Let the Scientist create the education standards not a group of religious non science people.

I read as many comments as I could stomach. Spelling,grammar,logic,etc. etc. We have discovered "Texas"...it be us !

hmmm send texas back to Mexico where it belongs huh? WOW! Last time i checked, we kicked the crap out of mexico to gain our freedom and joined with the USA, the US did not acquire us in anyway!

Most of the comments left here show much more ignorance on the part of the commenting public than the intended target of the article.

Texas is a very nice place to live. I don't agree with the college or this degree, so I won't take the class. It's that simple. But to make sweeping generalizations about the state based off this shows that the only devolution is on the part of the public at large.

Stop reading blogs and go out and experience the real world to fill your mind. Speak because you have something to say, not because you feel like you have to say something.

But you would be surprised at who really needs to wake up.

I have friends in Texas - there are good people all over this country. That also does not dismiss the inane degree. The only reason Texas is part of the story is because the story is about the "Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board" - an obvious oxymoron if ever there was.

A degree in "creation" is just a silly notion that strains to portray mythology as science. That is not just a class to pass on it is nonsensical - no matter in which state.

The only state board that should entertain a degree in creation is the state of insanity.

The condemnation of content should be directed at the specific post or it is just a broad-brush stroke - a general non-specific insult - kind of what you are trying to condemn?

Maybe everybody should stop reading blogs and get out more - that is not for me to say but you could be a bit more tolerant if you anticipate tolerance for your point of view too.

"There are people who read too much: the bibliobibuli. I know some who are constantly drunk on books, as other men are drunk on whiskey or religion. They wander through this most diverting and stimulating of worlds in a haze, seeing nothing and hearing nothing." ~ Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956)
U. S. Editor and Critic.

SO WTF, ok this whole creationism revolution needs to be addressed quickly they are about as bad as the scientology brain washing bullshit, now these psychos can get a masters degree in bullshit science? that is spitting in my face along with everyone else in the science community. i am a religious man but this crap needs to stop. the cults are starting to take over and i personally believe that both of these basterdising cults need to be out lawed. enough is enough.

Science have experiment based methods to investigate the reality. Scientific methods heavily rely on the replicabilty of the experiments. Hence a result of a sole experiment is never accepted as a scientific proof - every result needs confirmation from several independent sources, repeated on similar circumstances.
The use of scientific methods on a religious subject is quite ridiculous - nothing could be proved on scientifical terms because any of religious events couldn't be repeated at all. Science and religion are quite different approaches of the reality, and it's not on the religion's advantage he needs scientific tools to prove whatsoever.
In this terms the Big Bang is a theory and nothing else, but there are so many scientifical facts I could repeat myself if I'm in doubts. Anyway, I accept many of them, because they ARE scientific proofs - proved and confirmed so many times. Every brick of the science edifice is so strongly built on his place, it's not quite easy to demolish.
That's why I like science - because I could be on doubt anytime.

It's not a masters in science, it's a masters in SCIENCE EDUCATION. So basically they authorized a school which is going to pump out a steady supply of masters-weilding science teachers for our public schools.

"And on the third day God created rifles so that man could hunt the dinosaurs."

Creationism is correct. Those that don't see how this is possible are not seeing the entire picture. Kind of like looking at a person's physical body and not acknowledging the ability of a person to think, because they cannot observe thoughts as physical objects. So while this person is attempting to describe the thought process, you go on a tangent and scoff about there is no such thing as thought because you can't see or observe them(yes minus the cat scan) Go here to get a pdf(not a virus) and you will see:
http://thesteelo.com

So, can someone explain what's wrong with this? I mean, there is an inherent flaw in it of believe an answer before asking the question, but if it's taught properly and correct methods and controls are followed this bias can be all but eliminated. I think half the point of studying it is having a believe, and wanting to fill the questions with answers where they can be found.

Besides, Godwin's Law should have been enforced three days ago.

Re: over you

Creationism is not correct. We have the fossils to prove it. This doesn't rule out Intelligent Design or similar theories, in fact as noted above can even support it.

However the theory that the world has a fixed age which is only four digits and that man shared the earth with dinosaurs is simply a fairy tale created to indoctrinate young children before they become educated enough to scoff at such a notion. It's indeed "junk science" and has no place in a real classroom, most especially a public school.

If anyone from the scientific community is reading this, you must know that when America descends into this dark age of superstition you will all be welcome here in Europe.

Alas, Szkeptik by then emigration will be deemed a "threat to national security" due to concerns over [redacted] national security reasons [redacted] terrorism.

That would be a pity. :(

Although I'm a bit more concerned about the nuclear arsenal, and how easily it will be used when everyone thinks it's the will of God.

"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind." ~ Albert Einstein

Nukes? I'm sure by then we'll have stronger weapons featuring DinoPower(TM) technology, which utilizes dinosaur relics preserved by Noah himself which he obtained by riding atop a large Brontosaurus.

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men." ~ Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love, 1963

I'm sure 'Creation Science' actually means the study of evolution-for which all available scientific evidence fits nicely. I don't seriously believe that any institution would voluntarily shred their academic credibility by indocrinating with the religious nonsense of the totally unhinged fundementalist members of a crazed cult. The religious nuts sometimes really do scare me.

Ok, that was a bit funny, but I was totally serious. Do you or anyone else here think, that if this trend continues we will have an open theocracy with nutjobs who think the universe is here for them and they can hasten the return of Jesus or whatever if they nuke Jerusalem and some other places for the fun of it?

"think the universe is here for them"

Too late, the theocracy is here. "Them" being the xenophobic war loving "Christians" . . .

Too true to be funny.

Dr. Collins might have 'found God' as you say, but he also found the universe was formed 14 billion years ago (creationism states it started 6000 years ago) and that our DNA, 98.4% the same as primates, alows for probable evolution from apes.

Unbelievable, how can one have a degree in a non-existent field?

I thought the creation museum was a joke, and now this?

what is the world coming to when science ceases to be science?

When are people going to get that "creation science" cannot be a science for one simple reason: it is not testable.

SCIENCE AND RELIGION

The only way to reconcile science and religion is to create something which isn't science or something which isn't religion.

Christian theology is not only opposed to the scientific spirit; it is opposed to every other form of rational thinking.

~ Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956)
U. S. Editor and Critic.

Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure."

~ H L Mencken

Alright..I don't believe all this is as complicated as everyone is making it sound. First of all, I'd like to say the idea of Creation Science as a degree is a terrible idea. Although, yes, science CAN prove creationism (OMG, no he didn't). However, the other half of religion is faith and that is the part so many of you find "ridiculous" and so hard to understand.

But that is not the point, you see, all the 'scientific' evidence and facts are completely how one interprets them. For example, someone mentioned fossils showing that the earth is millions of years old. However, when scientists conclude to such dates, they measure the rocks around the fossils. The actual fossils contain DNA-molecules and sometimes even dried blood (anyone see Jurassic Park/remember the possible Woolly mammoth clone?). If dinosaurs did in fact, walk the earth millions and millions of years ago, this would not of been possible. But once again, in the eye of the beholder, you "see" it on the basis of your beliefs.

Let's see, this country was founded by a central belief of freedom. The founding fathers, Christians, and "under God" pulled through with the American Revolution and all that good stuffing. Not to neglect the failing status of America today, but this cannot be blamed on religion. Take a look around. America is falling because people today no longer follow the beliefs and foundations that held this country, once so strongly.

There is so much more to share. But if you guys would just be a little more open-minded and see both sides. The fact is, your perspective of religion is altered by such ideas. Theology aside, there is such much SCIENCE, behind this belief, this faith.

If you're curious..
http://www.answersingenesis.org/
Take it as casual reading..Look around. Skip the bible verses if you like, but that just leaves the science for you. I was surprised by this as well. I once thought the same way many of you did.

It's called an M.B.A.

"The actual fossils contain DNA-molecules and sometimes even dried blood (anyone see Jurassic Park.."

Wow. Now I... I... Ok, I can't believe you just cited the story of Jurassic Park as factual evidence for creationism.

Way to jump the gun with an alarmist title. Thanks for spreading misinformation. Hooray for you, dumbass.

One of the most irrational of all the conventions of modern society is the one to the effect that religious opinions should be respected. ...[This] convention protects them, and so they proceed with their blather unwhipped and almost unmolested, to the great damage of common sense and common decency. that they should have this immunity is an outrage. There is nothing in religious ideas, as a class, to lift them above other ideas. On the contrary, they are always dubious and often quite silly. Nor is there any visible intellectual dignity in theologians. Few of them know anything that is worth knowing, and not many of them are even honest.

The most curious social convention of the great age in which we live is the one to the effect that religious opinions should be respected.

We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the same sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.

~ H L Mencken

more:
http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/mencken.htm

Not everyone from the State of Texas is a complete idiot, the problem is
those that are, are usually in charge. They reside on the school boards,
they sit on the home-owner association boards, masses of them get together and elect a head-idiot to lead them.

Texas is very much a Bible-Thumper state. These folks absolutely lose
their minds if you dare question their faith. Heh, I tried to tell em
that Christmas was originally a pagan holiday the Church couldn't suppress,
so it assimilated it and turned it into the birthday of Jesus.

Man, I couldn't have got a better reaction if I had sprouted horns, wings
and a tail and began flapping around the room. :)

The religious folk just flat scare me. The really scary thing is they
outnumber the rest of us who are a little bit more realistic in the way
that we think.

Since the dawn of our species, we have attributed that which we do not
understand to 'Magic' or the work of the 'Gods'. How many of those deities
now sit on the trash pile of mythology ? Most of them actually. Are we
really that arrogant to believe that every other human being in the past
was wrong and that the ( insert your religion here ) way is the right one ?

That every human being prior to Christianity is going to burn in hell for
eternity ? That your eternal life is measured solely on a lifespan of
60-90 years ? Are you kidding me ?

They don't realize that had they been born a few thousand years ago, their
belief system would probably be a bit different than the one they cling to
today. . . . .

Religion is all about control. At some point in our past, the threat of
death lost it's teeth as it was preferable to a very miserable existence
at the time. Enter religion. Do as we say or you'll suffer for eternity
after you die !!

Please.

If you want to believe that line of bull**** go right ahead. Do not,
however, try to put it into the schools and spread this stupidity any
more than it already is. We would like to see the next generation grow
up into intelligent adults, not blathering idiots who seek advice from
invisible entities in the sky. . . .

As one of the minority residents of Texas ( Athiest, with an IQ ~140 )
please accept my apologies for a State that could be amazing, but chooses
to be nothing more than an idiot magnet.

PS- No amount of apology on this planet could make up for our most
spectacular failure. One George W. Bush Jr. As punishment, Texas
shouldn't be allowed to vote for the next twenty years. . . .

I've got my thesis!

GOD DID IT.

Where's my Masters?

Creationism is totally true, and anyone who disagrees should read the bible, which is the word of god, because it says so.

I taught school in Texas for 4 years and can testify that things there are certainly fouled up. Where do people think that the failed test program for "No Child Left Behind" was run? Why, G.W. got it started in Texas and it was the same BS there as it now is nationally. It comes as no surprise to me that this "Creationist Science" degree will be tested there first. My father was a Christian first and a Science teacher second, but he never let his beliefs in God and the bible interfere with the pure science he taught. And while it did, on occasion, present conflicts in thinking, he was mature enough to separate the 2 and intelligently think beyond "blind belief."

Am glad I moved my family back north of the Red River. And considering the sorry state of public education that I was being forced to be a part of, I am once again happy to have left that mess behind.

Why do so many of you have your feet planted firmly in mid-air?

Does 'doctrine of tolerance' only apply to the things *you* can tolerate?

sic transit gloria mundi..

Wow! Texas is now like one of those middle eastern countries.

Maybe they can follow up with a degrees in Astrology and Alchemy.

Maybe they can follow up with a degree in Astrology and Alchemy.

Will someone please send these nutters the transcripts from the Dover Trials? "Creation science" is a fraud, and has been proven to be such in a court of law, case closed.

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/dover/kitzmiller_v_dover.html

There ya go!

to 'aProgressivefromTexas':

For the record, tolerance is a good trait. However, I believe that the most important tolerance is of diversity in people due to their intrinsic variation, i.e., ethnicity, sexuality...

I don't feel I need to avoid criticizing IDEAS that people have if they indirectly lead to the institutionalising of intolerance, such as in most organized religions. So the gloves are off on this one, as far as I'm concerned. If you want to ignore science, convince yourself that the INTIRE science community is involved in a MASS CONSPIRACY to undermine the 'TRUTH' of the world being a few thousand years old and created in a week, I think you can take a little heckling. It's the price of being foolish.

While i dont beleive in ID or creationism for a second i dont think its strange you can get a masters in the subject seeing as you can get a degree in most anything these days.

Heck there is even professorship in parapsychology in one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Sweden. Lund University.

If you want a degree in Mikey Mouse, then dont let me stop you.

At least Mickey Mouse is real.

"I believe in an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out."
~ Arthur Hays Sulzberger

"The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."
~ John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963)

Marx condemned the sexual freedom advocated by Fourier and Saint-Simon as a relapse into a "bestial" state of "universal prostitution". Engels condemned homosexuality among men of ancient Greece in two separate passages of The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State, describing it as "morally deteriorated", "abominable", "loathsome" and "degrading". Marx apparently shared Engels' views, writing that "the relation of man to woman is the most natural relation of human being to human being" and describing the author of a text promoting sexual freedoms as "that queer prick" ("Schwanzschwulen"). According to the socialist writers Hekma, Oosterhuis and Steakley, Marx and Engels saw any form of sexuality outside of a monogamous heterosexual marriage as a kind of degeneracy fostered by capitalism, which could be cured by socialism. According to Engels, "natural moral principles" would flourish in the socialist future, when (heterosexual) "monogamy, instead of declining, finally becomes a reality — for the man as well, and homosexuality would simply disappear.
August Bebel's Woman under Socialism (1879), the "single work dealing with sexuality most widely read by rank-and-file members of the SPD," was even more explicit in warning socialists of the dangers of same-sex love. Bebel attributed "this crime against nature" in both men and women to sexual indulgence and excess, describing it as an upper-class, metropolitan and foreign vice.

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

~Voltaire (1694 - 1778)

Well said but not for the purpose you intended.

Teach someone they are an animal and they'll behave like one.

You are right Ian.

"The only really respectable Protestants are the Fundamentalists. Unfortunately, they are also palpable idiots..."

~ H L Mencken

"The believing mind is externally impervious to evidence. The most that can be accomplished with it is to induce it to substitute one delusion for another. It rejects all overt evidence as wicked..."

H L Mencken

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."

~ Steven Weinberg (1933 - ), quoted in The New York Times, April 20, 1999

Matt, Re: over you

The only thing that a fossil proves is that something once lived, and died. It does not prove that it descended from another kind of animal, or that a completely different kind of animal descended from it. The only kind of "evolution" that is provable and observable (thus, making it scientific) is MICRO-evolution. An example of micro-evolution is dogs and wolves being related, or house cats and tigers being related. But these MINOR adaptations do not prove that humans evolved from some completely different animal. THAT can't be proven. Why? Because it has never been observed.
What Creation Science teaches is how the "science" behind evolution THEORY doesn't prove anything. It also examines the "evidences" provided to students that have been disproven years ago, but are still found in our kids' textbooks today. (Ernst Heikl, peppered moth hoax, to name just two) It simply provides another THEORY as to how we got here.

My guess is that most of the people rediculing this couldn't even defend the evolution theory in which they believe.

Capt: Reading your quote, "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities," immediately remindeded me of the 9 million killed during the Holocaust and the 70 million killed during the communist regime in the Soviet Union. Neither of these genocides had to do with religion. In fact, the communist teaching was very atheistic and many religious people were of those 70 million killed.

Marx was right, Rebecca.

{"Marx was right, Rebecca."}

About what?
Socialism being a cure for homosexuality?

Nadia, Wow. Fossils do prove that evolution does occur. Through fossilized evidence you can see the changes in creatures over time. Fossils show the change and the time over which the change occurs.
I'm not sure about the Soviets but Hitler and his top people were devoutly faithful. They believed they were working for God in destroying what they believed lesser or non-humans. You can't evade that evolution is a science. It's not completely understood just like all the other sciences but you can't portray faith as a science. Providing a degree in something entirely founded in faith and not science is not ethical.

Baylor University has never heard of this purposed Masters program at all. Check your facts.

You understand it well, Alternate Reality Check. By the way, nakis, Hitler was a Darwinist. He hated Christians because they came from Jews. He was pagan. Dave, what does "facts" have to do with it?

Just Texas? My dear commentators, Creationists are all over US. Visit below to find one in a neighborhood near you:

http://www.nwcreation.net/groupcreation.html

Nakis,
What fossilized evidence are you referring to?

Hitler was not religious. He appeared sympathetic to Christianity as part of his propaganda campaign in order to get the support of Christians. It was successful to some degree.

Go Baylor!

Anyone who pays for a Masters in Creation Science may actually be quite annoyed when at the end of years of study and thousands of dollars, they just get handed another Bible for their trouble.