Christian courses can't get college credit
Categories: Teens & tweens, Education, Religion & spirituality
If you want to send your kid to a high school where biology classes denounce evolution and where the bible is held as the ultimate reference, that's certainly your prerogative. That doesn't mean, U.S. District Judge James Otero says, that the University of California has to give students credit for those courses when they enter college.When the university denied credit for the courses, however, the Christian schools called foul and demanded their classes be accepted. Naturally, they took their fight to court. Last Friday, though, Judge Otero ruled that the university can reject the religious texts. The ruling "confirms that [the University of California system] may apply the same admissions standards to all students and to all high schools without regard to their religious affiliations," says Charles Robinson, vice president for legal affairs for the UC system. He added that the Christian schools are looking for a "religious exemption from regular admissions standards."
On the other hand, Jennifer Monk, an attorney with Advocates for Faith and Freedom, said that the University "is attempting to secularize private religious schools." Not surprisingly, the schools are taking their case to the next level -- San Francisco's own Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The thing is, the university doesn't really care what you teach your students; all it cares about is what its students know.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Karen 8-13-2008 @ 3:36PM
This will get turned over on appeal.
QUOTE: The thing is, the university doesn't really care what you teach your students; all it cares about is what its students know.
I think this ruling states just the opposite.
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Paul Cyopick 8-13-2008 @ 3:54PM
If you're taking science in university, and your school taught pseudo science, then the university has every right to not accept the courses.
If churches want to get political, they should pay taxes like the rest of us. Stop dispelling scientific facts as "theories". Religion and science can live in harmony if everyone is reasonable, but if not, unfortunately, it's the students that pay the price for the politics of religion.
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Don 8-14-2008 @ 7:30AM
Paul it should be noted that there is no such thing as a true fact in science, everything is a just a theory and what the evidence supports and does not.
Evolution is a theory that has volumes of data that supports its theory, the bible does not have much if any data that supports "facts."
Gravity is still just a theory yet again we have data that supports it's theory so it is widely accepted as true that until someone can prove the theory wrong it is considered as an accepted truth or true theory.
If anyone claims to have the irrefutable facts, they are ignorant of the reality that there are no facts, just what we know and what we don't.
Paul Cyopick 8-14-2008 @ 9:47AM
Theories exist until they are so univerally accepted as to become a scientific law. That does, of course, keep the door open to change if and when the "law" is disproven.
Just because some politicians force "intelligent design", or "intelligent falling" for that matter, doesn't make it scientific evidence. Science should be taught in science class, not pseudoscience.
Joe 8-13-2008 @ 4:18PM
Karen, it's perfectly fine for religious institutions to teach their views. Nothing in this ruling stops or limits them in the least. It's also perfectly fine for a religious institution to teach that natural selection is in their view wrong.
What is not ok, is to ignore natural selection or any other commonly held scientific idea/theory/method and then expect public institutions to accept the course. They have to teach natural selection regardless of whether they agree with it or not, otherwise that child ISN'T ready for a public institution.
And I dobut this will be overturned.
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Karen 8-13-2008 @ 7:39PM
The article says that they denounced evolution. It does not say they didn't address it at all. It also says the Bible was the ultimate reference, not the ONLY reference.
So the problem is not whether or not they have any knowledge of evolution, but whether or not they BELIEVE it. Which is the opposite of what is stated here.
Since when do Universities go around auditing content of high school classes anyway? Heck, they barely examine the content of classes when you transfer from another college.
Even if the student know NOTHING about evolution evolution, that doesn't mean they can't do well in school at the University level. It is a very minor part of high school education. It doesn't take more than a few minutes to bring them up to speed. And most religious people do not have a problem with evolution, but with origin of life arguments which most definately can be debated.
I think this was very much people with an agenda and I do think it will be overturned.
courtney 8-13-2008 @ 4:23PM
This is the kind of thing I hope is over with by the time my daughter is in high school. It should not even have got this far. Churchs can teach what they want but don't expect everyone else to follow you.
Science is a ongoing study, things change as new information is learned. Religion is always the same outdated beliefs that don't take into account the that maybe, just maybe things written thousands of years ago weren't exactly how it happened.
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one sided 8-13-2008 @ 4:35PM
I find it highly unlikely that they really evaluated all the classes kids take to an equal degree. I don't need any study to convince me that many kids who took classes that didn't sound religious nevertheless have not gained a thorough understanding of science. The question shouldn't be whether or not the class is taught from a religious perspective, but how much science the kids actually learned. Natural selection is just one tiny aspect of science, basically irrelevant, compared to many other aspects of human biology.
Since I don't believe people with disrespect for religion can approach this objectively, I feel they should go purely based on test scores. Meaning lots of kids whose textbooks contain natural selection will lose their place due to overall ignorance compared to kids who are motivated to study, whether in a religious setting or not.
I was taught by religous teachers, and was among the highest scorers in national standardized science tests. The idea that I could be denied a place in a university on the basis of what my teachers believed is beyond ridiculous. I could probably have taught some of the classes at that university when I was 15.
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