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Council of Europe states must 'firmly oppose' the teaching of creationism as a scientific discipline, say parliamentarians

Strasbourg, 04.10.2007 – Parliamentarians from the 47-nation Council of Europe have urged its member governments to "firmly oppose" the teaching of creationism – which denies the evolution of species through natural selection – as a scientific discipline on an equal footing with the theory of evolution.

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In a resolution passed by 48 votes to 25 during its plenary session in ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Strasbourg, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) declared: "If we are not careful, creationism could become a threat to human rights."

Presenting the report, Anne Brasseur (Luxembourg, ALDE), a former Education Minister, said: "It is not a matter of opposing belief and science, but it is necessary to prevent belief from opposing science."

"The prime target of present-day creationists, most of whom are Christian or Muslim, is education," the parliamentarians said in the resolution. "Creationists are bent on ensuring that their ideas are included in the school science syllabus. Creationism cannot, however, lay claim to being a scientific discipline."

The parliamentarians said there was "a real risk of a serious confusion" being introduced into children's minds between conviction or belief and science. "The theory of evolution has nothing to do with divine revelation but is built on facts."

"Intelligent design, presented in a more subtle way, seeks to portray its approach as scientific, and therein lies the danger," they added.

"Creationism ... was for a long time an almost exclusively American phenomenon," the parliamentarians pointed out. "Today creationist ideas are tending to find their way into Europe and their spread is affecting quite a few Council of Europe member states."

The report cites examples from Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Today we are replacing one of our bucket conveyers at work. This is basically a long rubber belt that has buckets bolted to it to move product. One of the parts we need to assmble this is a belt fastener, so we were checking our physical inventory to ensure we had enough and that they were the correct type. Now some of our inventory has sat on our shelves for a long time, this is one of those items. We opened the box and there was some product promotion literature in the top bearing the tag line: "CAUTION! Are you trying to join today's belting with yesterday's fastener?" With a bit of further examination the copyright date was 1977. It may be just a touch out of date.

Result Sample:

So, yesterday I was wearing my "God was my copilot, but we crashed in the mountains and I had to eat him." shirt and I was told on 3 seperate occasions that I was going to hell and once that I was a heathen. I find it amusing that peopel tell someone that they are going to a non-existent location. Religious people are just silly, one of my favorite anti-religion shirts says it all: "If you don't want me laughing at your beliefs, don't have such funny ones."

On another note I recently picked up a C'thulhu fish shirt and I get some really puzzled looks over that one. I guess I need to get a Flying Spaghetti Monster fish shirt next to really confuse people. I think a Darwin fish would actually offend more people though as even ignorant, uneducated Xtians know who he is.

Photo courtesy of Don and Joan Dobbin

Surfer Matt Smolenski, 25, right, rescues a dog Tuesday afternoon after a large wave swept the pet off the Grand Haven pier. Joe Riopelle, 24, pulls the duo to shore. Both men are from Grand Haven.

Drowning dog gets surfboard ride to shore

The waves on Lake Michigan Tuesday afternoon "were about as big as they get," surfer Matt Smolenski said.

And the rip current along the Grand Haven pier was "really strong."

One of those big waves swept a man's dog off the pier around 2:30 p.m., and it was Smolenski who rode a wave in to save the struggling pet, said off-duty Muskegon Heights police officer Royce Rodgers, who witnessed the rescue.

Smolenski, 25, of Grand Haven "was able to grab the dog's collar," said Rodgers. "He put the dog up on his surfboard and the dog rode the surfboard in to shore."

"When I got to the dog, it wasn't dog-paddling anymore," Smolenski said.

While Smolenski said he didn't know the dog's owner, he was familiar with the man and his four-legged companion because they regularly head for the pier when the waves are big.

"I've watched the dog about a million times. He barks at the waves and then jumps back when they wash up on the pier," Smolenski said, adding that he was surprised the black and brown mixed-breed animal wound up in the water.

Rodgers said he had taken his own dog, Buster, out on the pier on a leash. He said the man with the other dog, which was unleashed, came out about the same time he did.

But Rodgers said he and his dog stopped about halfway out because "the waves were too big." The other dog owner, who has a disability, continued on with his pet.

"I was just watching the waves coming up one after another, and I witnessed an especially big wave wash up on the pier," Rodgers said.

That wave caught the dog owner first and "knocked him off his feet," Rodgers said, then knocked the dog into the water.

"The dog was trying to swim, but the waves were very large. It was struggling," Royce said. "The owner was screaming for the dog."

Smolenski saw the familiar dog owner, then said something to his surfing buddy, Joe Riopelle, 24, also of Grand Haven, like: "Oh man, that guy's dog went in. I'm going to go for it."

Smolenski rode in on the surfboard on his stomach, then rolled off the board when he got close to the dog. "I realized I was not going in (to shore) without that dog," he said. "That dog is that guy's best friend."

Smolenski got the 30- to 40-pound dog onto his surfboard and he stayed in the water, fighting the strong current to get to shore.

"I got pretty tired," he said. "I had a hard time getting in myself." He was joined by Riopelle, who helped both to shore.

The rescue took "a good five or six minutes," Rodgers said, adding that he didn't think the dog, which looked "pretty old," could have lasted much longer.

Once the rescue party was on shore, the dog's owner gave the surfer "a high five and said: 'Thank you, brother,' then left so fast I couldn't get his name," Rodgers said.

Smolenski is a dog-lover himself. He has a toy poodle named "Kobie."

This morning as I left for work there was a moderate fog. This is the second day of school here so the kids are now waiting for the bus as I head into work. As I drove through the greyness watching the teens shuffling to the bus stop I couldn't help but get the impression that I was in a scene from a zombie movie. The unenthused, barely animate steps of human forms vaguely diserned through the mist gave the impression of undeath.

When I got into work this morning the first thing I find is cigarette ashes on the parts counter. Now the warehouse has been a no smoking area on the plant site for at least 15 years, and as of a year ago smoking is only allowed in limited areas. Smokers have got to be the most disrespectful assholes on the plnet, maybe only below the idiots on cell phone while driving. It's no wonder that smoking bans are continually enacted. Not only is it better for the health of the general population, but most of these assholes think they can just light up where ever and whenever they damn well please. They think it's their "right." What about a non-smoker's right not to have to breathe that shit or to end up smelling like an ashtray.

I can't wait til the day when tobacco is outlawed in it's entirety.