A majority of the Pinellas County, Florida, School Board supports the inclusion of Intelligent Design in the science curriculum, reports the St. Petersburg Times.
Four members of the school board, including the chairperson and vice-chairperson, have made statements in support of Intelligent Design.
“The entire theory of evolution is not scientific fact. Intelligent design balances it out.” — Nancy Bostock, Chairperson
“I’d probably ideally like to keep it all [evolution and Intelligent Design] out of the classroom. If it’s going to create this much controversy, how important is it?” — Peggy O’Shea, Vice Chairperson
“I think that students should be given the opportunity to view all theories on how man evolved and let their science background and their religious background take over as to which one they believe in.” — Jane Gallucci, Member
“To teach one [evolution] as if nothing else existed, I think we’re doing our students a disservice.” — Carol Cook, Member
You can read the news article here.
The PCSB website states: “The public is encouraged to contact the School Board members on any issue.”
I suggest we contact the school board and let them know there are more than two theories of our origins. Pastafarianism is built on similar tenets as Intelligent Design, and has much greater support from the academic community. If you decide to write, please be respectful.
Contact Info:
Office: (727) 588-6300
E-mail: Board@pcsb.org
Individual E-mail addresses:
Nancy Bostock: bostockn@pcsb.org
Peggy O’Shea: osheap@pcsb.org
Jane Gallucci: galluccij@pcsb.org
Carol Cook: cookc@pcsb.org
Stephen, Stephen, Stephen. I hardly know where to start. For the sake of argument, I am going to grant that some entity named ‘God’ exists, even though we all know that to be false. The FSM is the only one and true living creator. But, I digress……
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Your notion that God made us to love him is so confused! Let me try to help you think this through. You said “God made us to love him, but if we are to really have the opportunity to love him we must also have the opportunity to not love him.” If God gave us the opportunity to either love him or not, then we were not made to love him. We were created (made) to decide for ourselves. Since God gave us free well to decide for ourselves, then whichever way we decide is in accordance with the will of God because we would be performing according to his purpose. If we make a choice that God does not like, that is his fault, not ours. No harm, no foul. No “sin” here.
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You said, “Follow me here. So you say that a loving creator would not allow so much evil in the world, but he does just because he loves us. He respects us enough to let us make our own decisions cause he knows we’re capable.” I know just how you feel. I can feel the love now, as thousands of children starve in Africa. When that earth quake struck China, I could just feel the love when all those people died. I am sure they all felt the love, too.
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Now you follow me here. If any parent treated his or her children the way your God treats his, any clear thinking human being would condemn that behavior. Children have free will, too, but no loving parent would allow his or her child to run out into traffic. Clearly, your God does not care about his children.
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I strongly recommend that you read “The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.” You will find a much tastier religion than the one you now have. And, in case you do not find that it suits you, we have a 30 day no obligation guarantee. You can quit the Church of the FSM and go back to your old time religion. They will take you back.
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RAmen
Wow, I remember back in June of 07 when I used to follow this websites articles daily. Now, one year later, I’m looking at what has been posted since then and I am just now learning that my home town (county) was being criticized! Thank You! I moved from that awful place last August and now I’m really happy I did. And now just hearing this makes me even more glad I moved from there. Amazing!So screw you Pinellas County!
It’s a great effort by these members to finalize a great design.
Amazing story, bookmarked your blog in interest to read more!
great… this is what i lookin for :)
Oh man, when will these people die so other, more intelligent people can take their place?
We are Pastafarians and comments like this do not represent us well. We should strive to be better than this.
While I agree with Tilted, I would like to put it out there that Pinellas County Schools is still opening every school board meeting with a prayer from a xtian reverend (collar and all). I believe the FSM would like some letters sent to them demanding equal treatment. As ordained Pastafarian ministers, we should be allowed to perform the opening prayer as well.
And the obviously highly intelligent and well educated (as seen from their statements above) Cook and O’Shea? Still there.
Seriously? I live in FL, and this is not acceptable!!! On top of some Pastafarian letters (I totally intend to write one), has anyone else been contacted? ACLU? FFRF?
Super-Duper site! I am loving it!! Will be back later to read some more. I am taking your feeds also