If this bill is voted on, and pass it will exempt private grad schools like the Institute for Creation Research from government control pertaining to allowing which private school will be state sanctioned to give out degrees in the state of Texas.
Controversy sprang up when ICR moved it’s headquarters from California to Texas. Under Texas law, the board decided it would deny ICR from giving out a masters degree in science. Previously, ICR was able to give out a master’s degree in science under California’s laws for many years. The Texas board decision was largely influenced greatly by special interest groups including some educators who rallied last year to voice their opposition.
Requirements for being eligible for this exception in this bill includes the following…
1) The private school does not accept state funding of any kind to support its educational programs.
2) The private school does not accept state-administered federal funding to support its educational programs.
3) The private school was formed as or is affiliated with or controlled by a nonprofit corporation or nonprofit unincorporated organization.
4) The private school offers bona fide degree programs that require students to complete substantive course work in order to receive a degree from the institution.
I believe Institute for Creation Research meets this requirements. The bill is great news which keeps the government and some educators who claim imperialism on science no matter if it’s a private funding school or not out of the private sector. But it isn’t science some what claim…Well that give out degrees for people to conclude some of the strangest things ever invented by the human mind as noted as an example in a recent science daily article…
“Evolution might have played an important part in the human hankering for salt. Humans evolved from creatures that lived in salty ocean water. Once on land, the body continued to need sodium and chloride because minerals play key roles in allowing fluids to pass in and out of cells, and in helping nerve cells transfer information throughout the brain and body.”
“But as man evolved in the hot climate of Africa, perspiration robbed the body of sodium. Salt was scarce because our early ancestors ate a veggie-rich diet and lived far from the ocean.”
This is like saying suppose one hears a huge bang from a distance, and one asks, “what was that big bang and where did it come from?” And gets a reply, “Nothing, it just happened otherwise we wouldn’t be here, right?” Just to think of the foolishness of claiming humans like the good taste of foods with salt (which is claimed to be “Nature’s Antidepressant”) because it’s our so-called inner fish. Quite frankly people like sugar more than salt, I wonder how that fits in with this fish story they call science.
Here is another one, yet to be discussed in science daily but could be in the future by some evolutionist, the color blue is most pleasing to the human eye, is that because we supposedly evolved from a blue ocean? Is blue another antidepressant in nature? I don’t know about you, but this sort of research is not science, I’m so glad that there are places like ICR which teaches sound methods for science!
New Discoveries & Comments About Creationism 
I would love it if they opened a satellite campus in Florida, my oldest is getting near the age to choose a college.
This is more proof that Darwinists have enough political control over the education system that they will continually make it harder and harder for creation research to be done. They like to say things like “the majority of scientists believe in evolution”, well if they prevent believers of creation from getting degrees this will be true.
I sure you could go back in history and say that before the civil war the majority of voting Americans agreed with slavery, then again slaves couldn’t vote.
mcoville,
Don’t let location stop you from sending your son there if they don’t open a satellite campus in your locality. I agree, the whole idea of having political control in a socialist sense which is what Darwinists advocate is to squash the opposition. This is why they lobbied so hard to influence the educational board in Texas. It’s easier to influence a small group of people than the population at large.
As far as the majority rules concept in science, your are right. It actually hinders science, just like the discovery of RNA reverse transcription in the 1960s. The majority of the scientific community back then rejected the discovery by saying it wasn’t science and laughed at it because they believed it was impossible. Now we have all kinds of theories that are so way out there (major story telling) compared to the discovery of RNA. When one uses evolution (the theory wants to explain everything) it allows the human imagination to run wild!
Oh well, luckily one always checks where a certain degree was obtained from, so feel free to add more types of degrees to this planet. After all, the US has lots of diploma mills anyway, so these checks are always needed.
It is not going to make creationism more credible.
So what “diploma mills” are you talking about Eelco? Berkeley? I agree that they will give a degree to anyone with a pulse.
Why does where the degree come from matter, is it not the substance of the work what matters? And creationism has been credible longer than evolution and will be long after evolution is forgotten.
No, not Berkeley. Diploma mills are fake universities (like ‘California University’) who sell PhD’s.
Kent Hovind has one of those, for example.
Eelco,
The facts speak for themselves…
A friend of mine graduated with a four year degree in teaching. Her school was a small private baptist college in a tiny town in my state which also teaches creation science. Out of all the Universities in America especially including the ones well known and have much more resources, her tiny University ranked 26th in the nation that year she graduated in academics including science. No, degrees are not just a piece a paper to private schools but students are held to a much higher standard. Parents expect more from students and hold them accountable, a lot of support for teachers in private schools at the lower grades as well than what is seen in the public schools.
I cannot quite follow your reply here: of course degrees from a properly accredited university are *not* just a piece of paper, but the ones from diploma mill universities are.
So it matters to know where your piece of paper comes from. That’s all I was trying to say.
As for your facts: I’d like to see that ranking where a creationist university ends up 26th in a national ranking. Could you provide a reference or a link ? One always needs to check such rankings as well, as there are lots around.
“So it matters to know where your piece of paper comes from. That’s all I was trying to say.”
I know what you meant, that is why I responded in the fashion I did. In a way it does, but the piece of paper containing the degree of where it came from is not the ultimate conclusion. Another factor is how well students do on standard testing, no focused tests the teacher may gave out, more like SATs. As far as the information you requested, I didn’t find the information off the internet, it was more personal thing as I visited the University, talked with teachers, and was present on graduation day watching a friend of mine get her degree and that was a few years ago, 2005. I’ll see if I can obtain anything in print rather than verbal which I got it from.
Who, or by what standard, determines which school is a “diploma mill”?
That’s the accreditation institute of a country, whoever that is for the US. But in some cases, diploma mills are little more than a P.O. Box and a bank account … you literally buy your PhD. I get quite a bit of spam from such places …
Yes, no doubt, there are places or people you can find who would take your money and give you a fake degree. I get spam all the time from anything from recovering money in another country, and pleas to donate money to help sick people (whom I have no idea who the person is, if it is a real person) to all kinds of scams.
Well California University is an accredited school according to the US Department of Education.
I am not going to try and defend the credentials of a specific person, but if a school meets the standard of the host country where is your complaint?
HB2800 is to clear up the fact that a host state should not restrict a schools ability to administer a federally accredited degree. Do you agree with this?
If you mean the California University of Management and Sciences, then yes, that one is fine.
I think the one I was trying to remember was called California Pacifica University, sorry for not remembering well.
Once we accept Creationism as a real science, we would have to accept Voodoo and Shamanism as well. I’m sure the Reincarnationists and Scientologists will jump on board after that. A fine mess that would be.
Lets explore your straw man Bernard. When a theory based on creation is once again accepted as science how would that open the door for voodoo and shamanism to taught as science?
Mcoville,
I am baffled as to how an intelligent person can even ask such a question. It is so obvious that the current creation “theory” does not stand the test of what a science is. I am not going to go into a long dissertation about the definition of science. Suffice it to say that an ancient legend passed on by word of mouth and then eventually transcribed into something called a bible, is not scientific evidence. Shamanism and Voodoo are also world views with an origin belief. The Old Norse and Greek religions had origin theories, and they were transcribed into dogma. People believed them for thousands of years. The Hindus have an origin theory that differs greatly from “Creationism”, which is still believed by millions of people today.
All of these beliefs began as an attempt by primitive people, who did not have the benefit of Science, to explain what they had no other way of understanding. Modern rational man should have left them in the Stone Age where they belong.
Bernard, Just because your creation story is newer does not mean it is better.
I am amazed at how evolutionists reject all of creation science research based on a couple of failed hypothesis even though you will not dismiss evolution theory when it has failed numerous times. Evolution scientists have a double standard that shifts in their favor when ever they want it to.
There are scientists and researchers in the scientific community that are doing work based on empirical evidence that do not follow the theory of evolution. Would you even accept empirical evidence if it came form a scientist that denounces the theory that everything descended from one common ancestor?
Mcoville, I’m sorry but your arguments are really becoming laughable. First of all, Evolution is not a “story”, it is a theory based upon tens of millions of bits of empirical data. Creationists always want to go back and argue with Darwin about his theory. Well, nice try, but that was 150 years ago, and his concept has not only been borne out a million times over by direct inquiry, but has evolved into a fully developed science. There are no failed hypotheses, just gaps in the data which need to be (and are rapidly being) filled in.
So, I would like to see you give me just one bit of this “empirical evidence” which you site in support of the creation myth. If you refer me back to the bible I am going to scream.
And please stop handing me these trite platitudes you learned from Kirk Cameron’s book about how to argue with an Evolutionist.
Dear Bernard,
that book you refer to, is that online ? Always interesting to read how creationists think they can ‘win’ debates, as they have no scientific facts to rely on …
From experience I found that creationists use a lot of unfair discussion techniques (they have to, again, because they lack the evidence), so it would be good to ses them all listed in one book …
Hello Eelco,
Sorry, I only vaguely remember running across Kirk Cameron’s book, and don’t remember the title. I know that there are others along this same vein, and I will look online to see if I can find one.
Eelco,
If you want a good chuckle, check out Duane Gish, “Ph.D.”. Also, try Robertson Thomas, he has some guides in Amazon.