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The Rational Response Squad is a group of atheist activists who impact society by changing the way we view god belief. This site is a haven for those who are pushing back against the norm, and a place for believers of gods to have their beliefs exposed as false should they want to try their hand at confronting us.
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I think it's pretty natural for a thinking human being who has done their research on this subject to have an initial reaction of anger when seeing something like this. Having spent a good deal of my childhood in the American South, this hits close to home, and I must admit that anger was my gut reaction. But there is more going on here than the simple cultural propagation of Bronze Age myths. This video is a glimpse into what happens every day, in classrooms all over this world - and not just in the South: lazy teaching. You can see in the eyes of the students in this classroom that the gears are turning, that they are asking questions and comparing information in their minds, and that some of them are struggling internally while others use verbal or mental gymnastics to attempt to hold on to their own indoctrination. And the "teacher" just lets them flail around in that nebulous land of dogma without so much as even offering a counterpoint. I saw numerous teaching moments here, chances to inspire critical thinking, that had I been teaching them I would have highlighted so that they might learn something. Sadly this isn't what we witnessed here. It is so important that instructors have a backbone when walking into the classroom, that they are well prepared to provide their students with the tools to think critically. It frustrates and disappoints me that here is yet another "teacher" who isn't.
The greatest battle is to engage in the struggle of the here, the now, to use the power we have within to change that without. We have within us all that we need.
i really appreciate this comment. i'm an american who's been living in slovakia for almost 6 years now. i teach english to slovak high schoolers at a very prestigious high school. i also try my damnedest to teach them to be humane critical thinkers. it's very important to me because they're quite literally the future of their country, as they're one of the first post-communist generations.
right now, a lot of elderly, unemployable, and just plain bigotted people in slovakia are dissatisfied with the reality that personal responsibility is the price of liberty and they're more than willing to mortgage their children's futures on quick fixes like ridiculous christmas bonuses for the elderly taken right out of taxpayer money. they keep the same gang of stooges in power that were in power during communism. we even have a nationalist (read: fascist) party in the governing coalition right now.
i always drill it into my students' heads: question everything. question what i say, question what the other teachers say, question what your parents say, question what the church says, question what the government says. don't fall into the brainless, black-and-white trap of nationalism. never believe anyone who presents an easy solution to your problems, be they physical or psychological. life will be hard, especially for your generation, because you're going to have to clean up a lot of the crap that the older generations are even now leaving behind, but struggling is the only way to create a lasting, enlightened society.
seriously, rarely a week goes by when i don't give that speech. sometimes i almost even tear up, but i just feel like if i beg them enough to accept a life of physical and intellectual struggle it has to get through to at least a few of them. most of them really do listen carefully and seem to appreciate it, but i don't know...
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
ok, i just watched the video. i almost want to move to an area like this just so i can be on the PTA and try to get fuckers like that fired. i hate that creationist bullshit, "oh, i give both theories equal time." do you give phrenology equal time? how about cryptozoology? how about the fucking ancient greek idea that each human and his or her mate are really just two halves of one organism that were split apart somehow? how about practical magic? there's just as much fucking evidence that passing through my own fishing nets pantomiming a fucking fish will bring me a better fishing season as there is evidence that god sneezed into some fucking play-doh and BAM! i was there.
give me a goddamn can of skoal, some faded wranglers, a pair of redwings, and a fucking ball cap and i'll go take my seat in that classroom and use the same goddamn logic for any other brand of bullfuck you please. like once again, phrenology for instance: "uhh, look hyer, thar ain't no way ah got the same shape skull as a goddam murderer, that jest don't make no fuckin' seyunce. ah mean, you c'n say we's all got the same hea-yuds but i jest don' b'lieve tha-yut. shee-yut, if his mind's broke then bygawd you gon' be able tuh feel it, shore 'nuff." boom, i just got half the class in my pocket, guaran-fuckin'-teed.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
Some science teacher. What kind of credentials does this guy have?
How can an African American person evolve from a white person? We're different skin."
hahahahahahahahahaha
Yea that's fairly moronic. Skin color is one of the more obviously explainable differences in humans.
Faith is the word but next to that snugged up closely "lie's" the want.
"By simple common sense I don't believe in god, in none."-Charlie Chaplin
That was terrible, I know the teacher doesn't want to lose his job, which is the real reason he is not telling them there beliefs are wrong. But I would say to the students listen I respect you and because I respect you I am telling you that your beliefs are not in accordance with what we as the human race know about reality. I know it may come as a shock but this is the truth and the truth is sometimes hard to swallow. But who knows saying that might still get you fired as a teacher, it shouldn't though you are just stating the truth.
@iwbiek, your first and second responses are night and day. I see in your second one you wrote pretty much what I was feeling. Having lived in the South, gone to college there, and taught there for a short time, you learn to just accept the reality that some of your students will actually say things like, "I know I have to learn all this [astronomy] stuff to pass the test, but I don't believe a word of it." That stuck with me for years and is why I stated above that videos like this highlight the need for those of us on the front lines to teach children the importance of the scientific method, and the process of inquiry, so they can apply it when adults abuse their position of power to indoctrinate them in a particular destructive religious ideology.
The greatest battle is to engage in the struggle of the here, the now, to use the power we have within to change that without. We have within us all that we need.
i don't see why my two posts are night and day, unless i misunderstand your meaning. i mean, they were responding to two different things: in the first post, i agreed with you 100% that critical thinking needs to be emphasized constantly in the classroom, and in the second post, i basically responded to the video itself by making fun of the ridiculous "logic" the students used and expressing my very deep anger that the teacher didn't call them out on their faulty logic--not their beliefs, necessarily, just their faulty (or rather lack of) logic. granted, my tongue was firmly in cheek in the second post, especially since i grew up in eastern kentucky and have seen this brand of classroom "logic" many times, from both students and teachers, and not just in the area of religion, either. still, i think they both had the same message: critical thinking must be emphasized.
and btw, just what the fuck was up with that classroom discussion anyway? a biology classroom is for learning the nuts and bolts of how life works, not discussing the philosophical ramifications of that knowledge. even in eastern ky, my biology teacher (who was excellent, btw) certainly never interrupted a lesson on evolution to ask us if we believed in it or not. asking a question like that is, imo, blatantly leading the students to your conclusion anyway. i mean, sure, some of us students did debate it among ourselves during the classwork time, but the teacher took no part in it. actually, many people would have been surprised to see that in that particular eastern ky classroom, most of the students defended evolution. i remember the only person who was fiercely arguing against it was one of those weird pentecostal girls that wear long denim skirts, and her only argument was, "i didn't come from no monkey." seriously, that was all. you might also have been surprised to find that many of the students responded with, "but that's what the theory actually says." nevertheless, her rebuttal was, "all i know is, i didn't come from no monkey."
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
If there is a god I would like to thank him that I wasn't born in the south. FFS that's some scary shit.