Reply #87: I am an agnostic and I teach college. I despise the way religious bigots

[tblue37]

keep trying to mess with educational standards in this country (and in my state, Kansas!), especially their attempts to undermine the teaching of evolution in science classes.

BUT I have no more right as a teacher to try to shove my nonbelief down any believing student's throat than a believer has to try to shove his or her belief down a nonbelieving student's throat.

I understand the teacher's frustration with the Creationism/ID claptrap. I sometimes have to deal with students trying to bring religion into their essays in my own classes, even though I teach college English. They hate when I tell them that a religious authority--even the bible or the Qur'an--is not academically credible evidence to be used in a research paper. But there are ways of explaining to them what is and is not acceptable in an academic paper without insulting their religious beliefs, even though I personally also happen to consider most of what they believe to be superstitious nonsense.

I don't want believers foisting their beliefs on me; similarly, I have absolutely no right to use my power in the classroom to insult their beliefs.

Even though I understand and share the teacher's frustration, he definitely crossed a line he should not have crossed.