Re: My local Missouri morons are at it again.

El Guapo wrote:
"George" <george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:KW5fj.32740$k27.18341@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Jean" <jean.lenior@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:477cc172$0$867$ba4acef3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
George a écrit dans le message ...
"Jean" <jean.lenior@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:477c9886$0$871$ba4acef3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A legal standard for dating is needed. Using AD or BC does not
interfere
with an university using BP in the geology department or any other dating
system for scientific use.
Umm, what part of "Neither the state, nor any political subdivision, shall
use any
other designation", do you not understand?

George


Yes I do ! It is obvious that you do not!!

JL
Obviously, you don't understand. Our state universities are part of the State government. Which means, according to the wording of that law, they would be required to use AD and BC in all of their publications. This is clearly a case of trying to force science (and society at large) to revert back to "the good ole days". It is yet another attempt by bigoted Christians to usurp secular society by forcing their beliefs on believers and non-believers alike. It's absurd (and probably a violation of our constitutional rights), and shouldn't be allowed.

OK, I agree - it's absurd. It's about as absurd as the move to stop using BC/AD was in the first place, considering that the terms were very recognizable to everybody. I mean, really, what's the big deal? Were unsuspecting non-Christians going to be subversively converted to Christianity because of BC/AD? Did it hurt people's feelings? Give me a break. I'm an atheist myself, yet somehow I still slept at night, even while knowing that religious references were defining our calendar terminology. OH, the HORROR!

I have no objection if people (even the state of Missouri)want to use a calendar based on the appearance of the Crab Nebula, or the birthday of someone's poodle. I don't object to the use of AD/BC or CE/BCE on correspondence or laws -- that's all the same to me. I don't think we've got a problem of people knowing when it is. He is fixing a non-existent problem IMO.

It is the second sentence which bothers me: "Neither the state, nor any political subdivision, shall use any other designation."
That's an open invitation to the young earthers to sue, based on the law, against state and state academic publications which use other time scales, such as geologic and archaeological time scales, which would clearly be forbidden unless converted to the AD/BC system.

I suspect, if you took a poll of all adults in the state, people who are convinced the earth is 4-5 billion years old are outnumbered by people who believe the earth was created at 4004 B.C. on October 22, at 11 a.m. around here, and it's that way because the Bible said so. I'd rather peacefully co-exist with those people until they start stepping on the toes of science.

That's the reason it's a big deal: to see this bill stays in committee and dies a natural death. Incidentally, the senator who introduced this isn't some rural yahoo-- he represents one of the most affluent urban suburbs of St. Louis. That's what's really scary.

Here in the MidWaste, fighting against the dark ages...




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