Wednesday, December 19, 2007

They want him "fired," not "strung up."


• Wow. The OC Reg actually updated it’s “Jesus Glasses” story of this morning: 200 protesters turn up to support Capo teacher sued over religious comments. The update includes the following:

…"We object to Mr. Corbett,” said the Rev. Rod McDougal, who came up from San Diego for the prayer vigil. “We don't want him strung up; we want him fired."….

Earlier today, the Reg quoted Pastor Wiley Drake of the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park: "This teacher is teaching his own version of religion, so we're asking the school to take him down."

Gosh, that sounds a bit harsh. So I guess these preachers got together and settled on saying they don't actually wanna kill the guy.

I'm glad they cleared that up.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Much ado about nothing, Chunk. Give it a rest.

Now here's an idea your readers can embrace http://www.globalorgasm.org/

Happy orgasm, everyone!

Anonymous said...

8:48-

Are you lonely?

Do you often feel sad?

Anonymous said...

whew!

Anonymous said...

This should be followed closely. There is no shortage of superchristians who would like to " take down" an uppity professor or two. They sit in my lectures every semester.

Anonymous said...

The possessive is its, not it's.

Anonymous said...

You can bet that if Corbett were talking about following Jesus they'd have no problems about his beliefs in the classroom.

What disgusting hypocrites they are.

Anonymous said...

Corbett needs to be fired, He's a sleeze bag secularist.

Anonymous said...

Fire the christian whack jobs who pretend to teach while indoctrinating.

Anonymous said...

Faith is not indoctrination, shit-for-brains. Only secular socialists need to indoctrinate their followers.

Anonymous said...

If it's based on nothing but faith, with no evidence whatsoever, then it's obviously indocrination, dipshit.

Roy Bauer said...

Well, indoctrination need not involve faith, and faith need not involve indoctrination. Indoctrination is a form of teaching (i.e., a person or persons causing others to hold particular beliefs, etc., through some sort of instructional process), but faith might arise without teaching. If I suddenly and whimsically choose to belief that the moon is made of green cheese, I have believed via faith, but I have not been indoctrinated.

Clearly, faith, understood as distinct from ordinary grounds-based belief, is irrational by definition. That doesn't mean that it must always be avoided or condemned.

The challenge, I think, for those who honor belief-via-faith is to distinguish their faith-beliefs from the likes of, say, Shirley Maclaine ("channeling" spirits) or Marshall Applewhite (the spaceship behind the comet). As near as
I can tell, the "faith" crowd has never met the challenge. In the end, they rely on the commonness of their kind of irrationality, as though that were an argument, which, of course, it is not. (Or it is, but it is a very bad one.)

Teachers' success, I think, always depends on students' trust in them. The grounds for the trust are almost never fully rational or adequate, even in the most "rational" settings. Faith-like states seem inevitable in teaching & learning.

All teaching inevitably involves some degree of causing students to believe things without having them undergo the process of understanding and appreciating "the grounds" for the belief (even when sufficient grounds are available). So it seems to me.

But, among those who embrace reason, an effort is made to minimize reliance on trust (or "faith," if you like) and to teach students the criteria and methods that are the real heart of rationality and that inevitably lead to appreciation of the "sufficient grounds," so that, ultimately, "faith" is replaced by reason.

Moral development is similar. Inevitably, one teaches one's child the "conduct" of morality long before he or she can appreciate the reasons--the reason, e.g., why one should be disinclined to deceive someone or to take or destroy his property. --CW

Anonymous said...

Very cool little essay on faith, indoctrination, and moral development, Chunk. Thanks for these moments of lucid intellect--so refreshing to find on any blog.

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...