Public Library and Creationism ... UGH

by Panda 20 Replies latest social current

• 

  Panda

  I got upset at our library yesterday. I found a video tape titled Evolution what's in your childs textbook (well thats not the exact title but close.) I asked why they bought this, The answer : it was a donation. Soooooo ... where do I find donations of scientic literature and videos? I mentioned to the librarian that it was a religious tape and she didn't say anything. I'm miffed and am wondering how to bring this up at the next board meeting?

  It is crazy to think that these haters of knowledge get to give away their trash and the scientific community has no answer (that I'm aware of.)

  Any ideas?

  Panda of the idea lovers class
• 

  DanTheMan

  I'm sure that the library has plenty of books on evolution written by reputable scientists.

  The fundies who put this stuff out are similar to JW's in their delusions of persecution, so fighting to keep these sorts of tapes out of your library only causes further entrenchment and fanaticism.

  Let them have their simplistic world view. Some people can't live any other way. I don't know that I'm necessarily a better person for having my Watchtower illusions shattered. Depression and confusion has been my lot since leaving the fold.
• 

  funkyderek

  It is crazy to think that these haters of knowledge get to give away their trash and the scientific community has no answer (that I'm aware of.)

  Any ideas?

  Buy the type of books you want the library to have then donate them to the library.
• 

  RunningMan

  I find it interesting that libraries will pay good money for scientific books, but religious propaganda must be free.

  Think about it. They are willing pay for good information, the fake stuff has to be pushed on them.

  This is no different from Witnesses donating their publications to the library. The library will usually take anything, but the books don't stick around for long.
• 

  DanTheMan

  This is no different from Witnesses donating their publications to the library. The library will usually take anything, but the books don't stick around for long

  *LOL* I was at a library sale about a year ago. I got there kind of late, so the pickins were pretty slim.

  But, no shortage of WT books for sale, there were a bunch of yearbooks from the 60's and 70's. Made me embarrassed that I once belonged to an organization whose members felt that the self-congratulatory fluff of a Watchtower yearbook would be something worthwhile to donate to a public library.
• 

  Valis

  Do they count their time for donating books?

  Sincerely,

  District Overbeer
• 

  RunningMan

  Well, I don't imagine it takes much time to donate a book, so I can't say that they count much time, but I will bet that they count a placement.
• 

  hooberus

  I have donated creation and counter-evolution books to our local college library. (A library wich was virtually almost all pro-evolution as well as containing several directly anti-creationist books).
  

  Why shouldn't people be exposed to information from both sides?

  If evolution is really sound then should't it be able to withstand criticism? Some of the evidences for evolution found in the textbooks (the apparent subject of the video) are based on faulty data. Some textbooks still use Haeckel's fradulant embryo drawings as evidence for evolution:

  http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/1339.asp

  Will there now be a rush by libraries, publishers and sellers of evolutionist books to rewrite them or withdraw them from circulation, and otherwise acknowledge the fact that the idea of embryonic similarities' suggesting evolution is largely based on academic fraud?
• 

  rem

  Why shouldn't people be exposed to information from both sides?

  I agree. These books should be available for all to see their sub-standard scholarship and transparent agenda. It just makes the real scholarship look that much better.

  rem
• 

  funkyderek

  I have donated creation and counter-evolution books to our local college library. (A library wich was virtually almost all pro-evolution as well as containing several directly anti-creationist books).

  You'll find that's the case in most libraries. The only books they stock on evolution are "pro-evolution" just as the only astronomy books they stock advance the view that the earth orbits the sun. Why do you think that is?

  Why shouldn't people be exposed to information from both sides?

  "Both sides" makes it seem like there's really some debate over whether evolution occurs. There isn't - not in scientific circles at least, and hardly at all outside the United States. Your primitive religious views are of no more importance than those of flat-earthers. Donate all the books you like, but don't imagine for a second that you're viewed as anything other than an ignorant religious crackpot because of it.
  

  If evolution is really sound then should't it be able to withstand critism?

  It is and it can. You simply choose to filter the overwhelming evidence through your presuppositional worldview. Without evolution, the entire science of biology is nothing but a collection of unrelated facts. Every advance in every area of biology in the century and a half since Darwin builds on his theories. A century ago, your view of the world was unsupportable. Today it is simply laughable.