Thanks, Chuck, for sharing the information and pointing out my pasting error. I've been thinking about the recommendation. It's probably what I'd do, and that would certainly get me out of a sticky situation, but what about the kid? If they take an astronomy question to their bishop, he won't have any answers, unless the bishop's an astronomer, other than "we don't know everything", "we'll find out on the other side" or that old curiosity-killer, "that's not necessary for your salvation." I know, I know, we can't transgress on the parents' turf. But I'm becoming more and more concerned about the quality of scientific education in this country, when we can't counter the garbage being churned out by the freaks on the fringe. What if a parent has a passionate attachment to the ideas of Sitchin or von Daniken? Do we treat it as equal to religion and thus not refutable? And so on. Thanks for listening, and any other information. Richard Quoting utah-astronomy-request@mailman.xmission.com:
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Message: 3 Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2010 13:13:53 -0700 From: Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Mormon astronomy clarification Message-ID: <AANLkTi=4Mq6vrqXWhF9q1DTzvaY14urp+_PK66xPM5pF@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
35 years ago, I frequently gave talks and put on astronomy slide shows at area schools, up to the high school level.
Whenever questions arose that had their foundation in scriptural descriptions of cosmology and/or evolution, I always politely referred those students to their religious leaders for more information, explaining that such questions are out of the realm of scientific research.
Garrard, it seems that you are subscribed to the "digest" format. Can you do me a favor and when replying to a comment, please don't quote the entire digest or thread. Edit your reply to include only the comment you reply to. It helps me enormously in not having to pick through dozens of repeat posts.
Thanks!