The difference between science and religion

The religious right is luanching a full-scale effort to hijack science and teach creationism, starting in Texas.

Let me be clear. There has been an effort on the part of the religious right and the Bush administration to blur the lines between religion and science and political ideology and science for some time. They are mutually exclusive.

Creationism is a religious belief. It cannot be proven irrefutably with hard evidence and facts. It should be taught, if ever, in pulic schools in a religion class that examines all the world's religions and all their theories of how the world began and how it will end and where we go when we die.

Science is science. Science is about postulating theories, testing and evaluating, and proving facts with hard evidence. The scientific theory is a process of discovering facts, and ultimately, truth in our physical world. There is speculation that someday we can eventually extend this to what we now consider our metaphysical world, but that is not the case now.

Teaching creationism in science class is the first big step down a slippery slope to a place where BELIEFS trump FACTS and RELIGION trumps SCIENCE. Where we think, not logically and in terms of facts and evidence and what can be proven true, but substituting what we want to be true -- what we believe -- for facts. That is a dangerous road to travel. It leads to undisciplined thinking and squelches creativity and curiosity, because to challenge a religious belief is to challenge "God," whoever you believe that to be.

I do not, under ANY circumstances, support teaching creationism as a valid scientific theory, because it is not. It is a religious belief and should be taught as such -- in religion class.