Heinmot Tooyalaket
He was a smart guy and gave the only good argument against education I’ve ever heard.
In a short time a group of commissioners arrived to begin organization of a new Indian agency in the valley. One of them mentioned the advantages of schools for Joseph’s people. Joseph replied that the Nez Percés did not want the white man’s schools.
“Why do you not want schools?” the commissioner asked.
“They will teach us to have churches,” Joseph answered.
“Do you not want churches?”
“No, we do not want churches.”
“Why do you not want churches?”
“They will teach us to quarrel about God,” Joseph said. “We do not want to learn that. We may quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth, but we never quarrel about God. We do not want to learn that.”
I can respect that, but I think it would be better understood as an argument against dogma. Do not impose your unwarrantedly confident dogma on me!
All you have to do is go on YouTube and look at a few atheist channels, and it’s infuriating: most of them are dealing with the idiocy of religious certainty, explaining that the apologists have no evidence for their god, over and over, with occasional intrusions by thick-skulled dickwits who make stupid and extravagant claims while disregarding what atheists actually say. I wouldn’t want to attend a school led by William Lane Craig or John Lennox or Lee Strobel or Gary Habermas either.
Keep education secular.
Florida Republicans are furious that Muslims are using a voucher program meant to boosr Christianity.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=6R1WEPXIfrI
Quick, set up Indian schhols dedicated to Indian deities like Coyote, the trickster god! Or we can prozelyte about the invisible spaghetti deity in our voucher funded achools.
I prefer Iktomi.
Nah, you really want to piss off conservatives you need to go broader – I am thinking a revival of the pro-sex, pro-prostitution, cult of Inari, from Japan. lol Unless there is some Native American equivalent… Or, I am sure there are plenty of others. Maybe a voodoo run school, with Baron Samedi as the mascot?
PZ @ #2 — Is that why western Minnesota has been your home for so many years…close to the lands of Iktomi’s people?
@1. Hope the Church of Satan puts their hooves on the ground. They have a talent for trolling Christians who set up some programs and then whine when other religions do it. Remember one after-school Satanic Church club that had a cute cartoon goat in a pentagram as their emblem that ended up shutting down religious after-school clubs.
I find it fascinating that he equated a White school education with religious strife. By quarrels, he clearly meant the Christian variety; what other could he possibly be referencing? I have never once heard of indigenous North American peoples doing battle over spiritual beliefs. Land and resources, sure, but fighting over beliefs seems to be a peculiarly Old World phenomenon. Catholic vs. Protestant, Christian vs. Muslim, Muslim against Hindu, Hindu against Buddhists, the list is long.
@5 There was one guy that was promoting a Satanic “school”, not just after school program, as an alternative for the voucher BS they where pulling in one state. Sadly, the biggest problem is that the Christian churches have deep pockets, and the backing of rich assholes, while the Church of Satan… not so much. So, it was more of a toothless threat.