Born again republicans attempt to weaken science in Texas fails

[moobu2]

State Board of Education votes to drop evolution 'weaknesses' from Texas science curriculum

5:08 PM CST on Thursday, January 22, 2009
By TERRENCE STUTZ / The Dallas Morning News


AUSTIN — In a major defeat for evolution critics, a sharply divided State Board of Education voted 7-7 on Thursday to follow the advice of a panel of science educators and drop a long-time requirement that “weaknesses” in the theory of evolution be taught in high school science classes.

Under the science curriculum standards tentatively adopted by the board, biology teachers and biology textbooks would no longer have to cover the “strengths and weaknesses” of Charles Darwin’s theory on how humans evolved.

Opponents of the strengths and weaknesses requirement had warned that it would eventually open the door to the teaching of creationism – the biblical explanation of the origin of humans – in science classes, while board members backing the rule insisted that was not their intention.

The seven Republican board members supporting the rule have been aligned with social conservative groups that in the past have tried to publicize alleged flaws in Darwin’s theory that humans evolved from lower life forms.


Dallas news

[Chulanowa]

1. What's a "lower life form"?

Heh. I wonder what their response would be if they weren't still protesting 60's-era science, and instead had to contend with hte fact that nearly 60% or so of human DNA is actually virus DNA...

[TurboKitty]

2. REPUBLICANS

The Yukon Delta villages are without food and fuel yet Palin whines about her kids being abused by the media IS ANYONE PAYING ATTENTION?

[laconicsax]

3. The 1860s weren't too long ago for these people.

[skepticscott]

4. If this is not mental illness, what is?

The NYT also had a piece about this the other day:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/education/22texas.html?_r=1&em

Stephen C. Meyer, an expert on the history of science and a director at the Discovery Institute, denied that the group advocated a Biblical version of creation. Rather, Mr. Meyer said, it is fighting for academic freedom and against what it sees as a fanatical loyalty to Darwin among biologists, akin to a secular religion.

Testifying before the board, he asserted, for instance, that evolution had trouble explaining the Cambrian Explosion, a period of rapid diversification that evidence suggests began about 550 million years ago and gave rise to most groups of complex organisms and animal forms.

<snip>

“Textbooks today treat it as more than a theory, even though its evidence has been found to be stained with half-truths, deception and hoaxes,” said Paul Berry Lively, 42, a mechanical engineer from Houston who brought along his teenage son. “Darwinian evolution is not a proven fact.”

Insane, deluded, irrational, desperate, brainwashed...choose your word. How else do you characterize people who tell lies in the cause of religion ("Evolution is a controversial theory", "There are no transitional fossils", "Evolution violates the laws of thermodynamics" etc, etc.), have them completely debunked, and then come back and repeat the same lies again and again and again and again and again and and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again? And them have their lies further debunked by even more evidence, only to go out and repeat them again and again and again and again and again and and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again?

[Enthusiast]

5. They must believe

it is alright to lie for what they consider a just cause. Some of the leaders in this anti-science movement know full well they are fabricating these claims.

[trotsky]

6. Folks like that genuinely believe that evolution is a Satanic theory.

They can't be proved wrong, because religion gets a privileged position in society. This happens with many liberal believers too - they can become quite indignant when scientific principles of investigation and analysis are applied to THEIR particular beliefs. So we can't be surprised that evolution-deniers still exist and are still just as impervious to reason.