The Kansas Board of Education voted 6-4 today (Nov. 8, 2005) to teach "Intelligent Design" in public school science classes. It was a contentious vote, angering many parents and drawing sharp criticism from the Governor and the National Academies of Science--which had earlier withdrawn its copyrighted material from the proposed new textbooks in protest.
This is not the first time that the Kansas Board of Education has attacked the foundations of science. In 1999, the Board expunged almost all mention of evolution from textbooks, but they reversed themselves in 2001 after voters threw out the board members responsble for that travesty. The Empire Struck Back in 2004 as the anti-science crowd managed to recapture the board. The standards are scheduled to take effect in 2007, so voters have little time to fix the mess.
One thing is certain. Out of the primordial soup of Kansas politics, a new species of creationism has emerged: "Intelligent Design." This new dogma sounds more convincing and has learned better camouflage--a novice in the field could mistake this vicious vermin for a simple appeal to broader perspectives. But closer examination of its lineage easily reveals it to be a full-fledged member of the fundamentalist family, with all the corresponding traits.
A dissenting board member complained that the Board was going to make a "laughinstock" of Kansas again. And I say that's exactly what we should do! Merciless national ridicule and a broad boycott (well, if anyone actually goes there anymore...) is the best thing we all can do to help those poor folks in Kansas win back their school board. Because the fastest way to force a political organism to evolve is to drastically alter its environment. Any biologist could tell you that.
Meanwhile, in good news, voters kicked all eight members of the Dover, Pennsylvania school board out of office and replaced them with challengers who had campaigned against their "Intelligent Design" teaching policy. The ACLU lawsuit against the board ended last week, and the verdict is expected in January.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Make a Monkey out of Kansas
Posted by Dr. Strangelove at 7:18 PM
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4 comments:
I guess the title, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" as quite apropos
That is all I have to say.
// posted by USWest
"Intelligent Design" is not a science, and is not a theory. It is an argument that life is too complex to have evolved. This kind of argument cannot be proven or tested at all. I've read some of their "literature" and it's shocking. It boils down to this: they don't understand evolution. The whole argument of "ID" is just "I don't see how certain complex animals could have evolved." That's the whole thing. And that, my friends, is why they need to study science.
Of course, it's also crappy theology.
// posted by LTG
There's a great line in the book "Antarctica" by sci-fi author Kim Stanley Robinson where one of the characters explains to an incredulous friend that the entire ice sheet in Antarctica (where they are standing) formed in the past three million years. "That's it?" someone asks. "Only three million years for all this?"
"Yes," comes the reply. "But you have to remember the 'million.'"
Creationists fail to realize just how much can happen in four billion years.
Hurray for Dover, PA ! They booted their entire school board over the "Intelligent Design" issue.
// posted by Raised By Republicans
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