Uh...NO.
Lost in the hysteria over the U.S. government’s self-created default crisis was some good news for integrity, education, and the advance of human knowledge.The Texas Board of Education unanimously (8-0) approved scientifically accurate high school biology textbook supplements from established mainstream publishers that cover the origins and implications of evolution theory and findings, rejecting the creationist-backed supplements from International Databases, LLC. (The creationist-crafted materials submitted by that group was not only “laced with creationist arguments,” said one reviewer, but was also “shoddy”, “teeming with misspellings [and] typographical errors,”and “mistaken claims of fact.”)
The efforts of creationists and Christian fundamentalist forces to ignore and discredit overwhelming scientific evidence of evolution on earth, along with the many biological, anthropological, geological and historical conclusions that spring from the body of research in the field, have created hurdles for educators, impediments to students, and embarrassment to organized religion for more than a century. Students who are denied the understanding and acceptance of the fact of evolution may be permanently handicapped in their ability to comprehend nature, physics and the universe, and yet many communities have yielded to pressure from religious groups to treat creationism, usually cloaked in the euphemism “intelligent design theory,” as a legitimate scientific alternative to evolution. The tactic— perhaps “strategy of self-deception” is a fairer term—has become mandatory for those who insist that the Bible must be read literally, causing it to be incompatible with much of the wisdom humanity has accumulated over the last 2000 years. Rather than adjust an ancient holy book to our changing comprehension of reality, these misguided individuals, many of them in positions of power and influence, have opted to deny reality instead. This is, as you might imagine, the opposite of responsible education.
The creationist argument was battered senseless by the superb opinion of U.S. District Court Judge John Jones in 1995, when he rejected a creationist assault on Pennsylvania schools. His opinion in Kitzmillar v. Dover Area School District made it crystal clear to anyone with an open mind that the objective of creationism is to advance a religious faith, not to further human enlightenment. (You can read his classic opinion here.) The fact that their argument has been lost by any logical or rational standard is irrelevant to the “creation science” advocates, however, because their position has never relied on logic or reason. They continue to work tirelessly to load school curriculums with religious indoctrination to the detriment of knowledge, and only the most courageous, professional, responsible and unbiased decision-makers can resist the assault.
The Texas Board of Education proved it was one of these, and the schoolchildren of the Lone Star State owe them a debt of thanks.
Ethics Alarms 
I confess that I’m shocked–pleasantly–by this development. I was hopeful that a majority of the TBOE would actually choose science over religion in science classes, but that the decision was unanimous is mind-blowing, especially given the TBOE’s recent rulings on social studies/history books. I’m no scientist (my father was a biologist), but I am a Texan (now) and an educator: I’ll take it. New aspiration: the day that such silliness never makes it to the Board to begin with.
Not to mention that they did this in spite of strong public support for teaching creationism in school.
One of many, many reasons to avoid trusting—or even respecting—politicians who use “what the American public believes/wants/cares about” as justification for their positions. I’ve been reading the comments on the Glenn Beck website about the Texas vote, and and most of them could have been made by the good people of Dayton,Tennessee during the Scopes trial in 1925. There is no excuse for being that ignorant —and no excuse for an educational system that produces a public that ignorant,
Just for the record, that article refers to a survey conducted by People for the American Way. Here’s a paragraph from the executive summary of that document:
“The overwhelming majority of Americans (83%) want Evolution taught in public schools. While many Americans also support the in-school discussion of religious explanations of human origins, the majority do not want these religious explanations presented as ‘science.’ They would like these Creationist ideas to be taught about in separate classes other than science (such as Philosophy) or taught as a ‘belief.’ Only a minority of the public (fewer than 3 in 10) wants Creationism taught as science in public schools.”
Later in the report (p. 16), there’s a further breakdown: 66% take “evolution oriented positions”; 13% advocate treating evolution and creationism equally; 16% favor “creationism oriented positions”; 5% aren’t sure.
In other words, what you’ve demonstrated is that James Glanz is an incompetent journalist (or had an incompetent editor), not that a majority of Americans believe(d) creationism should be taught as science.
Of course, Jack’s point that science curricula (in this case) ought to be shaped by science and scientists rather than by the belief system of the populace is also well taken.
Yikes. That’s pretty bad for the Times, but I’ve used up my July quota of “the news media is incompetent and lacks integrity” stories for July.
Jack,
Great article! Too bad they’re still dickering over whether certain history books are “too Islamist” in tone. Then again, you can’t win ’em all.
Well, I guess since our State and country is taking a stand and saying that we were created out of nothing and are nothing more than higher evolved apes, our lives have absolutely no meaning because it’s all an accident anyway.
Honestly, I find Big Bang and the Theory of Evolution to be quite illogical. Creationism has always made the most since to me. The Bible talks about scientific facts that we did not know of 2000-6000 years ago or even 1000 years ago! People used to think the Earth was the center of our galaxy, and the Bible states it’s not! People used to believe so many things that go against the Bible but that science has proved the Bible is correct. By teaching Big Bang and Theory of Evolution, it’s a degradation to our society. Of course, Satan wants people to believe in Big Bang and Theory of Evolution because then he’s in control of us.
But, then again, if we are all just apes, what does it matter what our kids learn. After all, if we are just evolved apes, we have no accountability and shouldn’t really be here to begin with.
Of course, I have yet to see a universe appear from a big flash of light, have yet to see solid evidence that macroevolution is scietifically proven (I won’t argue over microevolution.), and have yet to see the Bible proved wrong. Creationism makes more sense than us being an accident and has more sound evidence than Big Bang or Theory of Evolution.
Adam and Eve did walk with dinosoaurs, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, and all of my ancestors were 100% human.
Well, that’s swell Crystal. Faith is touching; ignorance is frightening. There isn’t any point in rebutting something like this, since it it is from the Land of My Mind’s Made Up Don’t Confuse Me With Facts. The logical, scientific, observational and literal mistakes here could fill a small book, but you don’t want to open your mind or cope with hard facts and deductive reasoning. I won’t waste my time.
If you need the Bible to give your life meaning, if your self-esteem is so fragile that you can’t handle the idea of having distant ancestors who were less than human, if you can only believe what you can personally experience, but base your whole life’s philosophy on that which nobody could possibly experience, then the proper response to you is…I’m very sorry. Somebody bound your mind at a very young age like the Japanese bound the feet of Geishas, and it will handicap you, and probably your children, for life. It was a terrible thing to do, and at least Texas is trying to minimize the number of similar victims in the future.
I’m not sure I could have said this better.
Thanks, tgt. But it’s shooting fish in a barrel.
Hey, if we don’t shoot them, they’ll die painfully of starvation.
I really wish you would be invited on Bill O’Reilly again and state these views with as much passion and eloquence. Seriously. Maybe you would help Bobby Jindal (Rhodes Scholar no less….can’t reconcile…) untether himself from promoting such a flawed and untenable position supporting the fatuously labelled, “intelligent design.” I’m stealing this for the next conversation I have with my sister-in-law.
On second thought, maybe after Hell freezes over….