It’s getting to the point where there is almost nothing more to say about creationism in the biology classroom, but once again, the pot boils in Texas, the New York Times reports.
Charles Darwin
Several members of the Texas Board of Education are self-proclaimed “Darwin skeptics,” claiming that there is no direct evidence for evolution and students should be taught about intelligent design as well so they can make up their own minds which theories to believe. It just blows my mind that I have to write that sentence in the 21st century. I already explained that evolution isn’t a theory, at least not how creationists use the word, but I suppose nobody’s reading.
The problem wouldn’t be so big if it were confined to Texas, as hardly anybody who reads this blog lives in the Lonestar State. But it’s not, because Texas just has so many students and they buy so many textbooks from big publishers, that the Texas Board of Education, which makes textbook recommendations for the entire state, has a great deal of power to make publishers change what they say in their textbooks.
Little old Rhode Island doesn’t stand a chance, at least until all textbooks go digital and can be customized for a state or a school district to include or exclude creationism. Until then, the problem will be in full view for students as they read the material the good people of Texas made publishers include in the biology textbooks.
Evolution is a fact. The “theory” of natural selection explains how evolution happens, in part, but make no mistake, evolution happens, just as certainly as an apple falls to the ground off the tree.
Evolution is certainly affected by factors other than natural selection, but one of those factors is not God. How utterly insulting to an omnipotent God to suggest he has anything to do with how bacteria evolve to become resistant to antibiotics and thus directly cause human suffering! How utterly insulting to an omniscient God to suggest he would want us to cut off our search for the facts about how everything in this world works!
Evolution is, in fact, the only way to come close to appreciating the greatness of his creative work, and to suggest we shouldn’t use every ounce of intelligence he gave us doesn’t make any sense. If God exists and he created the world, which is, I suppose the argument advanced by the creationists in Texas, then he certainly left it in our hands to understand and care for in the 21st century. How can we do that if we keep shooting ourselves in the foot?
In other news, an anti-evolution group in Kansas is suing the state to block implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards, which prominently feature evolution, the Kansas City Star reports.
“The state’s job is simply to say to students, ‘How life arises continues to be a scientific mystery and there are competing ideas about it,'” one attorney involved in the lawsuit was quoted as saying.
No, it isn’t. The state’s job is to prepare students for college and the workforce they will enter when they reach an appropriate age.
The lawsuit is against the state board, its 10 members, Education Commissioner Diane DeBacker and the state Department of Education. Neither Ms DeBacker nor board Chairwoman Jana Shaver immediately returned telephone messages seeking comment, the Star noted.
Nor should they, because, after all, what more can anybody say? It seems this will never end.
