Darwin put to flight in Bible Belt

[emad]

Sunday Times
Sarah Baxter, Salina, Kansas



THE Republican “red states” that voted for President George W Bush in America’s Bible Belt are claiming their reward in an unexpected area: rolling back the teaching of evolution in schools.

Bold initiatives to introduce the concept of “intelligent design”, wrought by a god or higher being, into theories about Earth’s creation are being sponsored in towns and communities across America.

Religious fundamentalists — or “theocons” — opposed to Darwinism have adopted sophisticated tactics enabling them to pass under the political and legal radar that keeps church separate from state and forbids the promotion of religion in schools.

The champions of intelligent design, who are mindful not to specify a particular creator, are poised for victory in Kansas later this year after a new school board favouring the teaching of evolution as a theory rather than a fact was elected in November by a majority of six votes to four.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1462123,00.html

[CatholicEdHead]

1. Theocons?

That's a new term.

[Ezlivin]

2. Short for Theological Con man

After all, isn't this just another con on all of us rational folks?

[acmejack]

4. Everything you think you know

is wrong! Sure wish I had payed more attention in Bible School and not wasted all that time and effort on a degree in a scientific discipline. It is so depressing to discover I am so ignorant.

[Ezlivin]

7. You're lucky

After I got a BSET degree, I went to Seminary, got a Master's, drank the Kool Aid and went to work. Only after two years at a church and some serious introspection was I able to regain use of my rational mind.

I learned a lot, but man I regret giving my brain over to those damned cultists. (Southern Baptists)

[AndyTiedye]

27. You Got Better

Few who fall into their clutches ever do.

[opihimoimoi]

3. The Steep Slide Backwards has picked up momentum/speed(fpm)

sad

[McKenzie]

5. I wonder what qualifications the school board members hold

to allow them to arrive at a reasoned, and tenable, view on the validity of ID? Are they wholly conversant with biology? Are they able to refute Darwin? What is the basis for their decision? I could go on but won't; we all know the lines off by heart.

[emad]

6. More from The Times:

Jack Krebs of Kansas Citizens for Science said: “The re-election of Bush has emboldened the intelligent design movement. They feel they have the wind at their backs.”

The president, a born-again Christian, has proclaimed his own scepticism about Darwinism in the past. “On the issue of evolution, the verdict is still out on how God created the Earth,” he once said. A recent CBS poll found that 55% of Americans and 67% of those who voted for Bush do not believe in evolution.

....


In a small diner on the outskirts of the town, Ruth Coleman, 58, the mother of a Baptist pastor, was treating her five-year-old granddaughter Kendra to lunch. “I am creationist,” she said stoutly. “I believe God made the Earth 6,000 years ago and he deserves the credit. If there was evolution, why are there still monkeys?”

A 14-year-old girl asked members of Coleman’s congregation last Sunday for guidance on how to answer exam questions about the origin of mankind. “Shall I give the right answer and fail the test or give the wrong answer and pass?” the puzzled teenager asked.

“We teach kids not to lie and if we believe in creationism, evolution is a lie, so the grown-ups were kind of stumbling,” Coleman said. “A mom said, ‘Just put the textbook says this, but I believe that.’ Everybody thought it was a really good idea.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1462123,00.html

[McKenzie]

11. That's frightening

“I believe God made the Earth 6,000 years ago and he deserves the credit. If there was evolution, why are there still monkeys?” WTF???
Where are dinosaurs mentioned in the bible you stupid person?

I am sooo glad I don't live in the US. America is a great country, or was. Now it's headed for domination by the Christian Taliban. Fascism is on the march.

"There's no use in trying, to deal with the dying". Absolutely Bob.

[roseBudd]

16. I am always amazed that the uneducated consider themselves qualified

to have an opinion on evolution. I am not uneducated and I believe in evolution and I totally defer to the PHDs in biological sciences for the details. I would never consider myself qualified to criticise.

[Ediacara]

18. We teach kids not to lie and if we believe in creationism, evolution is a

Oddly enough..... creationists are proven liars.

[Pepperbelly]

29. they were elected and that is all that is needed for authority.

Makes you feel kind of conflicted, doesn't it.

Does me, anyway.

[emad]

8. "Darwinism is a non-theitic relgion":

Educationists across the state arrived in Salina last week for a meeting of a science standards committee on rewriting the curriculum. The leading protagonists on each side traded barbs as they discussed changes that would open the door to challenging evolution.

“Darwinism is a non-theistic religion,” protested one supporter of intelligent design, “and you’re trying to give it to our kids even though they don’t want it.” An opponent retorted: “The alternative to natural causation is supernatural causation . . . and that’s what you are trying to open the door to.”

The well-funded, nationally based intelligent design movement is casting itself as the promoter of academic freedom. It is hard for opponents to write the group off as the American equivalent of Afghanistan’s fundamentalist Taliban when it appears to be challenging received wisdom rather than stifling debate.

For Bill Harris, a 56-year-old scientist and a Christian, the question is: “Is it impossible that a god created the Earth? If it is impossible, then take it off the table, but if it’s possible don’t ignore it.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1462123,00.html

[Democrat 4 Ever]

10. The operative word here is - con - they are definitely cons

'nuff said. These guys are huge, hairy, knuckle dragging, drool spewing, butt scratching, flea picking, banana eating, tree swinging cons. No wonder they have such problems with the evolution theory - they are a few hundred thousand generations behind in the process.

[Retired AF Dem]

12. You forgot

booger flicking. Listen to John boy and Billy much? :)

[Democrat 4 Ever]

15. I stand corrected - I did forget booger flicking.

Don't listen to John boy and Billy. Don't have a clue who they are. What have I been missing?

[Retired AF Dem]

19. It is a radio show

some guys and girls that call themselves the resident redneck talk show hosts. It is a comedy show. I guess they can mostly be heard down here in the south.

[rman]

17. kindof like "non-wet water"

This Bill Harris guy is a bad scientist, in insinuating that a scienctific theory can be based on lack of disproving of a proposition.

[Merlot]

9. When I was in High School biology

Our teacher was at the point where he had to teach evolution. He taught it fairly and unbiased. Then he asked everyone to write a report on whether they believed creation or evolution. He knew a lot of peole in the class did not believe in evolution, and he didn't either, but it was a science class, not a bible class.

And that was it. I think it was a good way to handle it. He taught evolution. Then he let us decide.

[Philosophy]

13. My teacher just skipped over the evolution chapters

When we got there he just told us to read it on our own, and we wouldn't be tested on it, and then we skipped ahead to other stuff. From the people I've talked to with kids in school here in the South, this is pretty much standard practice even today - public school biology teachers here almost always omit the teaching of evolution, even if they are required to teach it. And no one ever complains.

[CatholicEdHead]

21. It's always the 6th grade defnition

of evolution, not the adaption "survival of the fittest" that it really is.

It is the Man-monkey theory that is always thought of. The definiton of "theory" is always changed from the scientific method way to say it is false unless proven true, not the best way to interpet things based on what is known.

[moobu2]

22. How awful

To think they put such little effort into teaching such a fascinating subject, leaving students so ignorant of how life developed into it's present diverse forms. I think those teachers who refuse to cover this should be fired immediately.

[Philosophy]

24. Problem is that if they did cover evolution they would get complaints

from irate fundy parents who know as everyone else does that there is just an unspoken "understanding" around here that no one teaches evolution. No one wants to rock the boat.

[moobu2]

28. It isn't fair

not to equip students with the latest scientific understanding of the world so they will be better able to compete, especially since science plays such an important roll in all our lives today.

Wonder why some religious leaders cant deal with this like they have other issues. For instance, they once thought -the earth was flat, -there was a hell, under ground, that you could actually dig down and find, -that heaven was just above the clouds and so forth.
In the past they've changed the religious view about the world as science and understanding developed, wonder why they insist on sticking with this none sense..It isnt fair to the children.

[McKenzie]

20. a few classes in High School wouldn't equip people

with enough information about evolution to reach a tenable view on the subject. And by "tenable" I mean the dictionary definition.

regards

[w4rma]

14. I guess these kids won't ever become scientists or doctors.

At least not good ones. You can't be a scientist if you don't ask questions.

[ignatzmouse]

23. The Cult of Intelligent Design & Tricks of the Agenda

The Neo-Nazi-Cons are in a bit of a pickle. They've used abortion and gay marriage as their tools to cattle prod the evangelicals. Now that they have the power to push through either initiative, they simultaneously risk losing the catalyst and triggering a backlash. They are trying to finagle a way to stall implementation long enough to get more mileage out of the "moral" zombies. They also either need a way to put off both anti-abortion and anti-gay legislation and somehow blame it on the Democrats or they need to come up with some other theocratic issues to distract the faithful. The anti-evolution movement is a test for a new issue. I have a feeling it is making a lot of noise but just doesn't have enough zealot-momentum to spark a real national drive. Instead, the hidden strategy is likely the early volley for school vouchers (i.e. compromise with us on this, so we won't shove anti-science down your kids' throats).

In any case, let me say again that the way to combat ID is simply to speak up and call the people pushing it cultists. That's what they are. ID is equally bad science and bad religion as it puts God on an equal footing with benevolent aliens. It isn't fact; it's science fiction. It isn't religion; it's cultism.

[MissB]

25. The equal footing with aliens is a good point

Thank you.

[cali]

26. ID is not bad science

It is not science at all. There is no theory of ID. It consists of repeating ad nausem that life is irreducibly complex and thus an intelligent designer must have designed it. A theory must be falsifiable. ID is just the old biblical creation myth dressed up in new duds. And to anyone who believes in ID, I have a question: Who designed the designer?