They should laugh in their faces just like they would if a bunch of Norwegians asked them to include a chapter on the history of trolls.
It’s not really a pitting of anybody, so yeah it’s pretty lame as such. I just thought it was cool that Texas, despite years of pressure from their particular version of the conservative core, voted unanimously to reject all the trappings of Intelligent Design.
When placing it, this is the only forum I even considered, given the climate here. Maybe it would have been better served in IMHO.
Woah - are you messing with Texas? Everything I’ve heard says you’re not supposed to do that.
I haven’t always cut Texas the slack it has deserved. I was wrong. But I’ve long thought that Texas was a Much better state than several of the noted people who claim to be its leading citizens and spokesmen/women.
(There at 25 million people in Texas. How the HELL did we ever end up with The Single Dumbest Son-Of-A-Bitch, South of the Canadian River, as a 2 term president…!?)
This decision is proof that good people can become tired of being ignored, of having their voices twisted, of having their choices co-opted. And that they Can stand up to special interests and money funneled in from out of state when they set their mind to.
Well Done, Texas.
So that we understand just what the Texas Board of Education did here - it approved curriculum which includes the science-based teaching of evolution and refused to incorporate “intelligent design” materials that were being proposed. There remains on the books a directive to encourage “debate” on the issue. From the linked story in the OP:
*"In 2009 in a move that grabbed headlines across the country, a more conservative Texas State Board of Education approved standards encouraging debate over the veracity of evolution science.
The board had not voted on science educational materials since the 2009 decision. Supplemental materials were being considered on Friday rather than entirely new textbooks due to budget cuts approved this year by the Texas legislature."*
So as I understand it, students will not have foisted on them goofball anti-evolution materials from people who think the Bible is a science text. However, teachers who reject evolution will still have state sanction to harangue their classes under the guise of “encouraging debate”.
Not a great situation, but considerably better than it could have been.
Don’t expect the fundamentalists to give in. The stakes are too high; not only does Texas have lots of young minds to influence, it’s such a big chunk of the textbook market that its policies influence what books are sold on a national basis.
With luck, the “debate” could turn out to be a very good thing. Maybe more high school students will graduate knowing the actual scientific definition of the term theory, for instance, or that (despite the claim of the article I linked to) evolution says nothing about the origin of life.
Nevermind polonium halos and such, if just the basics of science and evolution are properly taught, then most of the pseudo-science arguments will evaporate.
“Hoping” is not spelled f-i-g-u-r-e-d.
You know you could’ve had a great OP if you had put this in the right forum with a positive spin… instead of slipping into a Limbaugh state of mind.
Guess somebody who left Texas long ago & hasn’t kept up might be ignorant of people like the Texas Freedom Network.
You can poke around the website & learn things like:
Of course, Rick Perry has been in bed with these folks. Thanks to the TFN & other sane Texans, people are waking up.
Well, I have to say that I’ve been pleasantly surprised so far. I was expecting more “Texas still sucks because of the gun culture / the death penalty / loud people with big hair” or “Stupid creationists with their made-up religion can all go to hell” comments.
On the other hand, there’s been no shortage of idiots who pretend that they can read minds.
Thanks for the link, Bridget. It seems that the TFN has a large membership and is active on many different issues, like covenant marriages.
Well, because of that whole “eternal vigilance” thing. Liberal democracies don’t just happen, they require constant maintenance and protection from the steadily creeping kudzu of theocracy, fascism… really all forms of tyranny, great and small.
So good for Texas for doing the right thing. Now they have to keep it up.
if we are going to teach all sides of the evolution argument we should teach at least one view other than Darwinian…like Lamarkian evolution.
i always wondered why my folks sent me to private school when i was growing up (in Texas.) Now I know.
Here in Texas, we aren’t going to teach “all sides of the evolution argument.” Science classes will teach the theories of Darwin & his successors, despite the wishes of Creationists, Intelligent Design-ists & other yahoos. (Back in the 60’s, my excellent high school biology teacher mentioned Lamarck & Lysenko–as scientists whose views had been discarded because they were wrong.)
Did you actually read the OP?
There are some excellent private schools down here. There are also Bible Academies designed to provide All White environments, with the life sciences curriculum straight out of Genesis (KJV only). Which type did you attend?
I recently watched a video about this issue and how science teachers, including one teacher who happens to also be Christian, opposed the lunacy of including “intelligent design” and other creationist stuff in science class. The school board in that area voted over their objections. I then found myself wondering if the science teachers would actually knuckle under and present that stuff. If I were a science teacher, I would refuse to do it.
as a Fort Worther for most of my life, AMEN! ok…sorry, couldn’t help myself. I live in the rodeo buckle of the bible belt. I satirize. But yes, there are a lot of smart people out here. unfortunately we aren’t as loud as the ones with big hair or homes with axles and a real fixation on the epistles. which begs the questions…why is it fundys and 'gelicals tend to quote more from the OT and the Pauline epistles than from the gospels? odd. its almost like they’re…not christians. I like Christ, I just wish his fan club acted more like him, and paid more attention to what HE said, and not some dude who wasn’t even there to meet the man. Also, why is it that their interpretation of the scripture eerily follows the Augustinian line of morality? Its almost like they are more familiar with De Civitate Dei contra Paganos than the gospels…odd.
yeah, I read the op, I was just making a smart assed remark, but seriously, if there is going to be a debate about evolution in the classroom, then let it at least use quasi-scientific and now discredited theories so kids actually learn two things: evolution and scientific method. thats what my biology teacher did. also it keeps religion completely out of it. as for what kind of private school, I went to progressive academically centered Catholic schools 1st through 12th. get this: we had anatomically accurate sex ed in health class! Genesis was taught as a philosophical myth explaining freedom of thought and self determination with moral and ethical lessons in religion class. We learned about evolution in the class room. we offered the US’s first high school environmental science class. it was a pretty good school. I still thank my folks for sending me there.
Good for Texas. To hell with the “fundies”. That is all.
I always thought a kudzu was a kind of antelope, and I thought you were making a really clever evolution joke. Now I know it’s a sort of vine, which is disappointing but probably for the best.
Um, yeah - the target of the pitting *should *have been the Texas (and not just Texas, by any means) culture which made such a vote even necessary, not those Texans who resisted it and instead took a stand for sanity.