And only three years too late!
Civilized World: 1
Dumbass Fundies: A billion.
We’re gaining on them.
So Texas didn’t have any biology textbooks until now!? Good God, I’m glad I didn’t grow up in Texas.
(Nitpick: They’re 3 years late for the 21st century. They’d be 103 years late for the 20th century.)
I went to school in Texas from 1983-1990, and I don’t recall any of our Biology texts having anything about Creationism or other ‘evolution alternatives’ in them.
Texas had biology texts in the late 60’s with nothing about Creationism, other than the statement that is was one of many theories. Which it was. And is.
Superior attitudes notwithstanding, there are more than a few errors made about Texas and Texans on a regular basis.
I think i’ll untie my horse from the oil well in the back yard and mosey on down to the country club with all the other Oil Barons, so we can laugh at the benighted redneck fundies.
Amazing how a state that is that full of ignorant people can have so many institutions of higher education that are harder to get into than many of the Ivy League.
Wow, and to think while I was in high school, I was just imagining that Biology textbook the whole time.
Maybe they were holographic or something.
Uh, no. Creationism is not one of many scientific theories. It’s not even a theory; it’s a religious tenet.
Creationism is a dogma espoused by religious groups. It is not testable and cannot be proven false, so it is not a scientific theory.
There’s no more place for creationism in a science textbook than there is place for an elephant in the deep sea vents at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
I was just in high school biology ten years ago this year. Our textbook dedicated a chapter to the theory of evolution and related concerns (Darwin, survival of the fittest, adaptation, etc). There wasn’t anything about Creationism in the book, and the teacher never even brought it up.
As a recovering Texan, my heartfelt joy at being from Texas has never wavered. Operative word being “from”.
Amen! (That’s a completely secular “Amen”, I swear).
I moved to the Dallas area a few months ago and was pleasantly surprised: I was expecting a desert wasteland filled with cowboy-boot wearing ultrafundies just looking for heathens to beat with their big-ass gold-plated belt-buckles. But it’s actually green, and, though definately conservative, it feels conservative in an agreeably libertarian way.
Oh, and Friedo, how the hell do you get “Texas Finally Enters the 20th Century” from that article? Nothing in that article implies that the textbooks currently in use stress creationism or don’t present evolution. It merely says that creationists unsuccesfully fought to put their garbage in the latest set of books.
There’s something saddly ironic about bashing fundies (presumably people whom you’d consider “unreasonable”) when you can’t see the logical fallacies in “There was a fight in Texas over evolution in biology text books, therefore, Texas previously didn’t have evolution in biology texts and wasn’t in the 20th Century”.
Wouldn’t they be 103 years late to enter the 20th century?
It’s not that they entered the modern times, they avoided being dragged back in time by the fundies.
No, no, no. You’ve got it all wrong! If your fundamentalist Grandfather steps out of a time machine and gives you a textbook that says evolution ain’t so, you will cease to exist, or, more properly, you will not have ever existed.
This stuff is complicated. You probably shouldn’t think about it without checking with me first.
A bunch of creationists came from in and out of state to appeal to the board regarding textbook selection this year. Some were from the Discovery Institute (discovery.org), a very ‘sciency-looking’ pro intelligent design group. Thye are hoping that since creationism cannot be included in science books, ID can.
To Texas’ credit, most were not allowed to address the board during the actual meeting(s), but were allowed to make presentations afterwards. There were quite alot of pro-science speakers (http://www.txscience.org/about.php). The ‘Texas Citizens for Science’ group motto is “That Texas Schools Need is a Moment of Science”. Go Texas!
Uh… that’s “What Texas Schools Need…”
carry on.
Everything I know about Texas I learned from Molly Ivins.
If Texas has recently entered the twentieth century, could it be because they are headed in the wrong direction?
I went to school in Texas from 1987 and graduated in 1994. I don’t recall our biology books including anything about creationism or intelligent design. It did talk about evolution, natural selection, and sexual selection.
Marc
What this is about is just one battle in a war between the extreme right and extreme left over the content of textbooks. In this case it would seem reason won out, but it was only one battle.
Yeah, I just graduated from a Texas high school. I went through bio 1 & 2 without hearing anything notable on creationism. I do distinctly remember studying evolution though. I don’t see how this changes anything at all.
I will note that even though evolution is taught and creationism is not, most of the people I encounter around here believe firmly in either intelligent design or full-blown creationism. These same people, mostly, reject evolution as “merely a theory.”
There’s no reasoning with some people. Most people are force-fed the church’s doctrine for years and just can’t conceive that it might not be so. It irritates me that I am the one portrayed as unreasonable. So it goes.
This fight happens almost every year because of the way textbook review is done and the enormous share Texas has of the national textbook market (along with California); and as Ca3799 rightly points out, folks from both side come from far and wide. The reason all us Texans are checking in saying we’ve never seen creationism in any incarnation in a schoolbook is because they always lose. Since publishers are not likely to print different editions for different states, what Texas and California decide will hold for all states. It’s not (just) that we’re conservative, it’s that we’re so damn big.