01.24.09
Ho hum, that fossil record…
Split Outcome in Texas Battle on Teaching of Evolution, and Evo-News praises the Times,
Surprise of the Week: New York Times Gets the Real Story on Texas Evolution Standards
AUSTIN, Tex. — Moderates on the Texas Board of Education prevailed over conservatives Friday when, in a battle over the teaching of evolution, the board voted to drop a 20-year-old mandate that science teachers explore with their students the “strengths and weaknesses†of all theories.
In Texas, a Line in the Curriculum Revives Evolution Debate (January 22, 2009) Still, the conservative faction, led by the board’s chairman, Dr. Don McLeroy, managed to pass several amendments to the state’s science curriculum that opponents say would open the door to teaching objections to evolution and might encourage students to reject it.Chief among these amendments is one that would compel science teachers to instruct students about aspects of the fossil record that do not neatly fit with the idea of species’ gradually changing over time, like the relatively sudden appearance of some species and the fact that others seem to remain unchanged for millions of years.
Dr. McLeroy, a dentist from College Station who describes himself as “a Darwin skeptic,†said during debate on Thursday that students should know that the fossil record does not depict a clean picture of gradual changes.
But some defenders of evolution said the amendment was intended to engender doubt in students about what most biologists accept as fact: that evolution occurs, even if there is debate about how and why.
Every educated person should understand the strengths and weaknesses of Darwin’ theory. But this much the scientific community can’t manage, giving the game away–that they are more interested in indoctrination in a known set of fallacies than in science.
That’s the absurdity of this situation: for all their faults the religious critics are demanding science (whatever their other agendas).
The ‘strengths and weaknesses’ resolution failed, but the other amendaments look to be of interest: the peculiar character of the fossil record.
Even this much the Darwin fanatics can’t stand. What is the problem? This peculiarity of the fossil record has been known for a long long time. So what is the reason the ‘scientific’ community objects to this minimal amendment.
What a pathetic betrayal of science by the establishment of Big Science Propaganda.
I find it surprising that liberals are so intimidated, or so brainwashed, that they automatically fall in line behind these deceptions. This debate needs liberals to lead the way beyond the machinations, and brazen lies, of the Darwin establishment.