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August 24, 2007
Hallelujah!
It's no secret that a religious conservative army in this country has been waging war on science in recent years, and among the most nefarious of its goals has been the fight to discredit evolution and require the teaching in our public schools of "intelligent design" -- a theology-based theory with no basis in fact -- as an equally plausible explanation for our existence.
Never mind that intelligent design is totally unsupportable scientifically, how about that little issue of separation of church and state, or that teaching it would only further hinder the math & science education of our kids, who are already less and less globally competitive in these fields all the time? The idea of teaching of "ID" as science in our public schools is preposterous on its face and antithetical to the very notions of science and reason.
Alas, we have come to expect little from state government in Texas these days, partly because the leadership is dominated by these same religious conservatives who want to ram their world view down everyone else's throats. One need only look at the last few sessions of the Texas Legislature for numerous examples of this modus operandi.
Well, consider us pleasantly surprised. This afternoon an AP story ran, reporting that two-thirds of the State Board of Education's 15 members said in interviews with the Dallas Morning News that they would not support requiring the teaching of intelligent design in public school science classes.
That may not sound like much, but these days we'll take it. Incidentally, of the 5 members who did not make that commitment, only one said she was open to the idea, while the other four did not comment for the record. Consider it a victory (albeit a very small one) for the forces of science and reason.
Posted by houtopia at August 24, 2007 04:40 PM