Science wins in Texas!............for now.
by Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy
Incredible news out of Texas: creationists have lost a big battle to destroy science education in the Lone Star State!
The State Board of Education voted on the science standards — the list of basic scientific knowledge students should have at various grade levels, like knowing that atoms are the basic building blocks of matter, the Earth goes around the Sun, and — say — evolution is the basic and most fundamental aspect upon which all of modern biology is based.
Creationists on the board (and there are many) tried to water down the standards by creating a phony baloney "strengths and weaknesses" amendment, a totally bogus and arbitrary rule that says that teachers have to point out where a theory has faults. They did this specifically to weaken the teaching of evolution in biology classes. They don’t actually care if the students get a solid education on the fact of evolution, they only care to tear down real science and replace it with Biblical literalism.
And they failed. According to the fantastic science-based Texas Freedom Network, which has been live-blogging the vote, the creationist amendment lost in a 7-7 vote. They could not add the amendment without an actual victory, so the tie means the garbage amendment goes down.
But before you dance in the streets, have a mind that the vote was tied 7-7. In other words, half the people on the Texas State School Board of Education thought it was fine and dandy that evolution, a foundation of modern science and shown to be fact beyond reasonable doubt, be taught as being weak and flawed.
So once again, we see that creationists have lost, but we also know that they will never, ever admit defeat. Remember, their entire outlook on life is not based on reality, but dogma, and so they cannot rest, cannot stop, without shattering their whole worldview.
So as always, this is not over, despite this advance. It’s a victory for the students of Texas and for reality, but the war will rage on.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again (and I’m not the first): the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Stay sharp, Texas. They’ll regroup. Bet on it.
[UPDATE: TFN notes that a final vote will come Friday on all the standards, so even this chapter of the battle isn’t over yet. Stay Tuned.]
Incredible news out of Texas: creationists have lost a big battle to destroy science education in the Lone Star State!
The State Board of Education voted on the science standards — the list of basic scientific knowledge students should have at various grade levels, like knowing that atoms are the basic building blocks of matter, the Earth goes around the Sun, and — say — evolution is the basic and most fundamental aspect upon which all of modern biology is based.
Creationists on the board (and there are many) tried to water down the standards by creating a phony baloney "strengths and weaknesses" amendment, a totally bogus and arbitrary rule that says that teachers have to point out where a theory has faults. They did this specifically to weaken the teaching of evolution in biology classes. They don’t actually care if the students get a solid education on the fact of evolution, they only care to tear down real science and replace it with Biblical literalism.
And they failed. According to the fantastic science-based Texas Freedom Network, which has been live-blogging the vote, the creationist amendment lost in a 7-7 vote. They could not add the amendment without an actual victory, so the tie means the garbage amendment goes down.
But before you dance in the streets, have a mind that the vote was tied 7-7. In other words, half the people on the Texas State School Board of Education thought it was fine and dandy that evolution, a foundation of modern science and shown to be fact beyond reasonable doubt, be taught as being weak and flawed.
So once again, we see that creationists have lost, but we also know that they will never, ever admit defeat. Remember, their entire outlook on life is not based on reality, but dogma, and so they cannot rest, cannot stop, without shattering their whole worldview.
So as always, this is not over, despite this advance. It’s a victory for the students of Texas and for reality, but the war will rage on.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again (and I’m not the first): the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Stay sharp, Texas. They’ll regroup. Bet on it.
[UPDATE: TFN notes that a final vote will come Friday on all the standards, so even this chapter of the battle isn’t over yet. Stay Tuned.]
-
Comment by Chelle on March 26, 2009 at 6:30pm -
So if the 15th member votes for this on Friday, science loses boo!
-
Comment by Nelson on March 26, 2009 at 6:33pm -
i think it's saying a final vote will come on friday not the remaining vote of the 15. i think there's another vote on the standards that's related to this one but somehow different. that vote is on Friday.
-
Comment by Morgan Matthew on March 26, 2009 at 7:19pm -
Pretty sad : [ Im glad I am almost done with school in Texas...
-
Comment by Pam on March 27, 2009 at 7:54am -
Did you read this part from TFN?
2:56 - Barbara Cargill now offers an amendment for Earth and Space Science designed to challenge the Big Bang theory. She wants teachers to tell students that there are different estimates of the age of the universe.
3:05 - Cargill’s amendment passes 11-3.
*SIGH*
-
Comment by Nelson on March 27, 2009 at 12:43pm
-
ugh. as if the 2 billion year variance from 13-15, even though we're pretty sure it's 13.7 billion years, means that instead of 13.7 billion years it's actually 6,000 years. freakin nutballs. lol.
-
Comment by SabreNation on March 27, 2009 at 12:52pm -
Nothing new Nelson, that's always been the view of Fundies, even in regards to their own scripture:
Use whatever best helps your point of view on a matter, ignore anything that doesn't.
There's debate on the age of the universe - GOOD! Make sure we teach this!
The debate is only whether it's 13 or 15 billion years old and there's not a credible scientist on the planet that would try to say the universe is only 6,000 years old - BAD! Make sure that's left out.
-
Comment by Nelson on March 27, 2009 at 12:56pm
-
oh trust me, i know.
Comment
- ‹ Previous
- 1
- 2
- Next ›
What's new today
Events
Forum
America - "Love It or Leave It"
Started by Ed in Small Talk. Last reply by MikeLong 2 hours ago. 33 Replies 0 Likes
Blog Posts
The Republicans accelerate their downward spiral
Posted by Unseen on June 19, 2013 at 1:26pm 9 Comments 0 Likes
Videos
Services we love
Check out our new mobile/tablet version of Think Atheist! www.ThinkAtheist.com/m
© 2013 Created by Morgan Matthew.
You need to be a member of Think Atheist to add comments!
Join Think Atheist