You Done it Again, Kansas
AAaaarrrrghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!………..
I have no comprehension of what could possibly be going through some peoples’ minds. This whole evolution versus “intelligent design” “debate” has got me so bound up with frustration I just want to scream. Is there no way to communicate? Is there no way to make these people realise that the science classroom is no place for religion?
Science doesn’t profess to be able to determine the big question of where we come from, how we were “created”. That is the kind of question that philosphers spend their days discussing, or that the religious take for granted from a book or prophet. Evolution is the tale of how life has cruised its meandering course since it began. That’s what science is figuring out… looking at the evidence available to determine life’s path.
So, get religion out of my science classrooms! Mind your own business! Talk about creation in a religion course where it belongs. Don’t mix your dogma with my education. I’ve provided the AP wire report in the extended entry…
Kansas school board approves science standards casting doubt on
evolution
Eds: ADD details on the new standards quotes from board members,
party breakdown of vote.
AP Photo planned
By JOHN HANNA
Associated Press Writer
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Risking the kind of nationwide ridicule it
faced six years ago, the Kansas Board of Education approved new
public-school science standards Tuesday that cast doubt on the
theory of evolution.
The 6-4 vote was a victory for “intelligent design” advocates
who helped draft the standards. Intelligent design holds that the
universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher
power.
Critics of the new language charged that it was an attempt to
inject God and creationism into public schools in violation of the
separation of church and state.
All six of those who voted for the new standards were
Republicans. Two Republicans and two Democrats voted no.
“This is a sad day. We’re becoming a laughingstock of not only
the nation, but of the world, and I hate that,” said board member
Janet Waugh, a Kansas City Democrat.
Supporters of the new standards said they will promote academic
freedom. “It gets rid of a lot of dogma that’s being taught in the
classroom today,” said board member John Bacon, an Olathe
Republican.
The new standards say high school students must understand major
evolutionary concepts. But they also declare that the basic
Darwinian theory that all life had a common origin and that natural
chemical processes created the building blocks of life have been
challenged in recent years by fossil evidence and molecular
biology.
In addition, the board rewrote the definition of science, so
that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations
of phenomena.
The new standards will be used to develop student tests
measuring how well schools teach science. Decisions about what is
taught in classrooms will remain with 300 local school boards, but
some educators fear pressure will increase in some communities to
teach less about evolution or more about creationism or intelligent
design.
The vote marked the third time in six years that the Kansas
board has rewritten standards with evolution as the central issue.
In 1999, the board eliminated most references to evolution.
Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould said that was akin to
teaching “American history without Lincoln.” Bill Nye, the
“Science Guy” of children’s television, called it “harebrained”
and “nutty.” And a Washington Post columnist imagined God saying
to the Kansas board members: “Man, I gave you a brain. Use it,
OK?”
Two years later, after voters replaced three members, the board
reverted to evolution-friendly standards. Elections in 2002 and
2004 changed the board’s composition again, making it more
conservative.
The latest vote likely to bring fresh national criticism to
Kansas and cause many scientists to see the state as backward.
Many scientists and other critics contend creationists
repackaged old ideas in new, scientific-sounding language to get
around a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1987 against teaching the
biblical story of creation in public schools.
The Kansas board’s action is part of a national debate. In
Pennsylvania, a judge is expected to rule soon in a lawsuit against
the Dover school board’s policy of requiring high school students
to learn about intelligent design in biology class. In August,
President Bush endorsed teaching intelligent design alongside
evolution
——
On the Net:
Kansas science standards:
http://www.ksde.org/outcomes/sciencestd.html
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