Texas State Ed Board Vs. Evolution
Oi Vey, when will the creationist learn that they are not only bang dead wrong. Wrong about science, wrong about the big bang, wrong about the age of the Earth, wrong about the Earth being flat, wrong about the sun going around the Earth instead of the Earth going around the sun, and about evolution.
Texas Creationist News/Commentary
Highlights from this:
Ignoring or even outright denouncing the advice of experts, creationists have been trying in any way they can to attack evolution in the standards. The latest gambit has been what’s called a "strengths and weaknesses" clause in the standards, which sounds reasonable on the surface: when learning scientific theories, students should understand both where the theory is firm and where it needs work.
The problem, of course, is that creationists are using this as a wedge to lie about evolution. And yes, I mean lie: they hammer away with old, outdated, and easily-disproven ideas in an attempt to make evolution look weak. But let’s be clear: evolutionary ideas are the very basis of modern biology, and are as solid a fact as gravity is. If you think otherwise, you are wrong. This is not just a theory. It’s fact.
The far-right Republicans on the Board were not finished. They put in language to weaken the Big Bang theory, saying that there are different estimates for the age of the Universe. You can try to be coy and say this is also strictly true, but again that’s a cheat and a lie. The woman who proposed this is obviously a young-Earth creationist, and when she says "different ages", she means 6000 years. This belief in a young Earth, is, simply, dead wrong. We know the Universe is 13.7 billion years old, and the Earth, while younger than that, is still 4.55 or so billion years old itself. This is not some random guess, this is rock-solid (literally) science, confirmed independently from such diverse scientific fields as astronomy, physics, chemistry, anthropology, archaeology… and even the study of how languages change over time shows the humanity is older than 6000 years
The thing about "teach the controversy" is that there is NO controversy in the science. It is only outside of the lab and science field that you hit controversy (mainly with Fundie Christians and Muslims...one of the few place they will fight together instead of against one another, guess the whole thing about the enemy of my enemy deal holds true here). That subject would be better held in a comparative religion class instead of a science classroom. Not that you lot haven't heard this from me and others many, many times before. At least Texas can now take the place of Kansas as the great big silly land of craziness. May the flying spaghetti monster have mercy on their souls, and bless them with a touch of his noodly appendage.
Texas Creationist News/Commentary
Highlights from this:
Ignoring or even outright denouncing the advice of experts, creationists have been trying in any way they can to attack evolution in the standards. The latest gambit has been what’s called a "strengths and weaknesses" clause in the standards, which sounds reasonable on the surface: when learning scientific theories, students should understand both where the theory is firm and where it needs work.
The problem, of course, is that creationists are using this as a wedge to lie about evolution. And yes, I mean lie: they hammer away with old, outdated, and easily-disproven ideas in an attempt to make evolution look weak. But let’s be clear: evolutionary ideas are the very basis of modern biology, and are as solid a fact as gravity is. If you think otherwise, you are wrong. This is not just a theory. It’s fact.
The far-right Republicans on the Board were not finished. They put in language to weaken the Big Bang theory, saying that there are different estimates for the age of the Universe. You can try to be coy and say this is also strictly true, but again that’s a cheat and a lie. The woman who proposed this is obviously a young-Earth creationist, and when she says "different ages", she means 6000 years. This belief in a young Earth, is, simply, dead wrong. We know the Universe is 13.7 billion years old, and the Earth, while younger than that, is still 4.55 or so billion years old itself. This is not some random guess, this is rock-solid (literally) science, confirmed independently from such diverse scientific fields as astronomy, physics, chemistry, anthropology, archaeology… and even the study of how languages change over time shows the humanity is older than 6000 years
The thing about "teach the controversy" is that there is NO controversy in the science. It is only outside of the lab and science field that you hit controversy (mainly with Fundie Christians and Muslims...one of the few place they will fight together instead of against one another, guess the whole thing about the enemy of my enemy deal holds true here). That subject would be better held in a comparative religion class instead of a science classroom. Not that you lot haven't heard this from me and others many, many times before. At least Texas can now take the place of Kansas as the great big silly land of craziness. May the flying spaghetti monster have mercy on their souls, and bless them with a touch of his noodly appendage.