Wednesday, January 10, 2007

 

Restrained Opposition


There is more about the changes pending in Kansas' science guidelines in the article "Science reversal set in motion" from The Topeka Capital-Journal.

Among the more delusional moments from yesterday:

Conservative board member John Bacon, an Olathe Republican, argued that the current standards allow teachers to teach evolution — criticisms and all.

"We really have the best of both worlds except for a very few folks in the science world who think this is some great sin Kansas has done," Bacon said. "I just don't understand it."

Well, he's half right ... there is a lot he doesn't understand. But the notion that it was "a very few folks in the science world" that opposed the dishonest changes in 2005 is so far out of sight of reality that it is doubtful if you can get there from where Bacon is. As Sue Gamble, one of the new majority, pointed out:

National organizations like the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Teachers Association opposed the curriculum standards so much that they forbade Kansas from using their copyrighted material in the final science standards document.

Also in opposition was The American Association for the Advancement of Science, which serves some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, in turn serving 10 million individuals, itself founded in 1848 and publisher of Science, one of the premier scientific journals.

But, hey! In for a penny of fantasy, in for a pound!

Speaking of which, just to make the day perfect, there was this contribution to "The Longest Running Falsehood in Creationism":

... Doug Kaufman, associate pastor of Cornerstone Church in Leavenworth, [speaking before the Kansas State Board of Education on January 9, 2007] said the theory of evolution can be debunked.

"I believe that evolution is dying," he said.

I've emailed Glenn Morton, originator of the list of predictions of "The Imminent Demise of Evolution" and this may become the first entry of the new year ... and here we are, just 10 days in.
.

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