Thoughts in a Haystack

The Baptist Press has a story on the continuing campaign against the proposed grade and high school science standards in Florida. As might be expected, it gives much space to the usual anti-science palaver: evolution is a religion; only experimental science, repeatable in the lab, counts as science and evolution (i.e. common descent) can't be demonstrated experimentally (damn, there goes astronomy!); the standards call for evolution to be taught as dogma; and so on in dreary repetition.

There was a bright spot from David Campbell, one of the writers of the proposed standards and a self-described "lifelong Christian." Campbell, who spoke before the Clay County school board before it decided unanimously to drink the creationist Kool-Aid, pointed out that "Evolution is not presented as dogma." But within the scientific community, he said, there is no argument about the specifics of evolution. Then came the really good stuff:

Did we eliminate other concepts? Yes, we did. We did not include Intelligent Design based on legal work and on decisions made earlier. I would also point out that we eliminated dogmatic ideas like flat earth, astrology, geocentrism and the prospect that canals on Mars were actually constructed by intelligent life.

The standards we prepared are designed to prepare students for the real world -- advanced high school courses, college courses and ultimately the real world in life.

Biology without evolution is like physics without movement, like chemistry without the periodic table. It's the glue that holds our subject together.

Give that man an "A⁺."