The final vote was cast today in Texas as to the fate of the "strengths and weaknesses" language that was proposed to be put back into science education standards. That idea was abandoned. However, this is not a time to celebrate.
Though that particular language was dismissed, what was voted in instead is equally disturbing. By a vote of 13-2, teachers will now be required "to encourage students to scrutinize 'all sides' of scientific theories," according to one report.
The problem with this is that there are many people who still contend that Intelligent Design, which is creationism in disguise, is a scientific proposition. No real scientist holds this to be true. The new language leaves science education open to the injection of creationism ideas. So, religion will now be an accepted part of the science curriculum. And this new standard will be in place for the next decade!
According to the report, Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, said:
Through a series of contradictory and convoluted amendments, the board crafted a road map that creationists will use to pressure publishers into putting phony arguments attacking established science into textbooks.
It has been pointed out time and again that Texas is very influential in determining what will be printed in text books. There is the concern that one of two things will now happen.
There is the possibility that all the text books in the nation will include information that fulfills Texas standards requirements. If this were to happen, the entire country would fall even further behind the rest of the world in certain areas of science education. Further, student would be woefully behind when entering college when the time came for them to take prerequisite science classes.
Or, there will be a special Texas edition of science text books. If the latter were to happen, which would most likely be the case, Texas students would be at a disadvantage compared to students in most of the rest of the nation. They would not be taught the same thing.
The bottom line is that Texas students are the losers here. And it is a shame that lawmakers who sit on the Texas Board of Education are so busy pushing their religious agendas that they cannot see this. They don't seem to care so much about truth and the educational well being of their students as they do promoting the ignorance of their blind beliefs.
Comments
What a horror that is!
God forbid that Texan students be shown multiple sides of an issue.
Next thing you know, there will be Nazi salutes, goosestepping, and who knows what else!
The debate in Texas is not about the superficial issue of creationism vs evolution, it is about using the school to inculcate the students with a philosophical outlook that faith is just as valid as reason on the path to truth. Once that has been established in the student’s mind, it really doesn’t matter if they believe in creationism, or believe in evolution, because you have indoctrinated them to think that faith is a valid option, and that alone will make them vulnerable to be manipulated further. That’s what this is all about.
Faith isn't the true path to success, retard.
Science is the only way to solve problems.
Americans are retards, plain and simple.
How about requiring teachers to teach the strengths and weaknesses of the Bible?
The best solution is for publishers to let Texas have their own stupid Texas edition.
Ultimate proof that evolution doesn't exist in Texas = George W. Bush & Rick Perry
Don't worry folks. For every fundamentalist who has sneaked into a science teaching role to attack evolution, there will be 10 real science teachers who will use this same freedom to question to show why I.D. and other nonsensical attacks on evolution are rubbish. Careful what you ask for, creationists, 'cause you're gonna get it, just not the way you thought!
"No real scientist holds this to be true."
Hoaks makes the logical fallacy of "begging the question."
A simple counter example:
Prof. Henry F. Schaefer III, Graham Perdue Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Center for Computational Chemistry at the University of Georgia. He is a premier chemist who has written over 1000 papers. He is a Fellow at the Discovery Institute.
Prof. Henry F. Schaefer III also has a revealing wiki page, in which he claims his nutty religion is superior to all other nutty religions, in other words, he's a bigot :
On January 25. 2008, he presented a lecture titled 'Big Bang, Stephen Hawking and God'[12] at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. The lecture implied the futility of religions other than Christianity as a way to God, and promoted Intelligent Design. This evoked a response[13][14] from secular students in the form of handbills[15] distributed to the audience of more than 500 student and professors. The handbills described his speech unscientific and therefore out-of-context for the largest technology festival of Asia: Techfest 2008.
Schaefer is often cited as an example of the Discovery Institute inflating the academic credentials and affiliations of prominent intelligent design advocates. The institute prominently and frequently mentions the Nobel Prize in connection with Schaefer,[5][16][17] referring to him as a "five-time nominee for the Nobel Prize" despite the fact that Nobel Prize nominations remain confidential for fifty years. Intelligent Design critic Barbara Forrest, Glenn Branch and Reed Cartwright allege that in elevating mere speculation to a fact, the Discovery Institute is inflating his reputation.[18][19] The original source of the estimate that Schaefer has been nominated 5 times for a Nobel Prize is a December 23, 1991 cover article in U.S. News and World Report.[20]
Lying for Christ is the norm for you people.
To Observer:
No one from the discovery institute has any credibility on this issue. It is simply an agenda driven think tank that is not interested in advancing Science.
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