Only a day after the State Board of Education’s vote to no longer force Texas public school students to be taught the “weaknesses of evolution” the people of Texas rose up in anger screaming bloody science. [This issue will not be finalized until another vote this coming March.]
Remember too it was not that long ago that the creationism, creation science and Intelligent design lobby, the Discovery Institute moved shop from California to Texas where they knew they would be better received. And do not kid yourself that their hand is playing the card in all this silliness.
The Texas Education Board is now saying that Texas public school students must be taught to evaluate fossil types that show there is no process of universal common descent.
Being forced to remove the “weakness” clause yesterday, today they have substituted it with the specific “weakness” they have been shooting for all along. That the main principle of evolution, common ancestry, is false.
Which leaves what? A gray haired man with a beard who lives in firmament [I am told firmament is like electric Jello] who thinks up, creates and deposits girraffs one day, cockroaches the next, and lots and lots of very stupid people in very flat states. Could there be a correlation between IQ and geographical flatness?
The Internet forums and letters to the editors in Texas newspaper are screaming, locking and loading because of this, but one member of the State Board of Education stepped up to make it offical:
“There are many, many gaps that don’t link species changing and evolving into another species, so we want our students to get all of the science, and we want them to have great, open discussions and learning to respect each other’s opinions. This isn’t about religion. I don’t know how many times we have to say it before people accept it. It’s about science. We want to stick to the science.” Said Barbara Cargill State Board member from The Woodlands, Texas. Scientists: Board proposals undermine evolution teaching
This is the same flat out lie that initiated the “Creation Science” movement in the 1960’s. The old 19th Century creationism we remember from the Scopes monkey trial. The removal of references to God from the semantic argument. Which not one person, not one person ever on either side of the issue believed was not about religion. It was, is and always will be ALL ABOUT religious silliness. There is no other reason to deny science.
[Well there is one reason I have been noticing that seems to drive not only religious and political dogma, but all aspects of life. It is not left versus right or urban versus rural or rich versus poor, it’s really about how much stupid people hate smart people]
After about 40 years of pushing the “creation science” lie, the 1990’s saw them introduce the new semantic argument, they changed the name to “Intelligent Design”. There is not one person who believes that too is not driven by religion, including every pathological liar who pushes this crap. Their first sentence is that it is not about religion, and in their second sentence we find them all gleefully admitting their all encompassing personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
It’s much like Fox News saying they are fair and balanced. No one, including anyone from Fox News, believes they are fair and balanced, but that doesn’t stop them from telling that lie 100 or so times a day over the past 20 years or so.
It is how the conservative brain works when it works at all. Repeat something long and often enough, no matter how absurd, it becomes true. And all the cries that the King has no clothes does not matter in the least. After all, God says…
More from Kick on Texas Board of Education
The Face of the Texas Taliban, Cynthia Dunbar
Texas Board of Education Accepts Evolution
Bios and pictures of all 15 members
The Face of the Texas Taliban, Cynthia Dunbar
English Education going Backwards in Texas