Well I suppose it had to happen eventually. The lone star state has finally decided to follow in the footsteps of its most famous son, George W Bush and become a complete dumbass and the laughing stock of the free thinking world. For those of you who missed it,a group of conservatives (who shall hereafter be referred to as inbred rednecks) were narrowly defeated in their attempt to force biology teachers in the state to teach the strengths and weaknesses of scientific theories. So, that's not all that bad you might say. Open debate is good for science. Well yes, except for the fact that the barrel of this legislative gun is aimed squarely at evolution. Yes folks, that's right it's another creationist plot to get their worldview brought in to the science classroom and it has raised or at least revived several key issues regarding the creationist fallacy.
The biggest issue for me as an outsider looking in at this circus is the fact that the rational people, the ones who are fighting hard to get rid of this kind of insidious religious dogma from public schools have completely missed the point. Penn & Teller outlined the position of the rational Americans quite brilliantly on their show bullshit when they said:
It's not just America though where these battles are being fought. Creationists around the world are increasing in number and volume with their calls for "creation science" to be taught in schools. Its happening in Northern Ireland, the UK, Holland and many other countries. The main argument being trotted out by these people is that their viewpoint should be given equal weight so that school children can make up their own mind which they would like to believe. This argument is ridiculous to the point of absurd. We cannot and should not waste children's time with every crackpot theory that someone has about a particular topic. We don't have physics teachers spending half the class on the theory that the earth is round and the other half on the one that it is flat. Check out these nutcases if you don't believe me!
The other really aggravating argument which seems to fuel most of the fundamentalist rhetoric that is bandied about by the creationists is the use of Charles Darwin as the ultimate authority in evolution. Creationists use the term "darwinist" in an almost derogatory manner to describe people who support evolution as if all our knowledge regarding evolution comes from The Origin of Species. These people are so narrow minded that they believe that since they base their argument on one supposedly infallible text then we must as well. As someone once said: " A coward believes all other men are cowards and a thief believes all others are thieves". It's as if someone who wanted to find fault with airbags blamed it all on Gottlieb Daimler. Modern evolution has adapted since Darwin's day to incorporate all the evidence which has been discovered in the fields of biology, palaentology, anthropology, zoology and psychology.
In the end right-thinking people won out and another nail was driven firmly into the coffin of creationist dogma but like so many George A. Romero bad guys, creationism won't stay dead so we have to be ever watchful. I'll leave the last words on this topic to Thomas Jefferson who saw the future rise of these people over two hundred years ago:
The biggest issue for me as an outsider looking in at this circus is the fact that the rational people, the ones who are fighting hard to get rid of this kind of insidious religious dogma from public schools have completely missed the point. Penn & Teller outlined the position of the rational Americans quite brilliantly on their show bullshit when they said:
"We all belong to a club. That club is called the United States of America. As members of the club we pay dues called taxes. The club is run according to the club rules which we call the constitution. These rules state that if something is paid for with taxes then it can't have religion in it. It's in the pesky by-laws."For these people it's the fact that religion is creeping into schools is the big deal and not that the ideas proferred by idiots like Michael Behe and the rest of the intelligent design movement are junk science and that consequently schoolkids aren't getting the proper scientific education that they're going to need to prepare them for careers in science.
It's not just America though where these battles are being fought. Creationists around the world are increasing in number and volume with their calls for "creation science" to be taught in schools. Its happening in Northern Ireland, the UK, Holland and many other countries. The main argument being trotted out by these people is that their viewpoint should be given equal weight so that school children can make up their own mind which they would like to believe. This argument is ridiculous to the point of absurd. We cannot and should not waste children's time with every crackpot theory that someone has about a particular topic. We don't have physics teachers spending half the class on the theory that the earth is round and the other half on the one that it is flat. Check out these nutcases if you don't believe me!
http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskopf/Flatearthsociety.htmSimilarly we don't hear the outraged cries of holocaust deniers clamouring to be heard in history class. The simple truth of the matter is that evolution as we understand it today is the single biggest hole in the already leaky theory that is christian fundamentalism. Which leads me nicely on to my next point.
The other really aggravating argument which seems to fuel most of the fundamentalist rhetoric that is bandied about by the creationists is the use of Charles Darwin as the ultimate authority in evolution. Creationists use the term "darwinist" in an almost derogatory manner to describe people who support evolution as if all our knowledge regarding evolution comes from The Origin of Species. These people are so narrow minded that they believe that since they base their argument on one supposedly infallible text then we must as well. As someone once said: " A coward believes all other men are cowards and a thief believes all others are thieves". It's as if someone who wanted to find fault with airbags blamed it all on Gottlieb Daimler. Modern evolution has adapted since Darwin's day to incorporate all the evidence which has been discovered in the fields of biology, palaentology, anthropology, zoology and psychology.
In the end right-thinking people won out and another nail was driven firmly into the coffin of creationist dogma but like so many George A. Romero bad guys, creationism won't stay dead so we have to be ever watchful. I'll leave the last words on this topic to Thomas Jefferson who saw the future rise of these people over two hundred years ago:
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance"
