NYT: Evolution’s Backers in Kansas Mount a Counterattack

[DeepModem Mom]

Evolution’s Backers in Kansas Mount a Counterattack
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
Published: August 1, 2006

KANSAS CITY, Kan., July 29 — God and Charles Darwin are not on the primary ballot in Kansas on Tuesday, but once again a contentious schools election has religion and science at odds in a state that has restaged a three-quarter-century battle over the teaching of evolution.

Less than a year after a conservative Republican majority on the State Board of Education adopted rules for teaching science containing one of the broadest challenges in the nation to Darwin’s theory of evolution, moderate Republicans and Democrats are mounting a fierce counterattack. They want to retake power and switch the standards back to what they call conventional science.

The Kansas election is being watched closely by both sides in the national debate over the teaching of evolution. In the past several years, pitched battles have been waged between the scientific establishment and proponents of what is called intelligent design, which holds that nature alone cannot explain life’s origin and complexity.

Last February, the Ohio Board of Education reversed its 2002 mandate requiring 10th-grade biology classes to critically analyze evolution. The action followed a federal judge’s ruling that teaching intelligent design in the public schools of Dover, Pa., was unconstitutional.

A defeat for the conservative majority in Kansas on Tuesday could be further evidence of the fading fortunes of the intelligent design movement, while a victory would preserve an important stronghold in Kansas....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/us/01evolution.html?hp&ex=1154404800&en=32a33289a2da48c5&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[WillParkinson]

1. I have no problems with challenging convential theory

After all that is what science is about.

But to try and bring this pseudo-science to the table and ask for it to be looked at? With the only empirical proof being that the universe is too complex to be random? Thanks, but no.

Bring me some hard evidence and I'll approach it with an open mind. Bring me your bible and I'll just walk away.

[Kailassa]

2. I've got the hard evidence right here for you.

I durnt unnerstan thad there stuff, so god musta dunnit.

An if yee fink yer smarder'n me, then yee'll see ma other hard evidence;
ma two, or however many it is, fists.

Thad'll soon larn yee.

[WillParkinson]

4. Erm....

Yes, yes, of course. Your fist present very compelling evidence.

Obviously I must have been mistaken. Sorry, my bad.

[Robbien]

3. Three Creationist school board members are up for re-election

This is one race I for one will be closely watching.

[alcibiades_mystery]

6. The Dover, PA school board was voted out en masse

There was no one left to appeal the decision, because the new school board affirmed it. :rofl:

We have to make it dangerous to your job on the school board to advance such pseudo-scienmtific nonsense as intelligent design. You promote it, you get voted out, period. You put my child's education and future on the line over your personal religious beliefs? Goodbye.

Hey, that's democracy.

[leftyladyfrommo]

5. I couldn't believe Kansas made the NYT bigtime.

I don't think has hardly been mentioned here in KC. Too hot to handle.

I do think that a lot of Kansas people are getting tired of being laughed at. Those people may come out to vote.

[eppur_se_muova]

7. Kansas voters choose between evolution supporters, critics (CNN)

***
The fifth seat was held by Janet Waugh, a Kansas City Democrat who opposed the new standards. She faced a more conservative Democrat who favored the anti-evolution language. {Just what we need.}

Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education in Oakland, California, which supports the teaching of evolution, said conservative victories would generate attempts to adopt Kansas' standards elsewhere.

"There are people around the country who would like to see the Kansas standards in their own states," she said.
***
A poll by six news organizations last year suggested about half of Kansans thought evolution should be taught alongside intelligent design.
***
Board member Connie Morris' race in western Kansas was the most closely watched. The retired teacher has described evolution as "an age-old fairy tale" and "a nice bedtime story" unsupported by science.
***
more: http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/08/01/kansas.evolution.ap/index.html

"Age-old fairy tale"? That would be the version in Genesis, Ma'am ...