Evolution Major Vanishes From Approved Federal List

New York Times ^ | August 24, 2006 | Cornelia Dean

[balch3]

Evolutionary biology has vanished from the list of acceptable fields of study for recipients of a federal education grant for low-income college students.

The omission is inadvertent, said Katherine McLane, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, which administers the grants. “There is no explanation for it being left off the list,” Ms. McLane said. “It has always been an eligible major.”

Another spokeswoman, Samara Yudof, said evolutionary biology would be restored to the list, but as of last night it was still missing.

If a major is not on the list, students in that major cannot get grants unless they declare another major, said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. Mr. Nassirian said students seeking the grants went first to their college registrar, who determined whether they were full-time students majoring in an eligible field.

“If a field is missing, that student would not even get into the process,” he said.

That the omission occurred at all is worrying scientists concerned about threats to the teaching of evolution.

One of them, Lawrence M. Krauss, a physicist at Case Western Reserve University, said he learned about it from someone at the Department of Education, who got in touch with him after his essay on the necessity of teaching evolution appeared in The New York Times on Aug. 15. Dr. Krauss would not name his source, who he said was concerned about being publicly identified as having drawn attention to the matter.

[balch3]

Darwinists scared of losing their subsidy. Also interesting that this was publicized through a leak once again. Hopefully some of those leak investigators at the CIA will head over to the Ed Dept when they're through.

[Coyoteman]

Darwinists...

Evolutionary biology and several related fields are legitimate areas of study.

They receive the same "subsidy" as several hundred (or thousand) other fields.

That you apparently do not like those fields (or more likely, the results they produce), most likely for religious reasons, does not reduce their legitimacy.

And besides, they study neat things like this cute little guy:

---

Fossil: Taung Child

Site: Buxton Limeworks, Taung, South Africa (1)

Discovered By: M. de Bruyn, 1924 (1)

Estimated Age of Fossil: 2.3 mya * determined by Faunal & geomorphological data (1, 4, 5)

Species Name: Australopithecus africanus (1, 3, 7, 8)

Gender: Unknown (1)

Cranial Capacity: 405 (440 as adult) cc (1, 3)

Information: First early hominid fossil found in Africa (7, 8)

Interpretation:

• Juvenile (3 years old based on deciduous teeth, first permanent molars) (1, 3, 4, 7)
• Bipedal hominid (based on position of foramen magnum, brain endocast, small canines) (1, 3, 4, 7)
  
• Killed possibly by bird of prey (based on fractures and puncture marks on skull) (1, 10)

See original source for notes:
http://www.mos.org/evolution/fossils/fossilview.php?fid=27

[raj bhatia]

We need to go after the Bohrists now, who thrive on federal subsidy by claiming to do research on such wacko theories as electrons spinning around the nucleus. /sarc off

[LikeLight]

Hey, the list has evolved. Evolution is extinct. What's the big deal? Just natural selection at work.

[MonroeDNA]

Praise G-D!!! Praise -OD!!! Praise GO-!!!

Talk in tongues!!!!!

GRoather caldle, tld el aelae!!!!

(Head spinning completely around)

Boemmd t aldj!!!!!

(falling on the floor)

Put your hands on the back of the TV and feel the shock of the Lord!!!!

[NaughtiusMaximus]

I guess if you're trying to evolve, you'll just have to do it on your own time.

[Irish Rose]

That the omission occurred at all is worrying scientists concerned about threats to the teaching of evolution.

This is the insane logic of liberals: If the government will not fund something with taxpayers' money, their liberty to do it is being "threatened".

[right-wingin_It]

Bureaucratic snafu?

[indcons]

Evolution Ping Pong

[PatrickHenry]

Thanks. I've got doubts about this one, but we haven't had an evolution thread for a while. Cranking up the ping machine ...

[PatrickHenry]

Evolution Ping The List-O-Links

A conservative, pro-evolution science list, now with over 390 names. See the list's explanation, then FReepmail to be added or dropped. To assist beginners: But it's "just a theory", Evo-Troll's Toolkit, and How to argue against a scientific theory.

[PatrickHenry]

More on this here, from The Chronicle of Higher Education:
Educators Question Absence of Evolution From List of Majors Eligible for New Grants.

[SoFloFreeper]

Can't say I'm heartbroken.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Quark2005]

Doesn't look like anything to get worked up about, being that no one really knows how this happened yet. Could just be a clerical error.

[Rippin]

The real admission is in the name of the major itself. If there is such a thing as evolutionary biology then perhaps there are some other types of biology as well. To hear the evolutionists talk, that would be like majoring in 'Water-based oceans' or something.

[FreedomProtector]

The modern myth, built on mathematical impossibilities, of man vainly seeking to be autonomous from God is losing its subsidies.....

[freedumb2003]

The modern myth, built on mathematical impossibilities, of man vainly seeking to be autonomous from God is losing its subsidies.....

Disingenuousity, CR/Ider is thy name.

TToE is science. We know about it than we do about Gravity. This is a paperwork snafu, not a "subsidy" -- or do you think they should cut funding on studies of theology, which is TRUE mythology by any definition of the word?

TToE is silent on God. It merely attempts to explain how the physical world works. This silly little epithet is a standard CR/IDer insult. It is not surprising to see it tossed in.

[balch3]

me either.