Posted on 07/09/2003 12:08:32 PM PDT by PatrickHenry
FORT WORTH, Texas - (KRT) -
The long-running debate over the origins of mankind continues Wednesday before the Texas State Board of Education, and the result could change the way science is taught here and across the nation.
Local and out-of-state lobbying groups will try to convince the board that the next generation of biology books should contain new scientific evidence that reportedly pokes holes in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
Many of those groups say that they are not pushing to place a divine creator back into science books, but to show that Darwin's theory is far from a perfect explanation of the origin of mankind.
"It has become a battle ground," said Eugenie Scott, executive director of theNational Center of Science Education, which is dedicated to defending the teaching of evolution in the classroom.
Almost 45 scientists, educators and special interest groups from across the state will testify at the state's first public hearing this year on the next generation of textbooks for the courses of biology, family and career studies and English as a Second Language.
Approved textbooks will be available for classrooms for the 2004-05 school year. And because Texas is the second largest textbook buyer in the nation, the outcome could affect education nationwide.
The Texas Freedom Network and a handful of educators held a conference call last week to warn that conservative Christians and special interest organizations will try to twist textbook content to further their own views.
"We are seeing the wave of the future of religious right's attack on basic scientific principles," said Samantha Smoot, executive director of the network, an anti-censorship group and opponent of the radical right.
Those named by the network disagree with the claim, including the Discovery Institute and its Science and Culture Center of Seattle.
"Instead of wasting time looking at motivations, we wish people would look at the facts," said John West, associate director of the center.
"Our goal nationally is to encourage schools and educators to include more about evolution, including controversies about various parts of Darwinian theory that exists between even evolutionary scientists," West said. "We are a secular think tank."
The institute also is perhaps the nation's leading proponent of intelligent design - the idea that life is too complex to have occurred without the help of an unknown, intelligent being.
It pushed this view through grants to teachers and scientists, including Michael J. Behe, professor of biological sciences at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. The Institute receives millions of dollars from philanthropists and foundations dedicated to discrediting Darwin's theory.
The center sent the state board a 55-page report that graded 11 high school biology textbooks submitted for adoption. None earned a grade above a C minus. The report also includes four arguments it says show that evolutionary theory is not as solid as presented in biology textbooks.
Discovery Institute Fellow Raymond Bohlin, who also is executive director of Probe Ministries, based in Richardson, Texas, will deliver that message in person Wednesday before the State Board of Education. Bohlin has a doctorate degree in molecular cell biology from the University of Texas at Dallas.
"If we can simply allow students to see that evolution is not an established fact, that leaves freedom for students to pursue other ideas," Bohlin said. "All I can do is continue to point these things out and hopefully get a group that hears and sees relevant data and insist on some changes."
The executive director of Texas Citizens for Science, Steven Schafersman, calls the institute's information "pseudoscience nonsense." Schafersman is an evolutionary scientist who, for more than two decades, taught biology, geology, paleontology and environmental science at a number of universities, including the University of Houston and the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.
"It sounds plausible to people who are not scientifically informed," Schafersman said. "But they are fraudulently trying to deceive board members. They might succeed, but it will be over the public protests of scientists."
The last time Texas looked at biology books, in 1997, the State Board of Education considered replacing them all with new ones that did not mention evolution. The board voted down the proposal by a slim margin.
The state requires that evolution be in textbooks. But arguments against evolution have been successful over the last decade in other states. Alabama, New Mexico and Nebraska made changes that, to varying degrees, challenge the pre-eminence of evolution in the scientific curriculum.
In 1999, the Kansas Board of Education voted to wash the concepts of evolution from the state's science curricula. A new state board has since put evolution back in. Last year, the Cobb County school board in Georgia voted to include creationism in science classes.
Texas education requirements demand that textbooks include arguments for and against evolution, said Neal Frey, an analyst working with perhaps Texas' most famous textbook reviewers, Mel and Norma Gabler.
The Gablers, of Longview, have been reviewing Texas textbooks for almost four decades. They describe themselves as conservative Christians. Some of their priorities include making sure textbooks include scientific flaws in arguments for evolution.
"None of the texts truly conform to the state's requirements that the strengths and weaknesses of scientific theories be presented to students," Frey said.
The Texas textbook proclamation of 2001, which is part of the standard for the state's curriculum, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, requires that biology textbooks instruct students so they may "analyze, review and critique scientific explanations, including hypotheses and theories, as to their strengths and weakness using scientific evidence and information."
The state board is empowered to reject books only for factual errors or for not meeting the state's curriculum requirements. If speakers convince the state board that their evidence is scientifically sound, members may see little choice but to demand its presence in schoolbooks.
Proposed books already have been reviewed and approved by Texas Tech University. After a public hearing Wednesday and another Sept. 10, the state board is scheduled to adopt the new textbooks in November.
Satisfying the state board is only half the battle for textbook publishers. Individual school districts choose which books to use and are reimbursed by the state unless they buy texts rejected by the state board.
Districts can opt not to use books with passages they find objectionable. So when speakers at the public hearings criticize what they perceived as flaws in various books - such as failing to portray the United States or Christianity in a positive light - many publishers listen.
New books will be distributed next summer.
State Board member Terri Leo said the Discovery Institute works with esteemed scientists and that their evidence should be heard.
"You cannot teach students how to think if you don't present both sides of a scientific issue," Leo said. "Wouldn't you think that the body that has the responsibility of what's in the classroom would look at all scientific arguments?"
State board member Bob Craig said he had heard of the Intelligent Design theory.
"I'm going in with an open mind about everybody's presentation," Craig said. "I need to hear their presentation before I make any decisions or comments.
State board member Mary Helen Berlanga said she wanted to hear from local scientists.
"If we are going to discuss scientific information in the textbooks, the discussion will have to remain scientific," Berlanga said. "I'd like to hear from some of our scientists in the field on the subject."
If you have unicorns in Job, you're reading the wrong translation. There are no unicorns in the Hebrew Bible.
Somehow, I doubt that.
It the bias going in that makes the difference.
But I bet you introduce a whole new set of baggage. The question is, which worldview is more cumbersome and less flexible?
Perhaps you missed it, but I posted the basic theory to you at post 1194. Some processes for the three mechanisms I outlined have been defined, studied, and confirmed. Mutation, gene duplication, viral gene insertions and good old sexual reproduction contribute to variation. Selection pressure can be quantified and studied. And we've had a pretty good grasp on heredity for several hundred years.
As for proof, I'm surprised you have not yet seen it posted here that proof is never applicable to scientific theories. The best any theory can hope for is an overwhelming abundance of confirming evidence. How would you go about proving, for example, that gravity directs planetary motion?
Incorrect...more people are seeing that evolution is nonsense.
Evolution, so far, matches the available evidence and explains it. No contradictory evidence has come to light
Wrong again...evolution cannot be tested, observed, and hasn't been proved. It is, therefore, NOT science. That we have a fossil record, and faulty dating methods does not "explain the evidence" . There are two theories the explains what we see...one being the Biblical account, attested by many Biblical figures, including Jesus Himself.
So far, I haven't seen one iota of evidence from any of y'all supporting creationism. Your entire argument boils down to "evolution is wrong, so creationism wins by default."
Totally wrong, as you no-doubt should know. There have been plenty of discussion on these threads showing how what we observe today is in line with the Biblical account of Creation. Just because you deny it does not mean the evolution religion, "wins by default".
Show us what you have, or forget ever being accepted by the scientific community
You keep referring to this great "scientific community" as somehow proving evolution. Just because individuals, brainwashed in schools with evolution religious doctrine, obtain a college degree in a scientific field, does not prove that what they were taught is "true". Because you have greater numbers of people publishing in biased journals does not equate to evolution nonsense being correct nonsense
It's simple, madam, every new paleontological discovery, every new species of fossil is an experiment testing the theory of evolution. One of the implications of the theory is that species evolve over time, and species should have traits of fossils before or after it. Each discovery is a direct experiment of that.
One of the necessities of evolution is an old earth. Ice cores and radioactive dating are independent tests that show that the earth is sufficiently old for evolution to occur (can you believe that there are tens of thousands of years worth of ice under Siberia?).
Mutating fruit flies are tests of the mechanisms of evolution. What are the exact mechanisms that cause species to change? What happens if I change gene X or Gene Y? What outcome will that have in the adult organism?
That's just some of the tests. Evolutionary theory is fully integrated into many disciplines, and the framework is making a lot of good things possible to help people. If you knew the extent, you'd be surprised, I think.
Very true, but the MAP probe sure made a few ideas look a lot more scientifically attractive than others.
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