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."
In the case of the ocean limestones, it tends to be chock-full of marine fossils. They die. They sink. Other stuff falls on top. More stuff falls on top of that.
Maybe eventually conditions change and deposition stops. What was sea bottom is lifted up so that surf and tides wear on it. Some of the sediment wears away, but maybe not all. Maybe it eventually becomes tidal swamp, with a different kind of deposition layered over what was the bottom half of the original limestone layer.
What tends to happen is that any given slice of geography has periods of deposition. There's missing data between the layers. This happens because just locally erosion predominated for a time. (But you can fill in the picture by moving around and sampling lots of places around the area. You compare and correlate. Dig A might show a layer between layers which are successive in Dig B simply because there was less erosion at the site of Dig A.
This is elementary geology. Shame they didn't cover it in a college-level intro course.
This is also good example of how there's no way the geologic column anywhere in the world looks like one big flood.
It would be interesting to create a computer model of such an event and see what comes up.
Now, somebody might be offended by that. Where Is Jesse's number?
I'm funny that way...I tend to get riled when elitist oppressors try to tell me how to live my life or raise my children.
If you want to teach your kids however you want, it's FINE with us, for god's sake Ex you need to get a grip.
I have a grip...on my rights under the U.S. Constitution. I think you evolutionists need to get a grip on what individual freedom is about.
But, if you choose to have your children educated in Public School, expect them to be taught science, no matter how much it upsets you.
Yes, a scientific theory is mandated by the govt. - so much for freedom of thought. Can you think of another that is?
Evolution will be taught in science class, not next to ID though, because ID has not shown itself to be science, by a LONG shot!! As a matter of fact, it hasn't even tried.
That's your opinion based on your naturalistic presuppositions. Parents have a right to tell you to go jump in the lake. If 20 million parents did that, you all would have to surrender as you can't put 20 million people in jail. That day is coming when people will stand up and tell you to stuff your theory where the sun doesn't shine. The position of evolutionists is: Darwinism is science because we say it is, and nothing else will be taught in govt. schools because we say so.
Gore accused me of removing key parts of an article for which I posted the link.
Yes, and Robert E. Lee referred to unionists as "those people". Call Jesse - I have something to say to that racist as well.
Really? If that is all it is, WHY is it the only scientific theory mandated for teaching by the U.s. govt? Answer the question.
exmarine: I have authority over my own kids (you don't have any legitimate say over my kids) and if there were any justice in this nation, I would have a say over what is taught IN MY COMMUNITY SCHOOLS.
I would hope you would want them to know more about science than you do, but that's clearly far from the case. Your kids aren't just your pets. Other people have to deal with your failure to educate them. And how big is this "community" where the standards are established? Is it every town that polls its citizens and sets its own textbook standards? Every county? Is it done at the state level? (It apparently is in Texas.) Whatever it takes before the Witch Doctors win something, somewhere?
exmarine: If the majority of parents in any given community anwywhere want the curriculum changed, who are you to say they can't? It's their community.
If they want to teach the kids the Wicca religion instead of science, is that OK? Community standards and all that.
VadeRetro: But who are these big money men funding the Discovery Institute to go into Texas and stir up this issue? Are they from Texas? Have you checked?
I think you completely whiffed on this one. Want to try for strike two?
I did no such thing. Show me where I did that.
Sometimes I feel sorry for you guys, I really, really do.
Feel sorry for yourself. You are ignorant of the U.S. Constitution and the freedoms extended therefrom.
Failure to teach Genesis in science class is not teaching atheism. If you're talking about anything else, please explain yourself better.
The original Patrick Henry lived and died before Darwin published his theory. Of course he was a creationist. Virtually everyone was in his time. But I think that if he were alive today, brilliant fellow that he was, he would be persuaded by the evidence. How do I know this? He told us so:
Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves ...
From the famous "Liberty or Death" speech, March 23, 1775
Concepts totally sublimated, hard to breathe this rarified philosophic air.
You being unaware of elementary geology does not equate to geology not existing.
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