Posted on 08/20/2003 6:24:57 PM PDT by new cruelty
The debate continues over what information Texas biology books should present.
The Texas Board of Education is looking to pick the best science book for students.
Members of a campaign called "Stand Up For Science'' said it's meant to protect the accurate teaching of evolution in Texas high school biology textbooks.
The push was unveiled on Wednesday by some religious leaders, scientists and parents. It comes as the state Board of Education prepares to adopt new biology textbooks this fall.
Terry Maxwell, a professor of biology at Angelo State University, doesn't believe creationism should be in biology textbooks.
"Science uses evidentiary reasoning and it uses no other approach," he said.
Creationists generally believe earth was formed supernaturally by God.
Reverend Tom Hegar said while he believes in God's powers, those ideas need to stay at home or in the church.
"Faith and science are complimentary. Don't use faith to build your science. Don't use science to try to destroy or shrink my faith," he said.
Seattle-based Discovery Institute believes the theory of intelligent design should be in Texas biology books. According to the Institute, intelligent design is the hypothesis that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection.
Science backers say that's the same thing as creationism.
"Textbooks should fix embarrassing factual errors and tell students about the scientific weakness of neo-Darwinism as well as its strengths," Discovery Institute officials stated in a faxed memo.
Maxwell said two different ideologies make it harder for students to learn science.
"If you interject ways of knowing other than the way science is practiced by mainstream science you confuse children," he said.
Austin biology teacher Amanda Walker said evolution is the cornerstone for understanding the living world, and influences medicine such as prostate cancer, heart disease and AIDS.
The evolution proponents also criticized what they said are attempts to teach creationist theories.
The Board of Education can reject books because of errors or failure to follow the state curriculum.
The board will make its final decision on the biology textbooks in November.
People have until Thursday, Aug. 21, to sign up to speak at the final public hearing Sept. 10.
In July, the first public hearing brought 42 speakers who offered their opinions at the public hearing on biology, but only half of them were familiar with the particular books.
Board member Gail Lowe said then she was disappointed that many of the people who testified for or against certain textbooks hadn't actually read them.
"They seem to be here to express a viewpoint, but it doesn't seem to relate to the textbooks we're actually considering," she said.
If the media aren't allowed to spin this affair into a replay of "Inherit the Wind" where all the conclusions are neatly spelled out in advance of the facts, the textbook situation in this country might stand a chance of getting aired out. Textbook publishers have turned into little more than paper mills. Anything they can get Texas and California to buy will be snapped up by everybody else, no matter how chock-full of boneheaded mistakes, myths, and disproved "facts" they are.
Not that anybody reads them these days....
15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense. From Scientific American
Project Steve: FAQs (National Center for Science Education)
Arguments we think creationists should NOT use from Answers in Genesis.
The foregoing is just a tiny sample. So that everyone will have access to the accumulated Creationism vs. Evolution threads which have previously appeared on FreeRepublic, plus links to hundreds of sites with a vast amount of information on this topic, here's Junior's massive work, available for all to review:
The Ultimate Creation vs. Evolution Resource [ver 21].
A Preliminary Analysis of the Treatment of Evolution in Biology Textbooks
Columnist at Austin Chronicle Offers Poorly Designed Arguments
Critics accuse publisher of changing textbook
Institute supports accurate science
For your information: many of the regulars on the science threads here on Free Republic have joined in the AGREEMENT OF THE WILLING to promote civil discourse and to avoid flame wars which lead to excessive use of the abuse button, transfer to the Smokey Backroom, and ultimately ... thread deletion. I respectfully ask that you read the linked agreement so that you will know what the willing parties expect of one another and their dealings with others.
Then you're way ahead of me. All I had was 3 years of Latin in high school. It was sufficient to give me an absurdly fond impression of the classical period.
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