Merged Evolution battle brews in Texas / Victory for Evolution in Texas

This actually stresses me out a bit. Makes me a bit angry. If these guys want to believe in fairy stories fine with me, but hands off our science.

Because it is so obviously not critical thinking, why do you think they do it? Power? missguided/subconsciousthinking (i.e that cant help it)? plain idiocy?

JeeezzzzzzUS!
 
I don't think I'm wrong in saying that reason always wins... eventually.

Our planet is round, it goes around the sun, and every organism on it descended from a lineage of previous organisms that goes all the way back to the single-celled creatures that originally populated our oceans. The pattern is always the same: at first, the public at large does its best to ignore or suppress that which is indisputably true. Things slowly change, until eventually only the fringe whackos are left holding the "traditional" beliefs.
 
I'm just concerned that when we take two steps forward and one step back, that we're going to stumble in the process and fall off the edge of a cliff. There is a ready number of people, just in the U.S. alone, that distrusts science. The hope is that such a number of people diminishes until it reaches irrelevance, but with what is going on in Oklahoma, Kansas, and now Texas, I'm not certain we're reaching that point just yet, so we have to remain alert.
 
I'm not surprised Texans don't believe in evolution. They can look around and see themselves undergoing the process backwards. In that situation, of course they want the assistance of omnipotent deities, it's their only hope.
 
If these boobs rage against evolution much longer they will hopefully revert and head out to sea, thus sparing us future trouble.
 
BadBoy said:
Because it is so obviously not critical thinking, why do you think they do it? Power? missguided/subconsciousthinking (i.e that cant help it)? plain idiocy?
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The politicians do it because they know it will get votes from their base. There's probably some sheer idiocy in play too, for some of them at least.
 
godless dave said:
The politicians do it because they know it will get votes from their base. There's probably some sheer idiocy in play too, for some of them at least.
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Similar to the method by which the polar ice caps keep themselves cool, creationist communities keep themselves stupid. If you say something like "but whyfore still there be monkeys!" and everyone around you nods and mumbles "yeaaaaah!", you're going to be more inclined to keep believing it than if you said it in sweden and the person next to you slapped you upside the head.
 
Time to insist that they justify why their "null hypothesis" is superior to the "flying spaghetti monster" hypothesis.
 
You know for people who tend to claim they are patriots they sure have a way of betraying one of the United State's core principals. I guess all the courts were just talking to themselves when they said this was a violation of the Constitution over and over again.
 
Craig4 said:
You know for people who tend to claim they are patriots they sure have a way of betraying one of the United State's core principals. I guess all the courts were just talking to themselves when they said this was a violation of the Constitution over and over again.
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Don't you know? Jesus commissioned George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to build this holy Christian Nation!™ At least, that's how it seems to work.
 
Driftwood said:
Don't you know? Jesus commissioned George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to build this holy Christian Nation!™ At least, that's how it seems to work.
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I thought they wanted to pass over Jefferson because he started the "Separation between Church and State" bit they hate so much.
 
ehcks said:
I thought they wanted to pass over Jefferson because he started the "Separation between Church and State" bit they hate so much.
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No, no, no, friend, you have it all wrong. Jefferson definitely talked about loving Jesus and that the U.S. was based on Christianity. You can read the very accredited source here: [LINK] :xwink
 
The usual argument made by creationists (and others that take the opposing side on the separation debate) as I understand it is that as the Founders intended it "Separation" meant the government kept its nose out of religion's business, full stop. Not vice versa at all.

The same people tend to interpret the Establishment clause as narrowly as they accuse others of interpreting the 2nd amendment--that the only restriction is against Congress providing an official religion for the nation. Indirect "respects" such as funding or preferential treatment doesn't count to them. Nor do they accept the doctrine of incorporation which applies these restrictions to the state. According to them, a state setting up an official religion is perfectly Constitutional. Never mind that under the same reasoning a state is free to restrict speech, the press, peaceable assembly, AND FREE EXERCISE.
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BadBoy said:
This actually stresses me out a bit. Makes me a bit angry. If these guys want to believe in fairy stories fine with me, but hands off our science.

Because it is so obviously not critical thinking, why do you think they do it?

...

JeeezzzzzzUS!
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You answered your own question.
 
Okay, teach them that it's ID, but the intelligence is named Allah, and they must all face east when they say his name...

Oh, that's not what they meant? See their true colours coming out then.
 
PZ Myers wrote a short article a few days ago:

Texas, again
Posted on: May 20, 2011

That place is just a magnet for nuts. There is going to be a review of the science curriculum next month, and the creationists on the state board of education are gearing up by appointing more creationists to staff the panels. Furthermore, they're gathering specific curriculum materials, and skewing them towards lunacy.
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http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/05/texas_again.php
 
Dancing David said:
It looks as though it is a possible choice, not yet decided. But yuck, 'teach all sides', so "here we have alchemy and druidism"
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I was thinking that.

Perhaps someone should suggest Pagan studies to run alongside religious education, and the Egyptian/ Aboriginal Australian/ Indonesian / Pick-A-Myth-Cycle creation tales just for good measure.
 
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