Kansas Evolution Fight Escalates...

[Manny]

Please excuse this brief rant.

HOW THE HELL CAN PEOPLE WHO GROW CROPS FOR A LIVING NOT BELIEVE IN EVOLUTION? EVOLUTION IS THEIR FREAKING JOB!

I swear, someone should organize a tour of the state carrying the closest remaing relative to the precursor of today's wheat and explain what happened to turn that shrubby, stubbly seminutritious stuff into Amber Waves of Grain.

 

[tsg]

In addition, the board rewrote the definition of science, so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena.

In other news, they've legislated that PI is exactly equal to three, the stars are painted on a glass dome surrounding the earth, and that the earth is flat.

 

[delphi_ote]

I totally understand. It's like my mother being deathly afraid of the bird flu, but not believing in evolution.

 

[Tricky]

Please excuse this brief rant.

HOW THE HELL CAN PEOPLE WHO GROW CROPS FOR A LIVING NOT BELIEVE IN EVOLUTION? EVOLUTION IS THEIR FREAKING JOB!

I swear, someone should organize a tour of the state carrying the closest remaing relative to the precursor of today's wheat and explain what happened to turn that shrubby, stubbly seminutritious stuff into Amber Waves of Grain.

That's going to be a bit of a tough sell. Fundies will argue that deliberate breeding is not evolution but conscious selection. Of course, that assumes that man is not himself a product of nature and therefore any selective pressure he applies is unnatural. It is a fallacious argument which ignores that other creatures, like birds, exercise selective pressure when they choose one fruit over another.

But like you, I'd like to see some of these people survive on the crops that existed before Luthur Burbank diddled with them. For that matter, livestock are a bit better than they used to be too, eh wot?

 

[fishbob]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/08/n...&en=85eb4c40222ecd56&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Irony:

"I'm very pleased to be maybe on the front edge of trying to bring some intellectual honesty and integrity to the science classroom rather than asking students to check their questions at the door because it is a challenge to the sanctity of evolution," said Kenneth Willard, a board member from Hutchinson.

Outright lie:

Steve E. Abrams of Arkansas City, the board chairman and chief sponsor of the standards overhaul, said that requiring consideration of critics "absolutely teaches more about science."

Smug hypocrisy:

John Calvert, a lawyer, who runs the Kansas-based Intelligent Design Network, praised the board for "taking a very courageous step" that would "make science education interesting to students rather than boring."

These guys appear to be better organized than the Dover group. I think they would be ripped a new one in court, though.

PS: The press has a lot to answer for. What journalism rule says you have to publish bovine excrement just because some official says it?

 

[tsg]

PS: The press has a lot to answer for. What journalism rule says you have to publish bovine excrement just because some official says it?

Well, as the Dover Panda trial recently pointed out, the newspaper articles will come in handy later when the officials try to deny it.

 

[Belz...]

But like you, I'd like to see some of these people survive on the crops that existed before Luthur Burbank diddled with them.

Or on the bananas that existed before we messed with them.