Pharyngula::Alas, Texas

Pharyngula has moved to http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/

Friday, January 06, 2006

Alas, Texas

PZ Myers • 33 Comments (last page)

Kansans will be relieved to learn that their big buddy to the South, Texas, is going to take some of the heat off of them. We have a new target for ridicule:

Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican who has made outreach to Christian conservatives a theme of his gubernatorial portfolio, thinks Texas public school students should be taught intelligent design along with evolutionary theory, his office said Thursday.
…
Perry "supports the teaching of the theory of intelligent design," spokeswoman Kathy Walt said. "Texas schools teach the theory of evolution; intelligent design is a valid scientific theory, and he believes it should be taught as well."

The article does go on to mention that the chairperson of the State Board of Education, in a how-the-hell-did-this-kook-get-to-be-my-boss moment, pointed out that the educators of the state have had no intention of introducing a non-issue like ID into the curriculum.

I look forward to hearing the Discovery Institute's reaction. Will they repudiate their current strategy of pretending they don't want to teach ID in schools and embrace the propaganda opportunity, or will they let Perry twist in the wind? Will the Thomas More Law Center, fresh off their masochistic adventure in Dover, step forward with joy in their hearts and beg, "yes, whip me again, please"? Will the voters of Texas finally realize that even idiots can wear a cowboy hat and boots?

Trackback url: http://tangledbank.net/index/trackback/3680/

Comments:

#56707: — 01/06 at 03:54 PM
Can any of you ezplain why this whole ID and creationist BS is so strong in the USA and is pretty much a non issue in Canada and Europe (I don't know much about the issue in Asian countries)?

I have long considerd the USA as a world leader in most areas of science but it will not remian that way much longer if this kind of drivel is permitted to continue. What a huge waste of time.

I also don't udnerstand how a governor can ignore the ruling by a Federal judge that ID is emphatically not science and that trying to put it into science classes is not just stupid but unconstitutional. Do state governors not swear to uphold the constitution? (or is that just a Federal thing and education is in the hands of states?)

Religion is taught to children that have not yet developed critical thinking skills. I agree with Dawkins that this is a pernicious and damaging meme that infects those least able to withstand it. I would hope that the educators of Texas can see this and resist further damaging the youth that are in their care.

#56718: Jayme Lynn Blaschke — 01/06 at 05:10 PM
CanuckRob, the justification is that Texas is in a different district than the federal court that ruled on the Dover case, and therefore holds no juristiction over Texas. Since the Supreme Court hasn't ruled on the overall validity of ID, then it's still fair game and valid theory in areas outside of Pennsylvania. At least, that's the arguement of folks like Perry and the Discovery Institute.

And yes, this is a blatant vote grab by Perry to try and blunt Strayhorn's indy appeal to Republican voters. It's a very insincere gesture by Perry (who I really suspect doesn't believe ID has a thimble's worth of credibility) but he's shown a willingness to stoop to any level if it lands him votes, which is why it's a concern...

#56729: Keith — 01/06 at 06:01 PM
What gets me is he goes and makes this anouncement after Dover, after the ridicule heaped on Kansas, after the smack down that ID has gotten in the last six months, he decides to join the loosing camp. It's like running off to join the Confederacy after Appamaddox.

#56734: — 01/06 at 06:41 PM
"Can any of you ezplain why this whole ID and creationist BS is so strong in the USA and is pretty much a non issue in Canada and Europe (I don't know much about the issue in Asian countries)?"

Pure, concentrated, and outright eliminationist hatred of intellectuals. It's one of the most consistent themes over the past two hundred years. This dovetails perfectly with the freakish and frankly obscene devotion to religion.

So long as intellectuals remained ghettoized in the universities, the US at large was generally willing to tolerate them. This has changed recently.

#56735: — 01/06 at 06:44 PM
"a) That life is making decisions and acting on them. At the moment any decision is made it is the result of summing only emotional inputs. We feel our decisons - we don't reason them."

If it's impossible to make a decision based on reason (which is what this implies) then the discussion is self-annihilating. There can be no possible point to it. Those who already agree with you have not come to that decision based on reason, reason could not persuade them otherwise. Those who disagree with you have the same issue.

#56765: Matt McIrvin — 01/06 at 09:44 PM
In terms of overall culture, much of Northern Europe is considerably more secular/rationalist than the US; Southern Europe and Canada, only a little more secular/rationalist than the US. I also haven't seen any evidence that hatred of intellectuals is profoundly more intense in the US than in Canada; the culture of the two countries is not that different.

I think it's more specific and historically contingent than that. Modern Protestant fundamentalism, with its insistence on a literal Genesis and its creepy End Times fixation, is largely a movement of American origin. The Roman Catholic Church is just not particularly into this stuff, nor are the various Protestant churches of Europe.

That doesn't mean that they are necessarily bulwarks of reasoned inquiry. Many of their members believe in myth and miracle to a degree that rivals any American fundamentalist; it's just that their church doesn't specifically have denial of evolution as a doctrinal pillar.

#56772: Alon Levy — 01/06 at 10:45 PM
To add to the scary nature of this scenario, bear in mind that Texas, as a key market, sets much of the tone for textbooks and curriculum throughout the entire nation. Craziness there tends to spread like flesh-eating bacteria across much of the central and southern US.

Don't Texas and California control the textbook market jointly?

#56803: — 01/07 at 04:52 AM
<i>Don't Texas and California control the textbook market jointly? <i>
Yes they do, though jointly may not be the right word since their curricula could hardly be more different. Texas is in some ways more potent because of its adoption procedures. One textbook per subject (grade) is pretty much the rule in Texas (hence the infamous Texas school book depository of history and legend). California is allows greater flexibility for local districts; the state board allows several different books for districts to choose from.
Also not as many states lift big whacking chunks of their standards straight out of California's standards, but a few do lift section of Texan standards to say time and effort (a state like Nebraska is never going to get a textbook that coordinates specifically with its standards, but gets along better if it picks up parts of Texas's standards).

#56834: arensb — 01/07 at 11:45 AM

Will the Thomas More Law Center, fresh off their masochistic adventure in Dover, step forward with joy in their hearts and beg, "yes, whip me again, please"?

No, they're busy in Michigan, suing a school district that doesn't allow ID.

#56860: jason — 01/07 at 02:53 PM
The best hope is that Perry will be out of office by 2008 and his replacement will be disinterested in violating biology textbooks -- not to mention science in general -- with this nonsense.

To think I believed I couldn't be more embarrassed to live in Texas. I've now been proven wrong.

Page 2 of 2 pages < 1 2

Next entry: Wondering why things are so slow this morning?

Previous entry: Casciola vs. Righi

<< Back to main

Pharyngula has moved to http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/

Friday, January 06, 2006

Alas, Texas

Info