(Texas is ground zero on Fundie anti Science strategy. It's good TFN is on the job. Please support them if you can. - promoted by boadicea)
The debate about teaching creationism in the classroom is set to start again in Texas after a report was released this week by the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund detailing a survey conducted of what scientist in Texas think should be taught in Texas science classrooms. The survey concludes that 98% of scientists favor the unadulterated teaching of evolution in public school science classrooms.
The Discovery Institute, the conservative Christian anti-science "think tank," posted an article in which the claim is made that it is actually the TFN that wants to "water down the teaching of evolution" and "remove the strengths and weaknesses language." The article goes on to claim that the 95% of scientist in the report only want "half of evolution taught" and "are seeking to limit the free flow of information and censor science." Another claim is that there are "valid and significant scientific challenges to Darwinian evolution that students need to know about. Evidence is not contingent on a consensus."
Teaching evolution in science class is not teaching half of evolution, because intelligent design is not half of the theory of evolution. Intelligent design is not science, in fact it does not even met the basic criteria of a scientific theory. Also, there is not a significant amount of scientific challenges to evolution that students need to be taught; Lawrence Krauss reviewed 10 million scientific articles and scientific citation indexes over twelve years and found that there were 88 articles about intelligent design and only 11 were not in engineering journals and out of those 8 out of 11 were critical of intelligent design and the remaining 3 were not in peer reviewed journals.
Other notable findings in the survey included that 89.7% of scientist surveyed believed that "modern evolutionary biology is largely correct in its essentials, but still has open questions for active scientific research." While 0% of scientists (none of the 464 survey recipients) believe that "modern evolutionary biology is completely wrong" and that "life was created essentially as we see it today." When asked if there was significant difference between creationism and intelligent design 78.2% said that there was no difference and 15.5% said that there was a difference.
This evening the Texas State Board of Education is conducting a public forum on current curriculum requiring students to be taught the "strengths and weaknesses" of all scientific theories, and according to the Houston Chronicle "89 people had signed up to testify on the proposal, which also suggests encouraging middle school students to discuss alternative explanations for evolution."
Despite the voices of hundreds of scientist from Universities across the state, including conservative Christian colleges such as Baylor University, Dallas Baptist University, and Texas Christian University, there are still voices that insist that intelligent design and creationism is actually about science and not religion. In the same article Jonathan Saenz, a lobbyist for the conservative Christian organization Texas Free Market Foundation, said, "The reality is this issue is about evolution and teaching strengths and weaknesses of evolution. It's about science and teaching science right, regardless of what religious beliefs people have."
A new statewide survey conducted by the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund shows that science faculty at both public and private universities in Texas reject anti-evolution arguments.
In a conference call with Texas bloggers Monday afternoon, Dr. Raymond Eve, a professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Arlington, who conducted the survey for TFN, outlined its results and highlighted five key findings contained in a report released today outlining the results of the study:
You can hear him talk about the e coli evolution that has conservapedia hysteria reaching such a fever pitch on one of my favorite science podcasts, The Naked Scientists.
Dr. Lenski mentioned one of his reasons for addressing Schlafly head on was his mission as an educator, and in the interview his ability to explain evolution for a lay audience-including children-is certainly a strong characteristic.
Listen with your little scientists, or listen for the pure joy of hearing the phrase "evolved bacteria kick butt".
Want another reason for telling people to vote the straight Democratic ticket this fall? Tell them how important the down ticket judgeships and board memberships can be. Case in point: the State School Board....
I posted a dairy several months ago reporting the hopeful news that the state school board, contrary to appearances, was NOT going to revisit the Evolution Wars. I quote myself:
Texas Kaos:: Open Thread: State School Board Opposes the Teaching of ID!?! "My take: hold them to what they are saying now. I still don't trust'em, but I am open to changing my mind . Although creationism is the most prominent flash point in the debate over school curriculum, it is not the only one. That the newly appointed chairman, who is on the record as supporting creationism is now publicly he will not support its inclusion in the biology text is a major victory in my book."
The key source of hope was that the chairman of the state education board, Dr. Don McLeroy [R , College Station], had said that creationism would NOT be an issue anymore.
Lest we be charged with only commenting on the train wreck that is state government these days [ see here, here, here and here ], here is some good news, if it holds...
AUSTIN - A majority of State Board of Education members said the theory of intelligent design should be left out of the science curriculum for public schools.
The board will rewrite the science curriculum next year and some observers expect backers of intelligent design to push for the theory's inclusion.
In interviews with The Dallas Morning News, 10 of the board's 15 members said they wouldn't support requiring the teaching of intelligent design. One board member said she was open to the idea. Four board members didn't respond to the newspaper's phone calls.
[snip] "Creationism and intelligent design don't belong in our science classes," said Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy, who described himself as a creationist. "Anything taught in science has to have consensus in the science community and intelligent design does not."
McLeroy, R-College Station, said he doesn't want to change the existing requirement that evolution be taught in high school biology classes. But he joined several of his colleagues in arguing that biology textbooks should cover the weaknesses of the theory of evolution.
LINK
Texas' own state Rep. Warren Chisum, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, had to mail colleagues a freakish memo denouncing evolution as a religious plot disseminated by one "Pharisee Religion."
The document linked to Web sites including "fixedearth.com," which asserts that Earth is the center of the universe. Chillingly, the links also offer overtly anti-Semitic rants, contending that evolutionary science supports a "centuries-old" Jewish conspiracy against Christian teachings.
Circulated under Chisum's letterhead as Appropriations Committee chairman, the memo actually was penned by Rep. Ben Bridges of the Georgia Legislature. "I ... greatly appreciate his information on this important topic," Chisum assured his Texas colleagues
According to the Dallas Morning News, Chisum said he's "willing to apologize" about his references to Jews. He said he didn't know about the ranting on the memo's recommended Web sites.
Moderate Republicans scored key primary victories in State Board of Education races, wrestling control from conservatives in a battle shaped by the debate over the teaching of evolution.
John H. Marburger III, science adviser to the president and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, will field questions from readers about White House policies on science and technology.
1. Do you believe that brain dead woman, who brain has literally liquified & would have joined God had Man (in the form of the GOP) not interfered, should be used as a political tool?
2. Why do you think so many Scientistic journals, for example Scietific American, have taken you to task for the "War on Science" they believe Bushco is waging?
3. Are you going to increase funding in science, including stem cell research, and particle accelerators?
4. What do you think is the economic impact of losing so many scientists who migrated abroad or chose other fields after losing funding or just being discouraged by the theological-based rulings of the Bush administration?
5. What is your moral responsibility when religiously based decisions trump scientific ones and endanger the lives of people around the world, such providing finanical assistance to African countries which promote only anti-condom, abstinence only messages?
Remember Dr. 
