In Ohio, Another Loss For "Intelligent Design" Proponents

[JABBS]

In the latest blow for proponents of "intelligent design," the Ohio Board of Education voted last week to eliminate a passage in the state's science standards that opened the door for the teaching of the controversial belief.

"It is deeply unfair to the children of this state to mislead them about science," said board member Martha Wise, who pushed to eliminate the passage.

Intelligent design is a controversial belief that argues that a higher being designed the complex universe. The belief has been championed by conservative Christian leaders as an alternative to evolutionary theory worthy of being taught in public schools. But it has been fought by supporters of separation of church and state, who see intelligent design as a thinly veiled way to teach religion in public schools.

Intelligent design proponents have also recently lost fights in California, Florida, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Still, a number of state legislatures are considering bills to allow intelligent design to be taught in public school classrooms.

Pending anti-evolution legislation currently includes: Alabama SB 240, Arkansas HB 2607, Georgia HB 179, Kansas SB 168, Michigan HB 5251, Mississippi SB 2286, Missouri HB 1266, New York 8036, Ohio HB 481, Oklahoma HB 2107, Pennsylvania HB 1007, South Carolina SB 909, Texas HB 1447 and Utah SB 96.

According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the various bills are designed to either discredit evolutionary theory, encourage teachers and students to explore intelligent design or other "alternative" theories, or promote the manufactured "controversy" over evolution.

"There is no significant controversy within the scientific community about the validity of evolution," wrote the AAAS board. "Evolution is one of the most robust and widely accepted principles of modern science."

So then why are so many states considering anti-evolution legislation? Because, like the U.S. Congress, most state legislatures have Republican majorities. And those Republican majorities are far more likely to be beholden to the religious right -- the main proponent of intelligent design.

In an effort to show that many religious individuals believe in scientific theory, a pro-evolution group called Clergy Letter Project announced it had gathered signatures from 10,000 clergy members in support of teaching evolution.

"Science is absolutely neutral with regard to religion," the Rev. George Coyne, director of the Vatican Observatory, said on Sunday, during the AAAS national science conference in St. Louis.

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This item first appeared at JABBS.

[HughBeaumont]

1. Keep your damned Cross OUT of my lab.

Man, why can't people just leave it at "I don't believe in evolution"? No, they have to invade my kid's classes.

[mzteris]

2. now help defeat it in UTAH!!!!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=491064&mesg_id=491064

[JABBS]

7. there are lots of states

with pending legislation. Utah is just one of several battlefronts for the reality-based community.

[mzteris]

8. forward what you have

to DefCon - maybe they can get a campaign going for them, too.

Evidently the Utah State servers were "shut down" over the response!

:rofl:

[JABBS]

9. list of bills

is in the article. AAAS is on top of it. I'm sure DefCon knows, too.

[TlalocW]

3. Georgia?

How the hell was it defeated in Georgia?

TlalocW

[mzteris]

4. here . . .

And a federal judge recently ruled that it was unconstitutional for Cobb County, Georgia, to require the placement of stickers in biology textbooks, reading: "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered."

That decision is currently under review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

[AllegroRondo]

5. Next up: "Sudden Emergence Theory"

and "Creative Evolution"

these are the latest code words being pushed by creationists.

[aden_nak]

6. Gary Trudeau brought up a great point a few months ago.

Vaccinations and medical treatments for infections are, often times, developed around the idea that the infectious body in question can adapt, and that natural selection allows the strongest and most virulent strains (those that survive the initial treatment, and thus become immune to it) to continue to spread. So far, I've yet to hear of a Creationist or an Intelligent Designist demanding the original, "Intelligent Design" version of his medical treatment. "None of this rubbish about natural selection or small organisms rapidly adapting to their new environment. Give me the original vaccine and let's see how it works!"