After living in Texas for 21 years, Buzz has grown sort of fond of the place and is a little defensive when friends and family from out of state (damn Yankees) refer to Texans as a bunch of gun-totin' truck-drivin' ignorant goobers. That's why, as we read a story in the March 19 New York Times about how some IMAX theaters in Southern states are refusing to screen science documentaries that mention evolution for fear of offending fundamentalists, we said a silent prayer: "Please not in Texas."
We got six paragraphs in before the inevitable hit. The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History was one of the museums that declined to screen Volcanoes of the Deep Sea, in part because of comments from some members of a 137-person sample audience who found it blasphemous or distasteful for its references to evolution, the Times reported. "I really hate it when the theory of evolution is presented as fact," one wrote.
Welcome to Gooberville. In 1633, Galileo had to be shown the implements of torture before he recanted his "theory" that Earth revolves around the sun. In 2005 Gooberville, Galileo would have been shot down by a marketing survey. <snip>
http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2005-03-31/news/buzz.html