Twitter
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Delicious
Digg
Newsvine
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiReligion Still a Factor in Texas Science Classrooms
Votes Split on Science Curriculum. But State Board of Ed chair says of final action today, 'Anthing can happen.'
The board also voted for a new requirement that students study the "sufficiency and insufficiency" of natural selection to explain the complexity of cells.
![[Michelangelo's fresco "La Creazione" depicts the making of man on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. (AP 1999 file photo)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/lacreazione_michelangelo.jpg "lacreazione_michelangelo.jpg")
Those were just two of several split votes on disputed aspects of the state science curriculum standards, which the 15-member board is currently rewriting.
Thursday's committee votes offered a prelude to the final votes expected today, but as board Chairman Don McLeroy, R-College Station, said, "Anything can happen."
The battle over the science curriculum standards in Texas has ignited a firestorm here and across the country, due in part to Texas' power, because of its size, to control what publishers put in textbooks.
Board members critical of evolution say they want students to study alternate theories of the origins of life. Critics of the challenges to teaching evolution say language encouraging alternate theories is a ploy by creationist board members to insert the discussion of religion in science class.
The board also adopted language that would have students study the "different views on the existence of global warming."
Board member Mary Helen Berlanga, who has voted against requiring students to learn the weaknesses of scientific theories, was not at Thursday's meeting because of a family emergency. The board meets again for a series of final votes today, and all members are expected to participate, Texas Education Agency spokeswoman Debbie Graves Ratcliffe said.
Given the history of the votes so far, the return of Berlanga, D-Corpus Christi, could have an impact on the rewrite today, but it may not be enough to keep the insufficiencies language out of the curriculum.
McLeroy pushed the language and is confident he has the votes he needs to keep it. McLeroy, who said he thinks that evolution taught uncritically undermines faith, has also said that he is not interested in trying to insert religion into science classrooms but just wants to be sure that students are encouraged to think critically about all scientific theories.
Ken Mercer, R-San Antonio, who represents Hays County and parts of Travis, introduced an amendment that would have kept current language in the curriculum requiring students be taught the "strengths and weaknesses" of science theories; it failed 7-7.
34 Comments so far
Show AllConstantine worshiped the Sun God, Mithra, all his life. He was only baptized as a Christian on his death bed. We still worship Mithra. Sunday, not Saturday is the holy day.
The mystery cults around the Mediterranean all believed in a virgin born son of god who died and then came back to life. Depending on whether you wee in Egypt, Greece, or Persia the names changed and it was considered good manners to use the vocabulary of the region you happened to be in at the time.
Paul, not Jesus created Christianity along the lines familiar to him. The son of God was born of a virgin, destined to die for the benefit of humankind, and then return to life. The moral code of Pauline Christianity was, predictably, the moral code of stoic philosophy.
Not the message Jesus or his brother James preached, but still probably no better or worse than other monotheistic faiths.
Good luck, Texas! I hope there are enough intelligent people in your state to overcome the efforts of these Christian fools.
This is the result of poverty: intellectual poverty, emotional poverty, cultural poverty, spiritual poverty, financial poverty. When people are impoverished, they become confused and fearful. Fear, lack of higher education and absence of a spiritual practice that cultivates insight into reality brings them together in shared beliefs. The Shadow, fear, is projected outward onto the Other, those that do not share the belief structure.
And God separated the light from the dark, and the dark he called Texas.
Ah yes, just yesterday we had a western world ruled by christians. That was called the dark ages wasn't it?
The US has now moved to the back of the bus where rel science and education are concerned and we will continue to see Crusades for the greater control of world thought.
Really makes one proud.
Jesus Never! Darwin Forever!!!
"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully"- W.
He should do stand up now that he has so much free time!
I guess the Theory of Gravity, which is far less well understood than the Theory of Evolution, doesn't have these problems because the basic effect of Gravity can be observed on Earth.
According to our current hypothesis regarding Gravity, should our Sun suddenly cease to exist the motion of the Earth would instantly change while still receiving solar radiation, arriving at the speed of light, for about 8 minutes.
Indeed - what about the "sufficiency and insufficiency" of the heliocentric theory, or the atomic theory, or the genetic theory? What of Feynman's quantum electro-dynamical theory (supposedly the most accurate theory in all of science), or our old favourite, aerodynamic theory - what *really* keeps us in the air?
These people reveal their ignorance of all science, not just biology, when they pick on evolution like this. We use the word "theory" very loosely in normal language, but in science a theory is rather more than an expensively educated guess.
"Christians" like the Theory of Gravity because, well, things fall ...and not understanding seems to also be a plus :)
If these amendments pass in Texas (see http://ncseweb.org/creationism/analysis/analysis-proposed-texas-educational-knowledge-skills-teks-am for amendment details), educators and text book editors should make sure to include a wide variety of creation stories that span time, space, and culture.
While my high school science education did not include such information, my “Global Education” courses did. It was very enlightening to learn about the different ways people have explained terrestrial and human origins. Learning about the different ways that people explain things has had a lasting impact on me as a scholar studying classification systems in the context of science and technology studies.
What proponents of these kinds of amendments fail to recognize is that they are not the only people who have narratives that provide orientation to make life meaningful. Expanding science curriculum to the exploration of topics interrogated through social sciences, like anthropology, could really contribute to the opening of the American mind (see Levine 1996). All science curriculum should be promoting critical inquiry and Christian-logic does underlie modern science--consider that Christian prayers are read prior to NASA space launches (see David Noble 1999 Religion of Technology) and that scientific narratives often invoke socially constructed notions of "nature" such as the 'strong-virile male versus the weak-nurturing female' (see Emily Martin 2001 The Woman in the Body). When we are able to understand the relationship between the dominant stories we tell and the scientific narratives that emerge, we are able to develop a much deeper understanding of how we relate to, find meaning within, and make sense of ourselves and our worlds.
So, fear not. Hopefully the amendments will all fail.
And if they don’t?
Scholars should work toward undermining these kinds of amendments by taking seriously the need to provide students with diverse ideas and resources to interrogate taken-for-granted norms and the assumed "nature" of reality.
nia savage
"What proponents of these kinds of amendments fail to recognize is that they are not the only people who have narratives that provide orientation to make life meaningful."
They don't fail to recognize this. They fail to care. Their interest is in peddling THEIR beliefs only. This would come out in the open for all to see if for example the school board was mostly Hindu, and they decided "Yes" we will allow an alternate theory, and that theory will be the Hindu creation myth. All of a sudden you'd see outrage that "godless Hindu beliefs" are being foisted on the poor unsuspecting Christian children.
...exactly. the amendment they are trying to pass would totally allow for all kinds of beliefs to be introduced.
and i'm not so sure that all the people who espouse reactionary-religious view just don't care. people draw upon dogma, stories, experiences, mediations, movements, etc to organize a meaningful world. if "they" don't care, then neither do "we". We're all together. And that's true even if some of us don't play so nice with others.
...evolution taught uncritically undermines faith...? Whose faith? Christians and Jews? All of them? If not which ones?
The real stupidity here is opening this "can of worms" to start with.
Texas make Kansas look progressive.
Never criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his moccasins - Native American proverb.
"Board members critical of evolution say they want students to study alternate theories of the origins of life."
It wouldn't surprise me to find this to be true, even though evolution is not a theory on the origin of life, its a theory on the origin of species.
"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear."-Thomas Jefferson
I always draw ire from people pushing to teach Creation as a science when I ask where Cain got his wife. The Bible says God only created one woman.
Their reactions to that question can get really creative.
Too bad they are not as creative, when it comes to evolution.
In more uplifting news from Texas:
Before she filed to run for a spot on the Texas Supreme Court, Linda Reyna Yañez received some unsolicited advice. "I was told, don't use your maiden name because then people might think, 'Oh Linda Yañez—maybe she's a white woman who married a Hispanic man,' and you might get that benefit. I said, no, that is my name."...A similar bias against ethnic or funny-sounding names may have cost four Harris County judicial candidates, the only Democrats to lose there: Mekisha Murray, Ashish Mahendru, Andres Pereira and Goodwille Pierre. Murray, who is white, says she is frequently assumed to be black. Strangers shouldn't make that mistake any more; she is changing her first name to "Jane"...
www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2906&print=true
The Dark Ages still abound. Lets teach our children potions and spells along with a good dose of mythology and fantasy - that should prep them nicely for competing with graduate students from around the world whose education is not directed by religious dogma and just plain nonsense.
I thought this was settled in Dover PA.....apparently not.
Dover will remain a critical precedent, but this kind of bullshit is going to keep coming around as long as there are willfully ignorant Christians peddling their snake oil.
ah, yes, it seems like only yesterday that the world was still flat, and only yesterday that the earth was only 6000 years old, and only yesterday that the solar system including the sun revolved around the earth, and only yesterday that people were believing such things, huh?, hmm?, oops! actually it wasn't yesterday that people were believing such things, come to think of it, it's today!!!
Here we go, open this can of worms for the religious right and every other religion and cult will be demanding that their beliefs be included too. Oh, Oh, Buddha and Jesus sitting in a tree, ......, hmm. Ya know, if the right is so set on this, why don't they just send their kids to bible school instead of trying to force everyone else to wear a set of blinders.
Hey, is this a two way street? Are bibles going to be forced to have pictures of t-rex chasing Jesus around? Let's just see which of those two of God's creations wins out in survival of the fittest. Good grief!
The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
-"...to explain gaps in the fossil record"??
While they are at it why don't they legislate the supplementing of physics classes with the requirement for school kids to study Captain Kirks's guide to space warps.
Aren't you guys concerned that you might lose your technical edge to countries like China and India. They study science and math not magic spells and alchemy.
Hahaha that's awesome!
Do they also want the students to think critically about religion? No, probably not.
Think critically about religion? What a preposterous idea! (I love it!)
I dont trust either the Bible or Darwin to be right. Maybe origin is something beyond comprehension. We cant know absolutes.
Whether one is a theory or the other is myth, who cares.
I dont see squirrels or weeds worrying about it.
In the end its really just trivia.
People who are stupid enough to think humans are great will find what they need in the Great Chain of Being or scientific theory.
They have always spun things according to their beliefs.
Webber dixit: "We can't know absolutes." Is that an absolute?
Are you a weed?
Weeds, typically, don't worry about anything, whether it be the origin of species or the next rain fall.
Worrying, caring, being preoccupied, on the other hand, are very much part of us. If you cared as little as the weed, you wouldn't even have bothered writing that post.
Even if you come around and grant me these observations, that does not mean of course that you have to be a Darwinian. However, I highly recommend reading at least The Origin of Species, as it is a very rewarding experience.
Good comment. Science, to it's credit does not claim to know how life began or even exactly what life is.
What makes one mixture of chemicals alive and another not? Where does consciousness come from? Is there such a thing as a mind or does that just refer to what we don't understand about the brain?
People seem to be most enthusiastic in their defense of beliefs for which they have the least evidence.
Nice comments, although I have some differences with Webber (see my post above).
The last one is very apt: one might call that sort of behavior overcompensation. The zeal to push certain beliefs is inversely proportional to the evidence. Since the evidence is so flimsy and thus fails to convince on its own, the faithful have to use force (laws, threats, violence, etc.) to impose their beliefs upon others.
Can't Omnipotent God look after himself? Why does He always require committees of pudgy dummies to do His will?
Yes, you would almost think that these pudgy dummies lacked faith.
Correction: Can't Omnipotent God look after Herself? Why does She always require committees of pudgy dummies to do Her will? ;+)
Scientific theorizing includes its own assessment and criticism, and that is precisely ONE of the things that distinguishes it from religious discourse, which is merely dogmatic and basically incapable of self-critique (look at the Pope's message on contraception and AIDS, one of the most criminally dogmatic and immoral positions in any religion ever). Science, unlike religion, has internalized healthy skepticism.
There is thus no need for an amendment in any legislation over this land regarding the "strengths and weaknesses" of scientific theories. This is merely another way of undermining inquiry into nature that is free of the dogma and prejudices of religion.