Wash Post wakes up: Battle on Teaching Evolution Sharpens
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This topic has been around for quite some time now, there are multiple old articles and blog entries by myself and many others both for and against teaching evolution and/or including "Intelligent Design" in classroom curriculum.
It seems that the venerable Washington Post wants to refresh the news cycle on the topic, and thus, they've published the following article (excerpted, headline is linked).
Battle on Teaching Evolution Sharpens
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 14, 2005; Page A01
WICHITA – Propelled by a polished strategy crafted by activists on America's political right, a battle is intensifying across the nation over how students are taught about the origins of life. Policymakers in 19 states are weighing proposals that question the science of evolution.
The proposals typically stop short of overturning evolution or introducing biblical accounts. Instead, they are calculated pleas to teach what advocates consider gaps in long-accepted Darwinian theory, with many relying on the idea of intelligent design, which posits the central role of a creator.
The growing trend has alarmed scientists and educators who consider it a masked effort to replace science with theology. But 80 years after the Scopes "monkey" trial -- in which a Tennessee man was prosecuted for violating state law by teaching evolution -- it is the anti-evolutionary scientists and Christian activists who say they are the ones being persecuted, by a liberal establishment.
They are acting now because they feel emboldened by the country's conservative currents and by President Bush, who angered many scientists and teachers by declaring that the jury is still out on evolution. Sharing strong convictions, deep pockets and impressive political credentials -- if not always the same goals -- the activists are building a sizable network.
In Seattle, the nonprofit Discovery Institute spends more than $1 million a year for research, polls and media pieces supporting intelligent design. In Fort Lauderdale, Christian evangelist James Kennedy established a Creation Studies Institute. In Virginia, Liberty University is sponsoring the Creation Mega Conference with a Kentucky group called Answers in Genesis, which raised $9 million in 2003.
At the state and local level, from South Carolina to California, these advocates are using lawsuits and school board debates to counter evolutionary theory. Alabama and Georgia legislators recently introduced bills to allow teachers to challenge evolutionary theory in the classroom. Ohio, Minnesota, New Mexico and Ohio have approved new rules allowing that. And a school board member in a Tennessee county wants stickers pasted on textbooks that say evolution remains unproven.
A prominent effort is underway in Kansas, where the state Board of Education intends to revise teaching standards. That would be progress, Southern Baptist minister Terry Fox said, because "most people in Kansas don't think we came from monkeys."
The movement is "steadily growing," said Eugenie C. Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, which defends the teaching of evolution. "The energy level is new. The religious right has had an effect nationally. Now, by golly, they want to call in the chits."
... more at linked article
I love that the Washington Post is again lagging behind the Washington Times on articles in this important area. (Check back through some previous blog entries for articles excerpted from same).
I also really love that the Post has included their usual share of alarmist code words that are designed to scare up support for their own favored side of the issue. Sentences like: "The growing trend has alarmed...." and "They are acting now because they feel emboldened" are in the article for just that purpose. Of course, I can't be right about that (though I do normally tend to fall a bit on the right politically) because there is absolutely no bias in the main stream media.
There's only bias in outlets like Fox News Channel (which was addressed last nite in an episode of Boston Legal, which handled the issue well, even with censorship coming from the suits at Disney above), never on the part of the more obviously liberal outlets.
In anycase, in the words of Det. John McClane in the Die Hard movies "welcome to the party pal." About time for the Post to wake up and do some articles on the issue just to make sure their side gets fair coverage in the main stream media.
It seems that the venerable Washington Post wants to refresh the news cycle on the topic, and thus, they've published the following article (excerpted, headline is linked).
Battle on Teaching Evolution Sharpens
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 14, 2005; Page A01
WICHITA – Propelled by a polished strategy crafted by activists on America's political right, a battle is intensifying across the nation over how students are taught about the origins of life. Policymakers in 19 states are weighing proposals that question the science of evolution.
The proposals typically stop short of overturning evolution or introducing biblical accounts. Instead, they are calculated pleas to teach what advocates consider gaps in long-accepted Darwinian theory, with many relying on the idea of intelligent design, which posits the central role of a creator.
The growing trend has alarmed scientists and educators who consider it a masked effort to replace science with theology. But 80 years after the Scopes "monkey" trial -- in which a Tennessee man was prosecuted for violating state law by teaching evolution -- it is the anti-evolutionary scientists and Christian activists who say they are the ones being persecuted, by a liberal establishment.
They are acting now because they feel emboldened by the country's conservative currents and by President Bush, who angered many scientists and teachers by declaring that the jury is still out on evolution. Sharing strong convictions, deep pockets and impressive political credentials -- if not always the same goals -- the activists are building a sizable network.
In Seattle, the nonprofit Discovery Institute spends more than $1 million a year for research, polls and media pieces supporting intelligent design. In Fort Lauderdale, Christian evangelist James Kennedy established a Creation Studies Institute. In Virginia, Liberty University is sponsoring the Creation Mega Conference with a Kentucky group called Answers in Genesis, which raised $9 million in 2003.
At the state and local level, from South Carolina to California, these advocates are using lawsuits and school board debates to counter evolutionary theory. Alabama and Georgia legislators recently introduced bills to allow teachers to challenge evolutionary theory in the classroom. Ohio, Minnesota, New Mexico and Ohio have approved new rules allowing that. And a school board member in a Tennessee county wants stickers pasted on textbooks that say evolution remains unproven.
A prominent effort is underway in Kansas, where the state Board of Education intends to revise teaching standards. That would be progress, Southern Baptist minister Terry Fox said, because "most people in Kansas don't think we came from monkeys."
The movement is "steadily growing," said Eugenie C. Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, which defends the teaching of evolution. "The energy level is new. The religious right has had an effect nationally. Now, by golly, they want to call in the chits."
... more at linked article
I love that the Washington Post is again lagging behind the Washington Times on articles in this important area. (Check back through some previous blog entries for articles excerpted from same).
I also really love that the Post has included their usual share of alarmist code words that are designed to scare up support for their own favored side of the issue. Sentences like: "The growing trend has alarmed...." and "They are acting now because they feel emboldened" are in the article for just that purpose. Of course, I can't be right about that (though I do normally tend to fall a bit on the right politically) because there is absolutely no bias in the main stream media.
There's only bias in outlets like Fox News Channel (which was addressed last nite in an episode of Boston Legal, which handled the issue well, even with censorship coming from the suits at Disney above), never on the part of the more obviously liberal outlets.
In anycase, in the words of Det. John McClane in the Die Hard movies "welcome to the party pal." About time for the Post to wake up and do some articles on the issue just to make sure their side gets fair coverage in the main stream media.
