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New Front on the Evolution Wars

By Jim Chen et al.

The phrase seems innocuous enough: "strengths and weaknesses." In fact those three words are the latest salvo of those who were previously thwarted from forcing their personal religious beliefs on unsuspecting science students by court decisions rejecting creationism, creation "science" and "intelligent" design.

In today's NYT, Laura Beil ( article) writes about the latest attempt, using the language "strenths and weaknesses," to subvert Texas's state science curriculum. Because Texas law mandates that the "strengths and weaknesses" of evolution be taught, anti-evolution and anti-science forces are hoping to force their own religiously-inspired version of the origins of human life into the state-wide curriculum.

The website for the Orwellianly-named organization Texans for Better Science Education, a major booster of the effort, prominantly displays a link to Ben Stein's absurd anti-evolution screed Expelled (which Jim Chen and I have blogged about on this site previously). The site Expelled Exposed , put together by the National Center for Science Education, effectively documents Expelled for the inaccurate and deliberately deceptive nonsense that it is. If the choice to prominently feature the Stein screed didn't already tell me just about everything I need to know about Texans for "Better" Science Education (sorry, can't really type that with a straight face) except how to keep them out of the classroom, their frequent reference to "miltant" Darwinists would.

By the way, the url for Texans for Better Science Education is "strengths and weaknesses.org." Beil reports that these anti-science folks are only one vote shy of a majority on the Texas School Board. Phrases sure can be deceptive .

Where is the Flying Spaghetti Monster when we need him?

Full post as published by Biolaw Blog on June 04, 2008 (boomark / email).