Texas Baptist Standard rediscovers the Texas textbook fight?

The BStd Headline: Texas textbook battles have national impact

Which we and others have endlessly explained. And?

“What we teach in the public schools matters,” [Charles Haynes, senior scholar at the First Amendment Center in Washington, D.C.] told a group at Northaven United Methodist Church in Dallas during the “Faith & Freedom Speaker Series,” sponsored by the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund.

Yep. There is a fight in under way. So important a fight that in addition to those linked to above, it has attracted the attention of a Hindu expert, gatherings of geeks and, of course, atheists.

Truce, then cooperation in the Creationism/Evolution wars?

Although the public square resounds with the creationism/evolution debate, Philip Clayton argues that the combatants still are not finally opponents. At Religion Dispatches he writes:

What emerges from the ashes, then, after the New Atheists and the intelligent design theorists have employed their weapons of mass destruction? The deeper questions still call for attention. We still ask what it means to be human, who we are, and how we should act in the world. What stories will we tell about ourselves and the universe? Which of those stories are true and which are false? How should we tell them differently in light of the best empirical data and theories?

This new discussion does not entail a different kind of science, though it does call for science without ideology. It does, however, call for a broader view of religion. John Haught puts it brilliantly in his forthcoming book, Making Sense of Evolution: Darwin, God, and the Drama of Life: “If we measure the movement of life in terms of a narrow human preoccupation with design, evolution seems blind and aimless.” …

Read the rest here.

Sneaking Creationism into Florida classrooms

Creationism lost a march in Texas while it was trying to quietly steal one in Florida.

Florida state Sen. Steve Wise, R-Jacksonville, introduced legislation which the Florida Academy of Science says “leaves the door open for the introduction in the public school curriculum of nonscientific and covertly religious doctrines.”

Standard Creationist strategy these days.

Science ambiguously prevails in Texas education

Creationism failed when social conservatives brought “strengths and weaknesses” back to the table today. A “compromise” prevailed in a 13-2 vote.

The adopted compromise says:

In all fields of science, analyze, evaluate and critique scientific explanations by using empirical evidence, logical reasoning, and experimental and observational testing, including examining all sides of scientific evidence of those scientific explanations so as to encourage critical thinking by the student.

Although that language seems clear, this decades-long battle has a way of knotting itself back up into lawsuits.

Evens so, the “strengths and weaknesses” charade is at this level over. Everything appears to be about implementation now.

[Update] Texas school board anti-evolutionists lose (again)

Social conservatives failed Thursday to add key creationism-friendly requirements back into the Texas standards for public school science classes and textbooks.

The last-gasp effort died on a deadlocked 7-7 vote of the Texas State Board of Education. The lost motion would have restored a 20-year-old requirement that science classes discuss the so-called weaknesses in the theory of evolution.

Social conservatives did make less important amendments, but the basic teaching of evolution as accepted science will now be written into science textbooks.

The final decision, expected today, is of overarching importance because the size of the Texas textbook market gives it sweeping, national impact on the way school science textbooks in general are written.

Addendum

Today’s vote is expected to reaffirm yesterday’s, since a board member who was absent yesterday will participate today. She has indicated that she opposes the changes pressed by social conservatives.

Evolution weekend stalks the wild religionist

The Clergy Letter Project celebrates Evolution Weekend on Feb. 13 through 15. It is an auspicious time, for it is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin’s birth is Feb, 12. This is also the year of the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species.

The letter has been signed some 12,500 clergy who agree, in essence, that:

Religious truth is of a different order from scientific truth. Its purpose is not to convey scientific information, but to transform hearts.

There are three versions of the letter: Christian Clergy, Rabbi and Unitarian Universalist. Although there isn’t a specifically Muslim letter, the project is promoted by The American Muslim. Some argue with good reason that the project should be extended to Hindus and other faiths as well.

Some 929 congregations are signed up to participate. They hail from all 50 States, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and
14 countries.Michael Zimmerman of Butler University.The project has three goals:

• To elevate the quality of the discussion on this critical topic – to move beyond sound bites.
• To demonstrate that religious people from many faiths and locations understand that evolution is sound science and poses no problems for their faith.
• To make it clear that those claiming that people must choose between religion and science are creating a false dichotomy.

To sign up a congregation or if you are clergy, to sign one of the letters, contact Professor Michael Zimmerman of Butler University at mz@butler.edu.

Articles, sermons, recommended readings, volunteer scientific consultants to assist clergy in their efforts and other resources are available.

A rejection of creationism and intelligent design, the project has attracted both praise and the ardent criticism typically directed at such efforts.

Darwin’s theory indispensable to biotechnology developers

Creationism doesn’t help biologists, but Charles Darwin’s 150-year-old theory is an indispensable tool.

Creationism smuggled into Louisiana classrooms

Creationism stole a march on science via the Louisiana Science Education Act, which gives teachers license to use materials outside the curriculum specifically to teach “controversial” theories.

When state education officials translated legislation into policy that explicitly prohibited teaching intelligent design, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education pressured them into removing the language. The creationism-safe regulations were approved on Jan. 13, and the rest will almost inevitably end up on court.

Someone, says Barbara Forrest, a philosopher at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, will use Discovery Institute’s creationism-friendly book, Explore Evolution.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State has already promised to file a lawsuit if Louisiana public schools start teaching religious concepts in biology classes.

That is the anti-evolutionist’s goal, argues Forest. They hope to find a more creationism-friendly federal judge and mount a better court case than in 1987 when Louisiana law mandating the equal-time teaching of creationism was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Anti-evolutions’ loss confirmed in ‘formal’ Texas Board of Education vote

Terrence Stutz of the Dallas Morning News reported at 11:09 AM CST on Friday, January 23, 2009:

AUSTIN – Without debate, the State Board of Education today tentatively approved new science curriculum standards that scrap a longstanding requirement that students be taught the “weaknesses” in the theory of evolution.

The action followed a meeting Thursday in which members who are aligned with social conservatives failed to muster enough votes on the 15-member board to retain the rule. Only seven Republican members backed the requirement.

The rest of the story here.

Full explanation of the debate here.

Texas school board anti-evolutionists lose

A 20-year-old requirement that high school science classes discuss the so-called weaknesses in the theory of evolution, was dropped in a preliminary vote Thursday by the Texas State Board of Education.

The formal vote is scheduled today.

The Board was swayed, according to both the Dallas Morning News and Houston Chronicle, by the advice of a panel of science educators.

“We’re not talking about faith. We’re not talking about religion,” said board member Mary Helen Berlanga, D-Corpus Christi. “We’re talking about science. We need to stay with our experts and respect what they have requested us to do.”

Kathy Miller, president of the watchdog group Texas Freedom Network (which live-blogs the debate here), has argued that the word weaknesses “has become a code word in the culture wars to attack evolution and promote creationism.”

Or as Howard M. Friedman at Religion Clause explains:

The new language calls on students to “analyze and evaluate scientific explanations using empirical evidence.” Proponents of the new language say that the “strengths and weaknesses” formulation is used to justify exposing students to religious theories masquerading as science.

The key issues are explored at Teach them Science, a Web site devoted to the issue. It is maintained by the Center for Inquiry and the Clergy Letter Project. Or, alternatively, the New York Times offers a balanced but ultimately less detailed overview. And if you wish more, current detail, Tony’s curricublog has audio files of the hearings.

Other curriculum votes are scheduled for March, so the heated, two-decade debate is by no means over.

The final decision is of overarching importance because the size of the Texas textbook market gives it sweeping, national impact on the way school science textbooks in general are written.

Update

Terrence Stutz of the Dallas Morning News reported at 11:09 AM CST on Friday, January 23, 2009:

AUSTIN – Without debate, the State Board of Education today tentatively approved new science curriculum standards that scrap a longstanding requirement that students be taught the “weaknesses” in the theory of evolution.

The rest of the story here.