Latest Challenges to the Teaching of Evolution

They are missing a real cash cow here.

Ark Encounter, which will feature a 500-foot wooden reproduction of Noah's Ark containing live animals such as giraffes, is projected to cost as much as $172.5 million and create 500 full-time and 400 part-time jobs.

The park, on 800 acres in Grant County off Interstate 75, also will include a Walled City, live animal shows, a reproduction of the Tower of Babel, a 500-seat special-effects theater, an aviary and a first-century Middle Eastern village.

State Senator Plans Bill to Address Evolution in Public Schools
(Meredith Saldana, KTEN News, December 21, 2010)

State Senator Josh Brecheen stressed that the final wording of the bill is not complete but says the issues the bill deals with are vital to our children.

Senator Brecheen says children should be given all the facts when it comes to evolution.

"If we really are going to use science in the classroom, let's use the full science, let's not just be selective in our science. That's what my legislation is designed to do," Brecheen said.

The senator says he supports having creationism--the belief that God created the world without evolution--taught in public schools.

"You either remove both or you put both in," he said.

In an op-ed he wrote last week, Brecheen called evolution, "a religion," and says there are serious flaws in the theory that students ought to know.

"The main fallacy with Darwinian theory," he argued, "is the sudden appearance at about 540 million years [ago] of fossil records. It's like a guy standing at the chalkboard and saying okay here's an atom [and then writing] question mark, question mark, human--here we are. But its fact, and there's zero evidence to back it up."

But reputable scientists disagree including Murray State Professor Bruce Stewart who says the evidence for evolution is overwhelming.

He argues that the fossil record shows many transitional forms that support evolutionary theory.

"Science departments everywhere in accredited universities or any sort of legitimate research organization all work on the founding principle that we use science and evolution is science," he said.

Professor Stewart says teaching any alternatives to evolution would hurt Oklahoma kids' education.

"Teaching creationism or intelligent design would be a disastrous thing to include in a science course. It could be appropriately included in world religions or in other forums, but certainly not as science," he said.

"This is the future of our state, the future of our nation is dependant on what we teach our kidos in the classroom," said Senator Brecheen.

Oklahoma's major universities including OU and OSU all agree that evolution is the best science and that alternatives such as creationism should not be taught in public schools.

Should religion be put on an equal basis as evolution in public schools?

It just occurred to me that 1,000 years from now, archaeologists digging in what once was Northern Kentucky, will use this to support the biblical story.

One does wonder what they actually believe, as opposed to what they want the voters to think they believe.

OKLAHOMA UPDATE

Quote:

State Senator Plans Bill to Address Evolution in Public Schools
(Meredith Saldana, KTEN News, December 21, 2010)

In an op-ed he wrote last week, Brecheen called evolution, "a religion," and says there are serious flaws in the theory that students ought to know.

"The main fallacy with Darwinian theory," he argued, "is the sudden appearance at about 540 million years [ago] of fossil records. It's like a guy standing at the chalkboard and saying okay here's an atom [and then writing] question mark, question mark, human--here we are. But its fact, and there's zero evidence to back it up."

But reputable scientists disagree including Murray State Professor Bruce Stewart who says the evidence for evolution is overwhelming.

"Science departments everywhere in accredited universities or any sort of legitimate research organization all work on the founding principle that we use science and evolution is science," he said.

Professor Stewart says teaching any alternatives to evolution would hurt Oklahoma kids' education.

There is a certain pride that many legislators have in their own ignorance of science. Its true that they dont know the science, but for some reason, like gunga, they truly enjoy "making up" a complete batch of bullshit and try to foist it off as thruth.