Latest Challenges to the Teaching of Evolution

Is this THE REAL APOCALYPSE?

fm loves tuning into coastal radar for some female voice to instruct him which way to hold the tiller.

Incidently don't confuse mysogeny with mysanthropy.

I'm surprised that your literary instinct led you to suggest me having Clarkie's picture on my wall rather than fm.

They were jumping with glee all over the fundies. Some lady with a nice username was providing them with a big wide target at close range to sling their cliches at.

Hancock’s ‘yes’ answer to teaching creationism in school forces mayoral campaign into damage control
(By Ernest Luning, The Colorado Statesman, May 18, 2011)

It took just one word from Councilman Michael Hancock to spark a controversy that threatened to engulf his mayoral campaign a week before mail ballots go out to Denver voters.

During a debate late last week with his runoff opponent, former state Sen. Chris Romer, Hancock answered “yes” when both candidates were asked, “Should creationism or Intelligent Design be taught in Denver Public Schools?” After audible gasps and what sounded like uncomfortable laughter from the audience, Romer took the microphone and answered “no.”

Almost immediately, both campaigns were scrambling — Hancock’s to retract his answer and clarify his position and Romer’s to exploit his opponent’s flub.

Hancock’s team issued a late-night statement saying he had misunderstood the question and should have answered the other way. Then Romer’s camp hit back with a release repeating Hancock’s original answer and an admonition about teaching science in science classes. The next morning the Romer campaign distributed a brief video snippet of the exchange. A few days later two prominent Denver legislators were trading vitriolic emails over the question. In response, a former state lawmaker took to Twitter to defend Hancock and warned against turning the mayor’s race into a “barely veiled referendum on a candidate's faith.”

The fuss over creationism came as the mayoral candidates prepared to turn out voters in an all-mail runoff election for the open seat. Romer led Hancock by a slim margin in the first round of voting, completed on May 3, narrowing the field from 10 candidates on the initial ballot. Ballots go out May 20 and are due back June 7.

Just hours after a poll was released on May 12 showing Hancock ahead of Romer, the two candidates appeared at a debate sponsored by the Denver Democrats and the Denver Young Democrats at East High School. That afternoon, Denver-based political consulting firm RBI Strategies & Research released a poll on the website ColoradoPols.com that showed Hancock leading Romer 41-37 in the runoff. Hancock’s lead is within the survey’s 4.9-percent margin of error. An internal poll released the same day by the Hancock campaign showed its candidate leading by a wider margin.

During the debate, Denver Democratic Party chair Cindy Lowery-Graber, the forum’s moderator, posed a series of rapid-fire questions to the candidates, including the one about creationism — the belief that a supreme being created the world and its inhabitants — and its fancy cousin Intelligent Design, both of which stand opposed to the theory of evolution. The question on creationism came after one about gay marriage (both said they support it) and before one about their favorite restaurant meal in town (Romer picked the gyros omelet at Pete’s Kitchen, Hancock said he liked Peoria Bar and Grill “because they serve grits”).

About an hour after the debate concluded, Hancock’s campaign sent out an email saying the candidate had misunderstood the question and including a statement intended to clarify his position: “While I am a man of great faith, I believe Creationism and Intelligent Design are religious beliefs that have no place in a public school curriculum. The best place for religion to be taught is at home or place of worship.”

Near midnight, the Romer campaign responded with its own statement: “We believe science should be taught in science classes, especially as we strive to improve math and science proficiency among Denver students. Both candidates were asked this question clearly by the moderator. Chris Romer said no. Michael Hancock said yes.”