Attention Texans: Religious right monkeying with our kids' t

Forums: Science And Math
Email this Topic • Print this Page

http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=1055&xlc=1053668&xld=1055

Jan Jarboe Russell: Religious right monkeying with our kids' textbooks again

San Antonio Express-News

Web Posted : 09/14/2003 12:00 AM

It's Monkey Business time again in Texas.

The 15 members of the Texas Board of Education ?- individuals who have an ungodly amount of influence over what students nationwide read in their textbooks ?- are meeting in Austin to refight the science vs. religion argument over evolution.

Changes made in Texas textbooks influence textbooks all over the country because Texans spend about $344 million a year on these books ?- a number big enough to drive the textbook market.

People are always trying to make the case that Texas is changing. A lot of young, rich, smart outsiders have moved in ?- many of whom actually embrace the idea of evolution. These people have set up dot-com businesses, funded cancer research and made the case that the future belongs to those who understand medicine and biotechnology.

While it is true that there are plenty of scientific-minded Texans, these folks are vastly outnumbered by vociferous people who think religion ?- namely creationism ?- should be taught in science class. Thanks to the creationists, Texas will always be Texas.

The truth is ?- as usual ?- frustratingly complex. Evolution is not a matter of faith. It's a conceptual framework that explains how what we call "life" works and changes over time. It has nothing to do with religion. It's not something you "believe" ?- it's something you study to pass tests, get into college and become a doctor. You can study evolution and believe in God. Plenty of people do it.

But if the hard-core creationists get their way this year, Texas may also become Kansas. In 1999, the reputation and economy of Kansas took a big hit after the Kansas Board of Education dropped the teaching of evolution from its standards. As a result of the anti-intellectual outcry, the Kansas board itself evolved ?- and has since become more evolution-friendly.

Creationism now has a new, modern-sounding name. It's called intelligent design ?- ID ?- the theory that cosmic forces, or what most of us call God, direct human development. The goal of ID leaders is not to completely get rid of evolution in the classroom, just to cast doubt on it and insist that creationism is offered as well.

The ID movement, led in part by a think tank in Seattle called the Discovery Institute, is to convince school boards to present what the institute says are weaknesses in evolutionary theory. Toward that end, ID has ignited evolution debates not just in Texas but also in New Mexico, Michigan, Ohio and California.

Here in Texas, the fight over evolution is now being waged over which details should be omitted and which should be added in biology books. We may not know how life began or exactly how life evolves, but that doesn't stop the Texas Board of Education from its relentless nitpicking.

This year, the nitpicking is over biology. But the textbook battle isn't just over biology. Every year the state board of education takes up a new textbook in a different subject, and every year it's a political and religious battle.

For instance, last year the board changed a sixth-grade social studies book that read: "Glaciers formed the Great Lakes millions of years ago." Religious conservatives objected because it didn't fit their timeline of creation. The book was changed to read: "Glaciers formed the Great Lakes in the distant past."

Many other changes have been made to adapt what children are taught to the political agenda of religious conservatives. A photograph of a woman carrying a briefcase was omitted from a textbook because the board of education decided the photo undermined family values.

A publisher deleted the following passage because it was considered too friendly to Islam: "Al-Qaida's leader, Osama bin Laden, told his followers that it was a Muslim's duty to kill Americans. No idea could be further from Muslim teachings. The Quran, Islam's holiest book, tells soldiers to show civilians kindness and deal with them justly."

So the Monkey Business is not just about evolution. It's about everything ?- how slavery is presented in history class, how sex education should be taught, whether global warming can be explained. You name it, we fight over it.

A rational person might argue that this could all be solved if we could all just agree that religion should be taught in churches or at home and that academic matters should be taught in school.

But that would take all the Monkey Business out of it ?- and let's face it, we're not that evolved.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[email protected]

09/14/2003
Jan Jarboe Russell

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 1,264 • Replies: 5

No top replies

It's a fight that will go on through all or most of the 21st Century. Eventually, one thought will stamp out the other. I used to believe people would accept evolution because it's true; now, I am starting to doubt the intelligence of people in general much more than in the past. I don't know who is actually going to win, for the first time in 40 years.

0 Replies

Frank Apisa wrote:

Those of us who see this as a problem have to step up to the plate.

I agree.

That's why every time I see stories like these I feel compelled to donate to The National Center for Science Education.

0 Replies

hmm. A good idea, although I'll bet the creationists could come up with more funding.
Why don't they just leave science alone? Galileo won out eventually, so did Newton. Of couse, there were lots of deaths along the way, people saying god said the earth was flat. So we shall see about this Darwin. It's sad that most people who reject his views have never read his work.

0 Replies

Rational arguements just don't seem to work when you are dealing with irrational people. Persons that can take a more or less normal emotion or desire and proceed to construct a theory of everything from it are somewhat less than rational.

I don't know a polite way of stating this that is effective amongst those who find it profitable (one way or another) to completely disregard facts and to base their arguements on their wishes and dreams.

There are still plenty of things upon which reasonable men may differ without introducing the fanciful notions of long dead philosophers and theoligians.

So the problem remains. How do we point out that to the IDers and Creationists that so far the Intelligence or Creator exists only in their imaginations?

Something that exists in the imagination is perfectly real to the imaginer.
We've all had dreams and nightmares, we all can understand how real a dream or nightmare is. Claustrophobia, Agorophobia,and Paranoias are all real things to the sufferer. I suspect that Fear of Sin, Fear of Hell, Fear of Futility (is this all there is?) and Fear of Self Determination are all real fears to the person concerned. All these fears are well reinforced in human literature.

So (probably needs another thread) how can we explain the difference between a dream, a wish,or a reality, and convey that to the persons who are in charge of disseminating necessary facts to our young ones? This problem is compounded when the disbursers of fanciful theories have a real pecuniary and imagined moral interest in the outcome.

Ideas???

0 Replies

Edgar,
I prefer not to term this a "fight" any longer. I used to think that it was a fight between those that had a financial interest in the economic successes of their God(s) and the people in general. This is still true, but I forgive them that in the same way I forgive General Motors or the cigarette companies. They act in a rational way towards their stockholders, not the general public. The same with the churches.

General Motors, The Electric Companies, and the Churches and Mosques all answer a real or imagined human need. When the general public percieves pollution or auto safety as a fact associated with their products then the general public (government) has a duty to ameliorate these problems. I am not surprised that the companies that make unsafe vehicles, or pollute the air are not the first to bring that fact to our attention.

Organized Religion of any sort is in the business of answering peoples real or percieved needs. I would not expect them to be in the forefront of determining what is rational or factual any more than I would expect General Motors or Toyota to tell us that we don't need a car.

I am not surprised that a company that makes and sells devices for the amelioration of guilts, fears, and insecurities of humans does not inform us that most of these devices are not necessary, or that some of the devices are imaginary.

We cannot expect the religious groups to regulate themselves any more than we can expect the phone company to. Nor can we expect the government to do this.
Consequently it must fall upon the rationalists to take up for our youngest generation.
Public arguements, proper debates, and referenced facts must be employed generously, and calmly, and sympathetically.

I know that the IDers, and Creationists are ill.Help them to see facts,theories and ideas as the wonderful things that they are. Then perhaps they would not fear life so much as to need the quacks that they are employing to help them.

0 Replies

Attention Texans: Religious right monkeying with our kids' t

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know