Open Minds Teach Both Sides

But didn’t the U.S. Supreme Court, in their 1987 ruling on the Louisiana equal time law, which required that the scientific evidence for both creation and evolution be taught, declare that teaching scientific evidence that supports creation in public schools violates separation of church and state and is unconstitutional? Absolutely not. The Supreme Court ruled that the Louisiana law which required that evidence for both be taught was unconstitutional because it was wrongly motivated by members of the Louisiana legislature. The scientific evidence for creation can be taught in science classrooms if this is done voluntarily by teachers without coercion, and without reference to religious literature of any kind. That this is so has been admitted by prominent evolutionists. Stephen Jay Gould of Harvard University stated, “Creationists claim their law broadened the freedom of teachers by permitting the introduction of controversial material. But no statute exists in any state to bar instruction in ‘creation science.’ It could be taught before, and it can be taught now.”¹ Eugenie Scott, who heads the anti-creationist organization, National Center for Science Education, stated that “Reports of the death of ‘scientific creationism,’ however, are premature. The Supreme Court decision says only that the Louisiana law violates the constitutional separation of church and state; it does not say that no one can teach scientific creationism—and unfortunately many individual teachers do.”² In spite of this fact, it is incessantly repeated in newspapers that teaching the scientific evidence for creation in public schools violates the constitution and has been prohibited by the Supreme Court. As a result most educators have accepted this false notion, and it is widely promoted by evolutionists.³

1. New York Times Magazine, July 19, 1987.
2. Nature, vol. 329, p. 282, 1987.
3. Science, Education, and the Subject of Origins
IMPACT No. 375 September 2004 - by Duane T. Gish
http://www.icr.org/pubs/imp/imp-375.htm (good article!)

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Law, Darwinism, and Public Education (Book)
The Establishment Clause and the Challenge of Intelligent Design
Francis J. Beckwith

"This book is required reading for all public school teachers, administrators, and lawyers who grapple with the teaching of origins in U.S. public schools. It will also become a standard reference for education policy makers and school boards. But beyond the legal and policy benefits, this organized and well-referenced book is a valuable resource for all those who want to understand or articulate the history and primary arguments of the Intelligent Design movement." - from the ARN website. At Amazon here.

Please remember to encourage your local biology teacher to teach both "strengths and weaknesses" of evolution theories as required by TEKS 3A and is the clear intent of that section, the SBOE that adopted it, the present SBOE, and the vast majority of people in Texas. However, to implement the intent of the requirement teachers will have to bring in supplemental material, which the US Supreme Court has affirmed they may do, specifically relating to origins, (see "legal" under teacher resources on the website). Some supplemental materials and suggestions for others are on our website.

Additionally, please continue reporting large or small errors in textbooks your children are using at: http://www.strengthsandweaknesses.org/BookReport.htm . If you think all of the worse errors are 'history', please see 'Fraudulent Embryos' below.

Now for some relevant news you may have missed...

Fraudulent Embryos Reappear in Texas: One of the highlights of the Texas biology book adoption was that the century-old Haeckel embryo fraud was finally (we thought) acknowledged by even the evolutionists. The publishers, under pressure from the public and the State Board of Education, voluntarily removed the drawings from their books (though some of their accompanying text remained in error). However, we now have word that Texas Christian University professors, being paid over $250,000 of taxpayer money by a program administered by the Texas Education Agency, are continuing to use the fraudulent drawings to 'teach our teachers'. (See http://www.contemporaryissues.tcu.edu/syllabus.htm and then go to lesson 20 on Day 12.) This is outrageous. We think you should let your elected state representatives in the Texas House and Senate know that the TEA is out of control and must be reigned in somehow. They are in session now, so your phone call to them, particularly in the Austin offices, will be especially important. (Warning: There are other errors and objectionable items in this file as well, some of which may be offensive.)

Note: During the textbook battle, a physics professor from TCU sent an email out to colleagues warning of dire consequences if they entertained ideas promoted by a group that had, gasp, 'religious ties'. We politely reminded this professor and his boss that at least in the past, Texas Christian University also had such ties.

Anti-Democracy: A bill passed by the Texas House of Representatives (HB4) as it presently reads might reduce the ability of your elected State Board of Education to review instructional materials, including textbooks. Instead, the bill would apparently give even more power to the Texas Education Agency, renown for their LACK of oversight on such things. (See Fraudulent Embryo Reappears article above). The state Senate substitute version of the bill is better - it retains the SBOE oversight. Though Senator Shapiro's bill (CS HB2) at this writing has not yet passed, there is hope that the good features of this bill will prevail at any conference committee negotiation. Ultimately our form of government depends on the electorate retaining the power to elect representatives to carry out our wishes. If you are concerned that the TEA may be getting more power and the elected SBOE less, please let your state representatives and state senators know your thoughts. You may locate your representative and senator by going to: http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/fyi/fyi.htm .

Censorship 1: At press time reports are surfacing that in the recent TAKS testing, the U.S. Declaration of Independence has been censored. In one section, the Declaration was quoted "they are endowed...with certain unalienable rights". For those of you who may be history-challenged or have been similarly indoctrinated by the public school system, the phrase 'by their Creator' [capitalization in the original] was censored out by the TEA. And our state representatives want to give the TEA MORE power? (see above). Stay tuned.

Censorship 2: As a debate was starting online, the TBSE website has come under what appears to be a coordinated attack (as happened during the biology book battles in 2003, though not as effective this time.) It seems the other side would rather kill the messengers than let students and parents hear the truth. The online debate, in an alternating article style, is located at: http://www.studentofnature.org/texasdebate.htm . There is a 'blog' on that site where you are encouraged to participate. Beware, it is currently 'populated' mostly with some rather abrasive evolutionists.

Public Debate-Intelligent Design: Debates continue to accelerate around the nation and online. Most recent debates have focused on either intelligent design concepts or on teaching weaknesses of evolution theories. Intelligent design does not require an elite scientific pedigree to recognize it. Common sense will suffice just fine. For example, if one sees "Eat at Joe's" written with clouds in the otherwise blue sky, no one, not even the most adamant naturalistic materialist, would think for a heartbeat that the letters were the result of random winds and storm patterns. It is immediately obvious that some intelligence, in this example the sky-writing airplane pilot, caused the message. This is a trivial example when compared to the billions of letters of precisely ordered information in the human DNA, and yet evolutionists continue to deny what is obvious to 80+% of Americans, based on Zogby polling data, and their own common sense.

Future Event: Though the evolution-only crowd continues to deny that any controversy exists, National Public Radio (NPR), not generally known for their tolerance of conservative ideas, hosted a live debate April 19th at 7:30 pm on Intelligent Design vs. Darwinism. The event took place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The program is currently scheduled to air May 23 - consult your local listings for exact times of the "Justice Talking" program on NPR affiliates. Be sure and let your evolutionist friends know of the growing controversy, especially the ones that like to show up at Austin government offices and deny everything. More information is located here.

What Darwin Didn't Know 1: Darwin didn't even know about DNA and chromosomes and how those control development. The prevailing evolution thought of the day was akin to Rudyard Kipling "Just So" stories such as an elephant getting its trunk by each generation stretching theirs and the adult changes being passed down to offspring. However, the evolution-only crowd is perplexed by the discovery that at least one plant has the ability to repair DNA damage or mutations over generations. When the weed Arabidopsis thaliana was intentionally mutated, even plants with two identical copies of the mutant gene were able to repair the damage - in essence putting things right again to match not their parents damaged genes but their grandparents un-mutated ones! This effect has also been noticed before in other species, plant and animal, and clearly flies in the face of evolutionary dogma. In fact, such a mechanism would prevent a 'random gene mutation' mechanism for improving a species (something never observed), from even occurring! See http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/mg18524924.200 for one of MANY articles on the net on this.

What Darwin Didn't Know 2: The online edition of the respected British science journal Nature reports that researchers led by Mary Schweitzer of North Carolina State University (Raleigh) have succeeded in extracting soft tissue from a T-Rex fossil unearthed in Montana. No suitable explanation has been presented to explain the presence of soft tissue in a fossil supposedly 70 million years old. More information can be found at: http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050321/full/050321-13.html

What Darwin Didn't Know 3: Darwin and most evolutionary biology proponents adhere to the concept of uniformitarianism. Their mantra is 'the present is the key to the past' in trying to convince others that by studying slow processes today we can extrapolate these processes millions of years into the past. The problem, however, is that increasingly, facts do not support this contention. British scientists, for example, found what is called a polystrate fossil tree - a fossilized tree that extends through what were thought to be millions of years of strata. It is difficult to imagine how the dead tree survived without rotting during the millions of years of slow uniformitarian deposition. One more thing - the polystrate tree fossil was in Antarctica, where forests do not even grow today. The present is NOT the key to the past. View picture here.

Doublespeak: In a decidedly Orwellian twist, major print outlets have been noted recently calling those who support intelligent design theories or some form of special creation explanation of origins 'anti-evolutionists'. This is similar to how they refer to pro-life activists as 'anti-choice'.

Back in Kansas: Taking their cue from the Berkeley California based NCSE, pro-evolution-only scientists in Kansas have decided if they can't win they will take their ball and go home. It is being reported that they are boycotting an open public meeting where they were to try and convince officials that evolution is worthy of maintaining its monopoly status in school thought. It is unclear just how they think they can educate students, teachers, parents, or administrators by remaining silent. Scientists supporting exposing profound well-known scientific weaknesses of evolution theories, (sometimes mutually exclusive theories), will continue their efforts to educate, and will testify.

Note: The NCSE routinely advises Darwinist professors NOT TO DEBATE the issue, saying essentially that they cannot win. How strange that a theory claimed to be so solid that it has no real opposition cannot be defended in public!

Back in Kansas 2 - Kansas Scientists support teaching weaknesses of evolution theories: On the other hand, in hearings set to open this week, scientists will testify as to the complete failure of naturalism and Darwinistic mechanisms to explain the origin or life or the vast diversity of life seen on our planet. The other side, rather than debate these scientists in an open forthright fashion, is boycotting the hearings so as to not give the uninformed public the impression there is a debate.

Watch the Kansas and national papers' reports on this. They will likely try to conflate Biblical Creationism, Scientific Creationism, Intelligent Design, and weaknesses of evolution, while the leaders of the other side know perfectly well that there are profound legal, scientific, and theological differences in the four. The debate is about evolution and its weaknesses, science vs. science, NOT science vs. religion as it will undoubtedly be reported by some. Note that the Washington Times has a reasonable article on the Kansas controversy here.

The Kansas board is not eliminating evolution nor requiring creation science or even ID. Their proposal is that the students be taught to critically think about such unproven and shaky theories as evolution...strengths and weaknesses if you will.

How robust can a theory be when its proponents refuse to defend it in a public forum designed for that purpose? Can anyone see the Emperor's New Clothes?

Open Minds 1: Yet another internet 'blog' has surfaced, this time moderated by Dr. William Dembski. The blog is "Intelligent Design The Future" and is located at www.idthefuture.com .

Open Minds 3: In another case of our side fighting back, the Gull Lake schools in Richland, Michigan are being threatened with a lawsuit if they continue to refuse to permit two teachers to exercise their Supreme Court guaranteed right to supplant their science curriculum with the book "Of Pandas And People", that includes positive evidence for intelligent design. The Gull Lake superintendent ordered the donated books be removed from the teachers' classroom. Administrators were aghast that the reference books were available for students to use in writing a research paper. The Thomas Moore Law Center is handling the case for the two teachers.

Open Minds 4: The online shop run by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is now again selling the video "Unlocking the Mystery of Life." This powerful video that presents a compelling case for an intelligent designer was one of the best selling videos of the entire PBS system until banned by their management after the elite academics in New Mexico and other places complained. The censorship in New Mexico caught national attention, and after blistering criticism, the New Mexican affiliate has since shown the video after all. While PBS has not lately been known for balanced treatment of anything, we applaud PBS for not caving in permanently to these out of touch Darwinian thought police who fear a lively and robust debate.

Open Minds 5: Reports are pouring in from around the country that in spite of four decades of a monopolistic stranglehold on the education system, people continue to reject evolution dogma. Teachers report that students are often relatively well informed on issues of intelligent design and creation science, and are increasingly speaking out on the issue. The Gallup organization found that only 28 percent accept any form of evolution, including theistic evolution. The Christian Science Monitor details this growing trend here.

The truth is getting out, and evolution dogma pales in comparison. The house of cards of evolution is crumbling.

Another long note, but lots of things are happening. Please think about how you can help.

Mark

Mark Ramsey

Texans for Better Science Education

www.strengthsandweaknesses.org