October 1 , 2003 News Update

Please Urge Publishers to Fix Textbooks

Action:  Please contact the publishers TODAY, particularly if you are a teacher or work in the school system, and politely let them know that you would WELCOME scientific errors being taken out of the books (such as Haeckel’s embryos, peppered moths, the Miller – Urey origin of life experiment, etc.).  Similarly educate them that weaknesses of evolution should be in the books as is required by existing Texas law, (such as the Cambrian explosion, the chirality problem of origin of life chemistry, massive systematic gaps in the fossil record, profound ‘pathway’ and ‘mechanism’ problems of evolutionary theories, etc.).  It is important that you do this today since the publishers are considering last minute editorial changes they will make to the books that they will submit to the TEA on October 3.  The comments we make reference the ‘as proposed’ 2004 books.  It is possible that editors have already corrected or plan to correct errors that we do not know about.  Note that the Darwinian thought police have organized a campaign to urge publishers not to change the textbooks.  You may find detailed reviews of many of the books on our website at www.strengthsandweaknesses.org/reviews.htm .  Publishers’ contact info is at the bottom.

Another Example - Proposed 2004 Textbooks Continue to Propagate the Fraud of Haeckel’s Embryos and Embryonic Recapitulation

The saga of the “Haeckel” embryos continues.  Briefly, a German embryologist name Ernst Haeckel, overzealous in trying to support Charles Darwin in the late 1800’s, published what he said were drawings of embryos.  Darwin later said they were the very best evidence for evolution. Slight problem.  They were faked.

Fig. 1 - Haeckel, 1874 (top) – Starr & Taggart, proposed 2004 (middle) - Raver, proposed 2004 (lower) [both 2004 are in color in the books]

While some publishers have made substantial improvements from prior years’ editions, this fully debunked idea of  “embryonic recapitulation”  or “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” stems essentially from drawings originally constructed by Haeckel in the late 1800's.  He originally posited that as embryos develop in the womb or egg, they essentially retraced their supposed evolutionary history.

Note that in the late 1800’s, embryologists were already aware of the faked drawings, and openly accused Haeckel of scientific fraud.  More recently, embryologists have discovered that the idea of embryonic recapitulation is also untrue.  Yet, Darwinian thought police still maintain that it is OK to use embryos in the books.  The scientists disagree.  To quote Harvard’s late atheist-Marxist-evolutionist Stephen J. Gould, perhaps one of the most outspoken proponents of the ‘punctuated equilibrium’ flavor of evolution until his recent death, said:

"We do, I think, have the right to be both astonished and ashamed by the century of mindless recycling that has led to the persistence of these drawings in a large number, if not a majority, of modern textbooks."  [emphasis added]

It is not merely the faked drawings that are the problem, but the whole concept of embryology ‘proving’ evolution that is wrong.  (Most publishers have NOT yet addressed this, even if they have removed or changed  Haeckel’s drawings). 

In short, it was a fraud that has been exposed by further scientific research and scrutiny, and yet continues in the school textbooks.

Fig. 2 - From Biology Sixth Edition (2004, proposed) by Raven and Johnson (color), overlaid with Haeckel’s 1874 drawings (in black)

Please ask your friends and family to help.  If you have a child or grandchild from the age of 3 to 16, this decision will affect them and you.  The books that are approved will likely be used in the Texas school system for the next 8 – 10 years!  This is important.

 "A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question." – Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species.

www.strengthsandweaknesses.org