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Biology textbook hearings prompt science disputes [Texas]
Knight Ridder Newspapers ^ | 08 July 2003 | MATT FRAZIER

Posted on 07/09/2003 12:08:32 PM PDT by PatrickHenry

FORT WORTH, Texas - (KRT) -
The long-running debate over the origins of mankind continues Wednesday before the Texas State Board of Education, and the result could change the way science is taught here and across the nation.

Local and out-of-state lobbying groups will try to convince the board that the next generation of biology books should contain new scientific evidence that reportedly pokes holes in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

Many of those groups say that they are not pushing to place a divine creator back into science books, but to show that Darwin's theory is far from a perfect explanation of the origin of mankind.

"It has become a battle ground," said Eugenie Scott, executive director of theNational Center of Science Education, which is dedicated to defending the teaching of evolution in the classroom.

Almost 45 scientists, educators and special interest groups from across the state will testify at the state's first public hearing this year on the next generation of textbooks for the courses of biology, family and career studies and English as a Second Language.

Approved textbooks will be available for classrooms for the 2004-05 school year. And because Texas is the second largest textbook buyer in the nation, the outcome could affect education nationwide.

The Texas Freedom Network and a handful of educators held a conference call last week to warn that conservative Christians and special interest organizations will try to twist textbook content to further their own views.

"We are seeing the wave of the future of religious right's attack on basic scientific principles," said Samantha Smoot, executive director of the network, an anti-censorship group and opponent of the radical right.

Those named by the network disagree with the claim, including the Discovery Institute and its Science and Culture Center of Seattle.

"Instead of wasting time looking at motivations, we wish people would look at the facts," said John West, associate director of the center.

"Our goal nationally is to encourage schools and educators to include more about evolution, including controversies about various parts of Darwinian theory that exists between even evolutionary scientists," West said. "We are a secular think tank."

The institute also is perhaps the nation's leading proponent of intelligent design - the idea that life is too complex to have occurred without the help of an unknown, intelligent being.

It pushed this view through grants to teachers and scientists, including Michael J. Behe, professor of biological sciences at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. The Institute receives millions of dollars from philanthropists and foundations dedicated to discrediting Darwin's theory.

The center sent the state board a 55-page report that graded 11 high school biology textbooks submitted for adoption. None earned a grade above a C minus. The report also includes four arguments it says show that evolutionary theory is not as solid as presented in biology textbooks.

Discovery Institute Fellow Raymond Bohlin, who also is executive director of Probe Ministries, based in Richardson, Texas, will deliver that message in person Wednesday before the State Board of Education. Bohlin has a doctorate degree in molecular cell biology from the University of Texas at Dallas.

"If we can simply allow students to see that evolution is not an established fact, that leaves freedom for students to pursue other ideas," Bohlin said. "All I can do is continue to point these things out and hopefully get a group that hears and sees relevant data and insist on some changes."

The executive director of Texas Citizens for Science, Steven Schafersman, calls the institute's information "pseudoscience nonsense." Schafersman is an evolutionary scientist who, for more than two decades, taught biology, geology, paleontology and environmental science at a number of universities, including the University of Houston and the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

"It sounds plausible to people who are not scientifically informed," Schafersman said. "But they are fraudulently trying to deceive board members. They might succeed, but it will be over the public protests of scientists."

The last time Texas looked at biology books, in 1997, the State Board of Education considered replacing them all with new ones that did not mention evolution. The board voted down the proposal by a slim margin.

The state requires that evolution be in textbooks. But arguments against evolution have been successful over the last decade in other states. Alabama, New Mexico and Nebraska made changes that, to varying degrees, challenge the pre-eminence of evolution in the scientific curriculum.

In 1999, the Kansas Board of Education voted to wash the concepts of evolution from the state's science curricula. A new state board has since put evolution back in. Last year, the Cobb County school board in Georgia voted to include creationism in science classes.

Texas education requirements demand that textbooks include arguments for and against evolution, said Neal Frey, an analyst working with perhaps Texas' most famous textbook reviewers, Mel and Norma Gabler.

The Gablers, of Longview, have been reviewing Texas textbooks for almost four decades. They describe themselves as conservative Christians. Some of their priorities include making sure textbooks include scientific flaws in arguments for evolution.

"None of the texts truly conform to the state's requirements that the strengths and weaknesses of scientific theories be presented to students," Frey said.

The Texas textbook proclamation of 2001, which is part of the standard for the state's curriculum, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, requires that biology textbooks instruct students so they may "analyze, review and critique scientific explanations, including hypotheses and theories, as to their strengths and weakness using scientific evidence and information."

The state board is empowered to reject books only for factual errors or for not meeting the state's curriculum requirements. If speakers convince the state board that their evidence is scientifically sound, members may see little choice but to demand its presence in schoolbooks.

Proposed books already have been reviewed and approved by Texas Tech University. After a public hearing Wednesday and another Sept. 10, the state board is scheduled to adopt the new textbooks in November.

Satisfying the state board is only half the battle for textbook publishers. Individual school districts choose which books to use and are reimbursed by the state unless they buy texts rejected by the state board.

Districts can opt not to use books with passages they find objectionable. So when speakers at the public hearings criticize what they perceived as flaws in various books - such as failing to portray the United States or Christianity in a positive light - many publishers listen.

New books will be distributed next summer.

State Board member Terri Leo said the Discovery Institute works with esteemed scientists and that their evidence should be heard.

"You cannot teach students how to think if you don't present both sides of a scientific issue," Leo said. "Wouldn't you think that the body that has the responsibility of what's in the classroom would look at all scientific arguments?"

State board member Bob Craig said he had heard of the Intelligent Design theory.

"I'm going in with an open mind about everybody's presentation," Craig said. "I need to hear their presentation before I make any decisions or comments.

State board member Mary Helen Berlanga said she wanted to hear from local scientists.

"If we are going to discuss scientific information in the textbooks, the discussion will have to remain scientific," Berlanga said. "I'd like to hear from some of our scientists in the field on the subject."


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: crevolist
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To: jennyp
Evolution and conservatism are opposite directions people are to stupid brainwashed to know this placemaker !
4,341 posted on 07/19/2003 2:28:43 PM PDT by f.Christian (evolution vs intelligent design ... science3000 ... designeduniverse.com --- * architecture * !)
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To: jennyp
Ah, but did the captain admit his error, or is he even today brazening it out?

I don't know, but the point was that innocents suffered and died for his mistake.

4,342 posted on 07/19/2003 2:40:36 PM PDT by AndrewC
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To: jennyp
ubiquitous theory - science with no evidence placemaker !
4,343 posted on 07/19/2003 2:44:39 PM PDT by f.Christian (evolution vs intelligent design ... science3000 ... designeduniverse.com --- * architecture * !)
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To: jennyp; ALS
IMO that's their only real blunder.

Which is why I wish ALS would answer my question of the flagella and the Fall. I suspect he never considered the contradiction before, and is flummoxed by it.

What contradiction? As has been before stated and with which you obviously agree, God created evil. That is not a contradiction. The fallacious argument was your non sequitur which disallowed its design(purpose).

4,344 posted on 07/19/2003 2:48:53 PM PDT by AndrewC
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To: AndrewC
What do we do? Do we accept it and say s**t happens? Or do we acknowledge the error for what it was and correct the cause of the error?

With respect to Y. pestis - calling the handiwork of the Designer an "error" and attempting to "correct" Him seems awfully...presumptuous ;)

4,345 posted on 07/19/2003 2:58:21 PM PDT by general_re (ERROR IN REALITY.SYS REBOOT UNIVERSE? Y/N)
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To: AndrewC; jennyp
What contradiction?

It's not a contradiction for you. As you have expressed, you interprete The Fall metaphorically (at least in terms of its effect on the natural world). I can assure, however, and document the fact if necessary, that many (though not all) creation science types do NOT share your view. They hold that there were literal and profound effects on nature associated with the fall.

4,346 posted on 07/19/2003 3:25:53 PM PDT by Stultis
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To: PatrickHenry
evolutionists finest ... ripe --- full blown evolving spin - flip - switch liberalism traitor placemaker!
4,347 posted on 07/19/2003 3:27:22 PM PDT by f.Christian (evolution vs intelligent design ... science3000 ... designeduniverse.com --- * architecture * !)
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To: Stultis
bbddd - bbdddd - bbdddd - bbdddd - pow - pow - pow placemaker !
4,348 posted on 07/19/2003 3:54:08 PM PDT by f.Christian (evolution vs intelligent design ... science3000 ... designeduniverse.com --- * architecture * !)
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To: PatrickHenry
ken norris evander holyfield george foreman placemaker !
4,349 posted on 07/19/2003 3:56:48 PM PDT by f.Christian (evolution vs intelligent design ... science3000 ... designeduniverse.com --- * architecture * !)
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To: f.Christian
george foreman grill placemaker !
4,350 posted on 07/19/2003 4:32:13 PM PDT by balrog666 (I'm not wearing any pants! Film at 11.)
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Dying thread P L A C E M A R K E R
4,351 posted on 07/19/2003 4:41:09 PM PDT by PatrickHenry (When rationality is outlawed, only outlaws will be rational.)
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To: AndrewC
"You are getting back some of what has been dished out by Darwininians DarWHINEians for well over a year."

Excellent TRUTH and well worth every whining teardrop filled tantrum from the still evolving crowd.

tick tock!

4,352 posted on 07/19/2003 5:03:00 PM PDT by ALS (http://designeduniverse.com Featuring original works by FR's finest . contact me to add yours!)
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To: All
where's the evo-proof placemarker...


4,353 posted on 07/19/2003 5:05:04 PM PDT by NewLand
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To: NewLand
dog ate it
no wait..
elephant stepped on it
no wait...
Venusian voles hyper-evoluted it into makeshift dilithium crystals while digging a wormhole to Uranus in darwood's backyard.
yeah, that's the ticket
4,354 posted on 07/19/2003 5:10:25 PM PDT by ALS (http://designeduniverse.com Featuring original works by FR's finest . contact me to add yours!)
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To: ALS; Stultis
Good evening, ALS. I'd still appreciate an answer to my question posed in 4296, explained further in 4299, and also asked of you by Stultis in 4306.

Here's how I phrased it in 4299:

Now, I'm wondering if you believe that bacterial diseases such as diarrhea came about as part of The Fall? As I understand it, in The Fall God removed His protection against the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, thereby allowing death & deterioration & destruction to occur. IOW, The Fall did not consist of God making positive acts of design to create the world's deadly & destructive things; they came about as the natural consequence of the material world.

So if the deadly flagella came about as part of The Fall, then it was part of corrupt nature taking its course, and not because of any affirmative, positive step that God made. But of course that means that it must have evolved and was not designed.

But you say that the flagella, which is the very instrument of death for H. pylori, E. coli, & others, was created by a positive, affirmative act of creation by God.

So help me out, ALS. Help me understand how you resolve this contradiction in your belief system? And if there is no contradiction, then please tell me precisely where my description of your beliefs re: the flagella is incorrect?


4,355 posted on 07/19/2003 6:40:50 PM PDT by jennyp (http://crevo.bestmessageboard.com)
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To: jennyp
We'd all like something and I'd like an admission of the obvious, that the below is an insult, and was intended as an insult, and an apology by all evos complicit in the joys of the insult. The context of which received validation by pattycakes, here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/943130/posts?page=4201#4201


God of dysentery?

3,890 posted on 07/17/2003 2:16 PM CDT by js1138


facts are not your friend
4,356 posted on 07/19/2003 6:54:26 PM PDT by ALS (http://designeduniverse.com Featuring original works by FR's finest . contact me to add yours!)
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To: ALS
Brave, brave Sir Robin placemarker
4,357 posted on 07/19/2003 8:14:45 PM PDT by jennyp (http://crevo.bestmessageboard.com)
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To: AndrewC
>>Do we accept it and say s**t happens?<<

When discussing dysentery, let's don't even go there.
4,358 posted on 07/19/2003 8:19:44 PM PDT by CobaltBlue (Never voted for a Democrat in my life.)
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To: jennyp
enough of the swooning already.

you'll upset the chihuahuas
4,359 posted on 07/19/2003 8:29:05 PM PDT by ALS (http://designeduniverse.com Featuring original works by FR's finest . contact me to add yours!)
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To: general_re
With respect to Y. pestis - calling the handiwork of the Designer an "error" and attempting to "correct" Him seems awfully...presumptuous ;)

You're in Paris, we are in Rome. The "error" was Adam's sin. ;^)

4,360 posted on 07/19/2003 8:44:36 PM PDT by AndrewC
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