Abandon All Reason Ye Who Enter: Texas

McLeroy told a gathering at Grace Bible Church in Bryan, Texas, of his efforts to expunge evolution from the state’s high school biology textbooks. “Back in November 2003, we finished [the]…adoption process for the biology textbooks in Texas….

The remainder of McLeroy’s speech focused on strategy. He quoted fondly from Phillip Johnson’s “Wedge Document,” which has as its purpose to “defeat scientific materialism and its destructive moral, cultural, and political legacies” and “to replace materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature and human beings are created by God.” more

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Abandon All Reason Ye Who Enter: Arkansas

Reading the above article reminded me of something I read about science classes in Arkansas schools, it would be a funny story if all one wanted to do was to take the piss out of the Fundamentalists, but these dinosaurs (excuse the pun) are charged with educating the next generation.

Wasn't the scopes trial held in Arkansas, or was it Kansas, but then perhaps it was Tennessee.


Teachers at his facility are forbidden to use the “e-word” (evolution) with the kids. They are permitted to use the word “adaptation” but only to refer to a current characteristic of an organism, not as a product of evolutionary change via natural selection. They cannot even use the term “natural selection.” Bob feared that not being able to use evolutionary terms and ideas to answer his students’ questions would lead to reinforcement of their misconceptions.

But Bob’s personal issue was more specific, and the prohibition more insidious. In his words, “I am instructed NOT to use hard numbers when telling kids how old rocks are. I am supposed to say that these rocks are VERY VERY OLD ... but I am NOT to say that these rocks are thought to be about 300 million years old.” more