Are storm clouds gathering in Texas?

[FreezBee]

J. Tinsley Oden, Daniel W. Foster and David Daniel of The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas have published an op-ed, in which they claim: Intelligent design is not science.

The tone of the op-ed is somewhat dramatic:

www.statesman.com

There are storm clouds gathering in the educational environment of Texas. At a time when the nation has declared that there is a crisis in education that threatens our future as a country, Texas may take a turn in the opposite direction. There are active forces that wish to move away from science to religion in our schools. The concern of leading scientists and engineers of the state has been activated by two recent events.

Source: link above

© source where applicable

Those gathering storm clouds will play a rôle a bit later, but let us first have a look at the "two recent events" that have activated the concern of leading Texan scientists and engineers:

www.statesman.com

The first of these events is that the Texas Education Agency recently took actions that led to the resignation of a science educator, ostensibly because she did not show impartiality between the teaching of "intelligent design" and evolution. The other is the recent request by the Institute for Creation Research, a proponent of "intelligent design" to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, for certification to grant graduate degrees in science education in Texas.

© source where applicable

So, it's the IDists (ICR are more into YEC-land, but give or take a cdesign proponentsists or two, that may amount to the same thing) that are on the march.

The op-ed continues with, what you would expect here -- that "intelligent design" is not science, USA is founded on the separation of church and state, education is within the province of the state, which religious matters are not.

Now, a bit later we come to this juicy bit:

www.statesman.com

We recently embarked on a project to determine how Texas should respond to the report of the National Academies entitled "Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Future". The report describes crises in the educational system in the United States, particularly pertaining to science, and their effect on our national competitiveness.

© source where applicable

There it is again, the gathering storm. BTW, if anyone's interested in the National Academies report, it is online here. The report is a book, but each chapter can be retrieved.

But it's all about keeping the USA competitive with a focus on education, in particular science education. And clearly, the authors of the op-ed do not think that intelligent design is going to do any good there.

The op-ed continues:

www.statesman.com

The future of the world, our nation and the State of Texas hinges on continued breakthroughs in science, engineering and medicine as we face challenges in providing adequate supplies of energy and water, a clean environment, health care, and economic competitiveness. To meet these challenges, it is necessary to continue to attract the best minds to Texas and to provide our children with rigorous and challenging scientific training. Anything that diminishes the rigor of the education of the youth of Texas or our ability to recruit the best talent creates a great risk to the State and limits our contribution to protecting the nation from the "Gathering Storm".

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Ok, maybe they are overdoing it a bit, but that "Gathering Storm" at the end is, what we will be concerned with here. The "Gathering Storm" is, of course. the thread to the US economy, but Robert Crowther of the Discovery Institute gets it a bit the wrong way down the throat in this Evolution News & Views article: In Texas, Here Comes the Rain Again.

Crowther begins with:

Robert Crowther/The Discovery Institute

Like rain dancers, Darwinists in Texas are busily engaging in political cloud seeding, trying to whip up a storm of controversy about science education. As usual they mistakenly equate creationism with intelligent design, knowing full well that the two are very different.

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Very different? Very different? Well, that's not the key issue, is it?

Crowther continues slamming the Darwinists for their frantic rain dancing, and then we are served this:

Robert Crowther/The Discovery Institute

They aren’t just rain dancers though. Turns out they’re prophets of doom and gloom, as well. If their arrogant insistence that there are no scientific critiques of Darwinian evolution isn’t enough to get you in line, well then they will scare you into adherence to the Darwin party platform. Indeed to hear them tell it, the very future of mankind depends on silencing proponents of ID.

The future of the world, our nation and the State of Texas hinges on continued breakthroughs in science, engineering and medicine as we face challenges in providing adequate supplies of energy and water, a clean environment, health care, and economic competitiveness. To meet these challenges, it is necessary to continue to attract the best minds to Texas and to provide our children with rigorous and challenging scientific training. Anything that diminishes the rigor of the education of the youth of Texas or our ability to recruit the best talent creates a great risk to the State and limits our contribution to protecting the nation from the "Gathering Storm".

“The Gathering Storm” metaphor, comes from the first volume of Winston Churchill’s history of WWII. The title referred to the rise of National Socialism. Incredibly, leading Texas scientists are now comparing us to Nazis.

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Ooohhhhh, what do we say? Of course "The Gathering Storm" metaphor comes from Winnies memoirs, where else could it come from?

I mean, friggin' hypocrisy, Richard Weikart is a DI fellow, and has with his book From Darwin to Hitler tried to link Nazism with 'Darwinism, and recently DI fellow John West has in a podcast titled The Dark Darwinian History of Eugenics given a condensed version of Weikart's book, though less flattering for the 'Darwinists'. So who is calling who Nazis?

Returning to Crowther, he ends with these memorable words:

Robert Crowther/The Discovery Institute

As for science education, we would advocate that in Texas, as elsewhere, students would be best served to learn more about evolution, including the scientific evidence that challenges the theory. That’s a far cry from teaching intelligent design.

No serious participants in this debate are proposing that ID be mandated in Texas schools. The members of the state board of education have made this clear. But, the rain makers continue their dance, trying to whip up a storm where there is none.

Typical Darwinists, trying to make something out of nothing.

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Ok, so what is everybody yelling about? Does this mean that Dembski's and Well's The Design of Life will not be seen anywhere near a school board, or what does it mean?


Mike Dunford tries to teach Crowther a lesson on The Questionable Authority.


FreezBee

- FreezBee

[NeilUnreal]

I have a personal memory related to this.

Texas was the first place I went to public school after being out of the continental U.S. for a while. While off the mother continent, I attended schools with extremely high emphasis on science, ditto in the continental U.S. before that.

When I got my high school biology textbook in Texas, I was surprised to see a huge, official stamp on the inside cover that read something like:

"All references to evolution in this textbook are clearly presented as theory and not fact..."

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

In fairness, however, I must point out that both of the high school biology teachers I had in Texas were excellent instructors. I don't recall either of them mentioning anything outside of mainstream science. So it was probably just a school board thing then, as now.

Hopefully, teachers and bright students will continue to actively ignore such. If the powers above them choose to make an issue of that ignoring, it will merely serve to create another Scopes redux. And the anti-science wing of American education has not been doing too well in the court system of late...

-Neil

[FreezBee]

I have a personal memory related to this.

Texas was the first place I went to public school after being out of the continental U.S. for a while. While off the mother continent, I attended schools with extremely high emphasis on science, ditto in the continental U.S. before that.

When I got my high school biology textbook in Texas, I was surprised to see a huge, official stamp on the inside cover that read something like:

"All references to evolution in this textbook are clearly presented as theory and not fact..."

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

In fairness, however, I must point out that both of the high school biology teachers I had in Texas were excellent instructors. I don't recall either of them mentioning anything outside of mainstream science. So it was probably just a school board thing then, as now.

Yes, I have read that the school boards in som states introduced rules about stamping biology books like that.

Hopefully, teachers and bright students will continue to actively ignore such. If the powers above them choose to make an issue of that ignoring, it will merely serve to create another Scopes redux. And the anti-science wing of American education has not been doing too well in the court system of late...

No, they haven't, and I don't think they will do too well in the future. I am not even sure, why they are trying.

I just read an interview with Michael Cremo (not a DI fellow, but the author of Forbidden Archaeology and as anti-Darwinist as the DI fellows), in which he just asks for 5% of the time.

Well, with a Democratic president in sight, I'll suspect they'll be happy, if they aren't completely wiped out


- FreezBee