Anti Evolution in Kansas

[Skepti Que]

I am cross posting this to the general cration science forum. I'm sure if our moderator thinks it is overkill he will leave it in the appropriate forum.

Here are lead paragraphs and links that I hope work to three articlesa about the debate concerning teaching alternative points of view in Kansas public shcools.



Posted on Thu, May. 12, 2005

Kansas school board's hearings on evolution end in acrimony

BY DAVID KLEPPER

Knight Ridder Newspapers

TOPEKA, Kan. - (KRT) - The Kansas Board of Education's hearings on the teaching of evolution ended Thursday with more name-calling than science.

It was an acrimonious end to four days of hearings that had been heralded by some board members as a scientific dialogue for the public's education.

The hearings began last week to worldwide media scrutiny and a packed audience, but by Thursday there were fewer than 50 members of the public watching, and much of the debate focused on emotional accusations and not Charles Darwin.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascit ... 632864.htm

The Greatest Show on Earth?
by Jason Miller
www.dissidentvoice.org
May 12, 2005

Yes, Phineas Taylor Barnum would be green with envy. The master of the hoodwink would be in awe of the Religious Right movement. Mirroring Barnum, snake-charming, beguiling, conning, and flimflamming are at the heart of its repertoire. Yet these masters of manipulation leave Barnum looking like a bush leaguer. Over the last week, the radicals of the Right have been flashing their propagandistic cunning as they soak up the spotlight of national media attention in Topeka, Kansas.

Faith vs. Science: Round 2

In "Scopes II", the 6 to 4 conservative Christian majority on the Kansas State School Board has again put the theory of Evolution on trial. Despite the lack of testimony from a single member of the mainstream scientific community, "the show must go on" as three of the most conservative board members preside over this "hearing." What is the thinly veiled purpose of this extravaganza? With certainty, it is to validate the concept of
Intelligent Design and to denigrate Evolution.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/May05/Miller0512.htm

Both sides claim win
Elaine Bessier, Staff Writer May 12, 2005

Both sides of the evolution debate said their side won during the first three days of hearings held before three Kansas Board of Education members last week.

Nearly 200 people, including about 50 media members from across the globe, attended the hearings conducted by a subcommittee in Topeka.

John Calvert, Lake Quivira, founding member of the Intelligent Design Network, called 23 witnesses who questioned evolution and said students should hear the theory taught alongside intelligent design in science classrooms. They favored the Science Standards Writing Committee's minority report, which advocates changes in the definition of science and a closer look at the strengths and weaknesses of the evolutionary theory.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?news ... 5725&rfi=6

[Jukia]

ID is not science. If the proponents think it is then they should advance it in the scientific community, not in the Kansas Bd of Ed. It is a thinly veiled attempt to raise creationism. It requires a jump to the supernatural, it is not science. The Kansas educational system should be ashamed of itself.