Kansas Turns Back On Science, Pennsylvania Stands Firm

Yesterday the Kansas school board proudly declared itself the most backward group of asses, blockheads, boobs, boobies, dimwits, dorks, dunces, dunderheads, fools, halfwits, ignoramuses, imbeciles, jackasses, jerks, kooks, meatheads, mental defectives, morons, nincompoops, ninnys, nitwits, pinheads, simpletons, tomfools, twits, and yo-yo’s.

I normally don’t resort to ad homonym attacks, however, since our friends in Kansas have thrown reason, science, and logic out the window, I figure why not just stick the whole thesaurus entry for idiot right in there.

To be fair, there were 4 dissenters in the 6-4 vote to include intelligent design in the Kansas curriculum.

All six of those who voted for the standards were Republicans. Two Republicans and two Democrats voted against them.

“This is a sad day. We’re becoming a laughingstock of not only the nation, but of the world, and I hate that,” said board member Janet Waugh, a Kansas City Democrat.-CNN

In my profession, marketing, it is easy to slip into the mindset that there are no absolute truths. If it’s sexy and it sells, then that’s the measure of truth for a marketing team. However, outside the rarified world of spin, ads, glitz, and glam there is another world of people who deal in truths. Scientists, doctors, engineers, and countless others labor in a world where life and death, success and failure are determined by how well they understand the laws of nature. Our modern society is based on an intricate understanding of these laws, without which, the world we know would quickly come falling down around us.

This is why I get pissed off every time I hear another story coming out of my country’s sad heartland, about how some idiots have won another victory for teaching intelligent design in the classroom. Intelligent design holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by some kind of higher force. This conclusion gives up on science and empirical inquiry in favor of some “non-natural” explanations for observed phenomena.

The (Kansas) board rewrote the definition of science, so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena. -CNN

The problem is that science doesn’t work like this. Science works with things that can be observed, analyzed, and proven. Religion is about things that are beyond proof. You can not mix the two, not if you want your bridges to stand, your planes to fly, and your nuclear reactors to remain operational. What happens when your doctor tells you that the pain in your liver has “non-natural” explanations? Religion and science are separate subjects.

Even the Catholic church has recently stated that the creationists agenda is completely wrong-headed. The Times of London has a great article on Cardinal Paul Poupard argument that the words of the Bible and Evolution can co-exist.

In The Times Martin Penner reported the cardinal?s argument. He had said that the description in Genesis of the Creation was ?perfectly compatible? with Darwin?s theory of evolution, if the Bible were read properly. ?Fundamentalists want to give a scientific meaning to words that had no scientific aim.?

He argued that the real message of Genesis was that the Universe did not make itself, and had a creator. ?Science and theology act in different fields, each in its own.? -From The Times, London

As Kansas prepared to hang biology teachers from that sour apple tree, good news came out of my home state of Pennsylvania.

Voters came down hard Tuesday on school board members who backed a statement on intelligent design being read in biology class, ousting eight Republicans and replacing them with Democrats who want the concept stripped from the science curriculum. - From CNN

For further background take a look at The Scopes Monkey Trials. Or, watch Inherit the Wind, a brilliant dramatic recreation of the trial that settled this issue 80 years ago. The 1960’s version is the best. I suggest that everyone in Kansas watch this movie again and consider whether you are not marching backwards in history.