Good News! Science Wins Again In Kansas

The prayers of the intelligent designers over at the creationist Discovery Institute were not answered yesterday. The good folks of Kansas voted to turn out the anti-evolution members of the Kansas Board of Education. According to the Associated Press:

Conservative Republicans who pushed anti-evolution standards back into Kansas schools last year have lost control of the state Board of Education once again.

The most closely watched race was in western Kansas, where incumbent conservative Connie Morris lost her Republican primary Tuesday. The former teacher had described evolution as "an age-old fairy tale" and "a nice bedtime story" unsupported by science.

As a result of Tuesday's vote, board members and candidates who believe evolution is well-supported by evidence will have a 6-4 majority. Evolution skeptics had entered the election with a two-person majority.

Critics of Kansas' science standards worried that if conservatives retained the board's majority, it would lead to attempts in other states to copy the Kansas standards.

Whole thing here.

Comments

[thoreau]

I said it before and I'll say it again: Ron Bailey is in the pocket of Big Darwin. Every time a strain of bacteria evolves antibiotic resistance, he short sells stock in an antibiotic manufacturer.

🙂

[Handsome Dan]

Countdown to bizarre comment from Pat Robertson in 5...4...3...

[Pat Robertson]

This heatwave! The people of Kansas have angered the LORD and brought his humid wrath down upon us!

[God]

Pat,

We have talked about this little problem before, haven't we, Pat? Remember Katrina? You can't just go around blaming my unethical acts on your enemies, can you? You really need to learn to smite on your own if you are going to be so wrathful, my Christian child.

[Pi Guy]

While this is certainly good news, I also suspect that it's only a temporary reprieve. As long as people still believe that the US is a Christian country founded on undeniably Christian principles, there will always be someone who desires to forward that agenda.

http://www.nytimes.com/auth/login?URI=/2006/07/29/us/29delaware.html&OQ=_rQ3D5Q26pagewantedQ3D1&REFUSE_COOKIE_ERROR=SHOW_ERROR
(you'll need to register with NY Times online to read this one)

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,206679,00.html

It'll come back in some form sooner or later, in other places. The Cobb County, AL textbook sticker case is still being litigated so there will be more free PR for the IDiots in the near-future.

[Number 6]

As I mentioned yesterday, we've been through this before. The creationists pulled a similar stunt in 2000 or 2001, with less sucess. They were booted in the next election, only to be replaced when the rational folks quit paying attention and the fundies moved in again.

By the way, one of the races where the creationist won was in Johnson County, one of the most properous counties in the US. Not sure what that means, but since I grew up there, I found that fact interesting. I don't recall JoCo as being a hotbed of fundementalism, but then again, I haven't lived there for about 12 years.

[Mr. F. Le Mur]

Here's some commentary about "leftist creationists," which, from what I've seen, fits most of the HnR posters.

http://www.gnxp.com/MT2/archives/001948.html
http://www.gnxp.com/MT2/archives/003696.html

[torrentprime]

FLM: There is a difference between legal equality, human rights, and biological equality. When people say something trite and old-fashioned like, "All men are created equal," we don't mean they have identical IQs, reflexes, 50-yard-dash speeds and 20/20 vision: we mean that each person has the same rights in law and government.
Of course some members of the left attempt to ignore biology in favor of some forced, assumed equality-of-anatomy. The crucial difference is that when the left ignores/suppresses biology, it is being hypocritical but still has the tools (science, observation, rationality) which will enable it, in time and with prodding, to overcome its temporary prejudices; when the right attempts to suppress science itself, it has no way out, since it has killed the very means which would allow it to self-correct.

[matt]

Pi guy,

That actually should be Cobb County Georgia not Alabama. (I only know because I grew up there.)

[bago]

Can we get some MC Hawking up in this bitch?

[bill]

bago, you got it.

MC Hawking

What We Need More Of Is Science
Verse 1
I'm a disciple of science
I know the universe is compliance with natural laws,
but many place reliance on the psuedo-science of quacks and
morons and fools because,
their educations deficient,
they put faith in omniscient,
make believe beings who control their fate,
but the Hawk aint with it, dig it,
their Holy writ aint the least bit legit,
its a bunch of bullshit.

They need to read a book that ain't so damn old old,
let reason take hold,
though truth to be told,
they're probably already too far gone,
withdrawn, the conclusion foregone.
But maybe there is still hope for the young,
if they reject the dung being slung from the tongues,
of the ignorant fools who call themselves preachers,
and listen instead to their science teachers.

Chorus
Upon blind faith they place reliance,
what we need more of is science!

Trash Talk
Uh yeah, that's right!
Fundamentalist assholes!
Screw the hole lot of them.

Verse 2
Look, I ain't thomas Dolby,
science doesn't blind me,
think you're smart? Form a line behind me,
you won't find me, truth to tell,
to be a man who suffers fools very well.
Quite the opposite in fact,
I aint got time to interact,
with crystal wearing freaks in need of a smack.
New age motherfuckers? Don't get me started,
I made more sense than them, last time I farted.

Not to put too fine a point upon it,
but the whole new age movement is full of shit.
Please allow me to elaborate,
explicate, expatiate.
from astral projection to zygomancy its a,
mish mash of idiocy.
Instead of the archaic worship of seasons,
they should explore logic and reason.

Chorus

Trash Talk
Fucking new-agers!
Is there any amount of bullshit they won't swallow?
It's two-thousand-aught-three goddammit!
When are these morons gonna join us in the 21st century?

Close

[joe]

Mr LeMur,

Staking out a position on the topics of whether genetics explain gender roles and racial difference in SES (both hotly debated topics among researchers) is hardly the equivalent of accepting the Genesis account of the beginnings of life against the univeral scientific acceptance of evolution and the libraries full of experimental and observational data that back it up.

There are reams of data that contradict the theory that, for example, there are inherent differences in mean intelligence among different racial groups. In contrast, the scientific data for Creationism or Intelligent Design is zero.

"Leftist Creationist" is a neat verbal trick to describe those who reject Social Darwinism and look to material conditions to explain why black people have a lower median income than white people, but it is lacking as a description of the actual state of leftist criticism of those theories.

[gaijin]

Bill...I love it. Works with a fitty-cent rap backbeat OR as an epic RUSH tune

[Pro Libertate]

Freakin' MC Hawking. . .that biotch is righteous.

"Upon blind faith they place reliance,
what we need more of is science!" Oh, yeah.

I once had a voice synthesizer program that had the Hawkman's voice of choice. I used it to send a couple of birthday messages and to fake a Stephen Hawking verbal reference for me after the company I was working for was sold in 2004. No, I didn't really use it. . .but I should have 🙂

[Akira MacKenzie]

Score one for the good guys!

[Jim Walsh]

Score one for the good guys!

Hear, hear.

[zeroentitlement]

The former teacher had described evolution as "an age-old fairy tale"

I thought they didn't believe anything could be "age-old." After all, isn't the whole freakin' universe only 10,000 years old according to these nutclumps?