Thursday, 26 March 2009

• SCIENCE WINS, BITCHES!

  
  Today was the vote on science standards down in Texas and we won...and by "won" I mean their bullshit "strengths and weaknesses" clause came down to a 7-7 tie, but they needed an actual victory to include it.  All the same, we've successful protected the youth of Texas from creationist loon Don McLeroy and his cohorts who share his belief in talking snakes and his utter ignorance of science. 
  
  The Texas Freedom Network live-blogged it and Phil Plait has a smashing write-up:
  
  

  SCIENCE WINS IN TEXAS!  Barely...
  

  Incredible news out of Texas: creationists have lost a big battle to destroy science education in the Lone Star State!

  The State Board of Education voted on the science standards — the list of basic scientific knowledge students should have at various grade levels, like knowing that atoms are the basic building blocks of matter, the Earth goes around the Sun, and — say — evolution is the basic and most fundamental aspect upon which all of modern biology is based.

  Creationists on the board (and there are many) tried to water down the standards by creating a phony baloney "strengths and weaknesses" amendment, a totally bogus and arbitrary rule that says that teachers have to point out where a theory has faults. They did this specifically to weaken the teaching of evolution in biology classes. They don’t actually care if the students get a solid education on the fact of evolution, they only care to tear down real science and replace it with Biblical literalism.

  And they failed. According to the fantastic science-based Texas Freedom Network, which has been live-blogging the vote, the creationist amendment lost in a 7-7 vote. They could not add the amendment without an actual victory, so the tie means the garbage amendment goes down.

  But before you dance in the streets, have a mind that the vote was tied 7-7. In other words, half the people on the Texas State School Board of Education thought it was fine and dandy that evolution, a foundation of modern science and shown to be fact beyond reasonable doubt, be taught as being weak and flawed.

  So once again, we see that creationists have lost, but we also know that they will never, ever admit defeat. Remember, their entire outlook on life is not based on reality, but dogma, and so they cannot rest, cannot stop, without shattering their whole worldview.

  So as always, this is not over, despite this advance. It’s a victory for the students of Texas and for reality, but the war will rage on.

  I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again (and I’m not the first): the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Stay sharp, Texas. They’ll regroup. Bet on it.

  [UPDATE: TFN notes that a final vote will come Friday on all the standards, so even this chapter of the battle isn’t over yet. Stay Tuned.]

  Well creationists, stick that in your straw and suck it.
  
  It does not speak well of mankind, and it especially does not speak well of Americans, that the obvious must be cited and fought for so fiercely or so frequently...only to wind up with a narrow victory.  The problem is that people are just stupid.  Not only are they stupid, but because knowledge is much harder than fantasy and going with your gut, they find "explanations" that are easy to understand and pretend that avoiding the evidence through faith is better than learning, so they make sure they stay comfortably (and pretentiously) stupid.  The next time they demand that you respect that, promptly proceed to demolish them with logic and mock them back to the stone age.
  

  
  
  

  
  

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