Sigh.

First the gay marriage ban. Now this.

All I can say is, at least I’m not a native Kansan. Nope, I moved here from NY, where this sort of shit would never stick. Well…I hope not, anyway. But at this point, who knows?

Evolution Debate in Kan. Prompts Attacks

TOPEKA, Kan. - A discussion about how evolution should be taught in public schools degenerated Wednesday into personal attacks among State Board of Education members.

The board is reviewing proposed standards drafted by three conservative members designed to expose students to more criticism of evolution in the classroom. During the discussion, four board members who want the standards to maintain their existing evolution-friendly tone assailed the proposal.

Bill Wagnon told the three conservative board members they were the “dupes” of intelligent design advocates, who presented what Wagnon said was bad science during public hearings in May.

“It is all based on absolute and total fraud,” Wagnon said of the proposal.

But one of the three board members, Connie Morris, lectured the board’s four moderates for not attending the public hearings in May, during which witnesses criticized evolutionary theory that natural chemical processes may have created the first building blocks of life, that all life has descended from a common origin and that man and apes share a common ancestor.

“Had you attended, you would have been informed,” Morris said. “You would be sitting here as informed individuals and not arrogantly calling us dupes.”

Haha! How much I would have loved to have sat in on that meeting!

And there’s a new one: rather than dismissing the evolutionsts as academic snobs - and science as a tool of the elite - the creationists are trying, in vain, to assert their own intelligence and insight. Don’t usually see them take that road, since…well, it’s futile (they at least have the sense to know how idiotic and unscientific - nay, anti-scientific! - they sound).

The ongoing debate over how evolution should be taught has brought international attention to Kansas. The four days of hearings in May attracted journalists from Canada, France, Great Britain and Japan.

Excuse me a moment while I sit in the corner and weep. As if our international rep wasn’t already subpar. Thanks, guys!

Then there’s more discussion about the standards themselves, yada, yada, yada, and finally we get to this gem:

Circulated Monday was a newsletter from Morris, in which she derided evolution as an “age-old fairy tale,” sometimes defended with “anti-God contempt and arrogance.”

Evolution as a “fairly tale”?! This from someone who believes in God, the ultimate myth. Because Adam creating Eve from his left rib is soooo much easier to choke down.

I wonder who’s doing the political and religious posturing here. How do these morons get on the school board to begin with?

Man, is our society in the crapper.

Next thing you know, they’ll be challenging the validity of the Periodic Table, too.

And the kicker:

Battles over evolution also have occurred in recent years in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania, eh? That’s just one state away from NY.

Time to pack up and move on over to Sweden.

- Kelly

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Want to keep (Un)Intelligent Design out of NY schools? Check out CSICOP’s CreationWatch site for Action Alerts.