For Texas Textbooks, a Victory For Evolution

An anonymous reader writes "The Texas Board of Education has unanimously come down on the side of evolution. In an 8-0 vote, the board today approved scientifically accurate high school biology textbook supplements from established mainstream publishers — and did not approve the creationist-backed supplements from International Databases, LLC."

Comments

Re:Have to share this - holy crap! mod parent up

[RobbieThe1st]

It's an interesting point, but it seems that it should be possible to teach Microevolution( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microevolution ) which we've seen in the lab, without adding in a bunch about Macroevolution which we *can't* prove(Did *you* see personally see fish evolve into something else? ) . Now, don't mistake this for thinking I mean that Creationism is a better option - it isn't. But there are other options out there, like evolution through punctuated equalibriam versus gradual change. That is, if half the population dies out overnight, I'm sure you'd see some big changes in the norm, because of what now *wouldn'* be there.
The thing I see is a simplistic view on both sides, and an argument that what we see in small scale must translate linearly to large scale and vise-versa. Which, in a number of other fields, is simply not true; so why should we assume it with evolution?
Now, all I'm really saying here is that evolution on a large scale may not be linear, or smooth over time. On the other hand it might be. But pushing one of these options as fact, without adaquate proof... that's just as misguided as pushing creationism.

I'm sure I'm going to get flamed for this, but... it has to be said.

Re:What the fsycke happened ?

[Brett Buck]

I'll end with this tidbit: ever wonder why ultraconservatives were pushing so hard for a school voucher system? Could it be that such a system would make it frighteningly easy for this type of behavior to flourish, by essentially subsidizing extremist institutions?

      Oh, bullshit. School voucher systems are being pushed because *the public school systems are dreadful* and *don't teach things that are important* like reading and writing and math in any decent way. But they are indoctrinating children with ideas that many, if not most, parents things are wrong and morally reprehensible (like socialism). Why, for example, do kindergarten kids need to learn about aberrant sexual behavior in history class?

      They have to pay taxes to support it, but they want their children to go to schools that are effective and at least neutral.

    Brett