Anti-Evolutionists
• Wearisome Bedfellows
Iris Van Meter of the southeastern Kansas town of Thayer astonished even the conservatives with a big win in the Aug. 6 Republican primary. Her son says she won using a measured strategy that worked; moderate opponents say it was "a complete stealth election."
The upset, along with the ouster of moderate board chairman Sonny Rundell of Syracuse by conservative Connie Morris of St. Francis, likely will lead to a 5-5 conservative-moderate split on the board. Neither Morris in the 5th District nor Van Meter in the 9th faces opposition in November. The only contested race in the general election pits conservative Republican Ken Willard against moderate Democrat L. Duane Anstine in the heavily Republican 7th District around Hutchinson.
The balance of power on the board has been a heated issue since the late 1990s, when the members deadlocked 5-5 on several issues. In August 1999, a board member who often voted with moderates swung to the conservative side in a 6-4 vote to downplay the teaching of evolution. The vote removed questions on the Darwinian theory from state assessments. It also propelled the board into the national limelight.
Scientists said Kansas had embarrassed itself on the national stage. Moderates regrouped. They regained a majority two years ago and quickly reversed the vote. But conservatives want control again. They say they will bring the evolution issue back as soon as they muster a sixth vote.
Shift in Kansas Board of Education takes many by surprise
After an angry debate among parents, Georgia's second-largest school district adopted a policy last night that requires teachers to give a "balanced education" about the origin of life, giving equal weight to evolution and biblical interpretations.
. . .
After the vote, Gordon O'Neill, a board member, led his colleagues in a prayer: "Heavenly father, we ask that you provide to all of us a clear understanding of our fellow man and an acceptance of a diversity of thinking. Amen."
Many parents at the board's packed meeting said the policy was a backdoor route to teaching religion in schools. They implored the board members not to adopt the policy, saying it would dilute the quality of science education and make graduates of the district, which is north of Atlanta, the laughingstock of college admission offices.
Georgia School Board Requires Balance of Evolution and Bible
Nothing evolves as surely as anti-evolutionism. The anti-Darwin movement, at least in its popular form, began in the primitive whoops and hollers of young-earthers and seven-day literalists. Their claims, as you might guess, were short on science and long on Genesis. But somewhat higher in the strata we find a thoroughly transformed, though recognizably related, beast: the scientific creationist.
. . .
Dembski—whose new book, No Free Lunch, is sure to ignite new firestorms over design vs. Darwin—is perhaps the most impressively credentialed of the lot.
. . .
Unfortunately, Dembski's proof has nothing whatsoever to do with Darwinism and his claim to the contrary is hopelessly silly.
Allen Orr On William Dembski's Creationist Critique Of Evolution