The rest of America needs to do the opposite. Also, would it help the drug war if we gave Texas back to Mexico?

Perdidochas:

Excellent! Wonderful news. Thanks for the update.

Allenantrium:

[yawn]. Never has so little been said in so much space. I'm not going to bother trying to explain reality to you - see my above post; it isn't worth my angst - but I'll address one point:

it still is a theory by the way not dogma, well for secular fundies it is

Yes, Allen. It is still a theory. Just like the theory of relativity, the theory of plate tectonics, gravitational theory, the kinetic theory of gasses, and a hundred of other scientific theories that are CORRECT. You don't understand what "theory" means. Further, you don't understand what "theory" means because you are stupid, and cannot be bothered to learn. Thank you for your time.

Before they make idiots of us all.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-evolution_27tex.ART0.State.Edition1.4a7acaf.html

AUSTIN – In a decision watched by science educators across the nation, the State Board of Education on Thursday narrowly turned aside a last-ditch effort by social conservatives to require that "weaknesses" in the theory of evolution be taught in science classes in Texas.

Board members deadlocked 7-7 on a motion to restore a longtime curriculum rule that "strengths and weaknesses" of all scientific theories – notably Charles Darwin's theory of evolution – be covered in science classes and textbooks for those subjects.

The tie vote upheld a preliminary decision by the board in January to delete the strengths-and-weaknesses rule in the new curriculum standards for science classes that will be in force for the next decade. That decision, if finalized in a last vote today, changes 20 years of Texas education policy.

I've deliberately avoided posting here, because I go a little crazy over this issue. The day that the teaching of ID becomes standard and accepted anywhere in the country is the day the United States dies. The inability to separate religion from science and demonstrable fact from myth... I don't even know what to say. It's just so fundamental. I can't believe how much fuss is made over abortion rights while this doesn't seem to cause people to feel the abyss yawning beneath them. I'll stop editorializng, or else this will turn into a giant screed that won't make me feel better.

HOWEVER. I'd like to know what happened, without actually reading any transcripts, because reading transcripts and debates will cause my head to explode. Was any sort of decision reached? I know they're meeting today as well; is there any indication of how they're leaning?

I personally don't care what Texas teaches, kids don't pay attention anymore and most schools don't even have good graduation statistics-since parents don't care, why should I? Evolution is one of those secular fundamentalists gods-you know, the Allah of secularists and if one speaks against it, it is like speaking against Allah in some Muslim country. Be that as it may, I will accept the risk of having my free speech taken away by the secular fundies who will not tolerate their god being besmirched. Knowledge is dialectical; it never ends and the brain as well as the instruments man uses, as these become sharper, knowledge changes. You can image how our medical industrial complex will look like a thousand years from now. Once there was no evolution theory (it still is a theory by the way not dogma, well for secular fundies it is) then there was and one day, as man learns more, this theory too, will be modified and then replaced. Only man at his most ignorant and arrogant, when he does not know the sum of everything to know in this infinite state of being, would be dumb enough to announce that he knows the truth and that it is settled-as someone once said to a know-it-all, "you are a wise man for only having lived one life span." Man doesn't even have true being. The old philosophy called our existence mere appearance because you come out of nothing and guess what? You all will die, soon, and return to nothing; funny isn't it? And in their becoming, with their knowledge a becoming as well, secular fundies think they know it all and can stop the dialectic-what fools and what a comical figure they cut. I don't know what should be taught in our great loser school system but the creation account (not this stupid intelligent design crap or some other apologetic that thinks it can sucker kids into believing with its curse of "becoming" as well) should not be cast before swine.

You obviously haven't been following the other side's arguments.

The whole point to "Teach the controversy" has always been the religious right accusing the non-religious of intolerance because we don't tolerate people teaching myth as science.

The whole point to Ben Stein's bit of propaganda entitled "Expelled" was about how academia is "intolerant" of stupid bullshit. Search "Expelled exposed" to see just what the real facts on the "expelled" are.

And the religious left made this one possible by focussing purely on making intolerance taboo, to the point where people can say absolutely disgusting things (Search Gingi Edmonds for an example) or end up causing a situation where money is wasted in court battles over, and over again over the same shit they were told they couldn't do in court case after court case.

The religious right constantly claims it is being prejudiced against because it is not allowed to force atheist children to pray to a God they don't believe in, make religious rules look like secular laws, or disallow people with opposing viewpoints to theirs to actually speak up.

They do all of this while constantly whinging about how "intolerant" the other side is - and the religious left are going to back them on it because it is the religious left's rhetoric the religious right are using.

So what does that tell you about that state? Fuck Texas!