Texas? Really?

I know every state in the Union has issues of some sort or another. When it comes to my state, Illinois, I know that one of the things we lead the nation in is governmental corruption. At one point, I think we had three consecutive governors spending time in jail for various offenses committed while they were governor. Yay, Illinois. So it is hard, in general, for Illinois people to poke fun at other states. But this is just too much low hanging fruit to ignore.

A new University of Texas/Texas Tribune survey shows just how destructive a politicized right-wing curriculum can be. A large number of Texans polled said they still don’t believe in evolution and are convinced that humans and dinosaurs co-existed:

– 51 percent disagree with the statement, “Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals.”
– 38 percent agree with the statement, “God created human beings pretty much in their present form about 10,000 years ago.”
– 30 percent agree with the statement, “Humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time.” Another 30 percent said they “don’t know” whether the statement is true.

This would be comical if it weren't for the fact that these same people are again in charge of choosing science textbooks to use in their schools.The Texas State Board of Education is looking to set state standards for science teaching this year. And the creationists on the board are looking to set the children of Texas back a hundred years in their education. Most of the people involved in this tragedy think they are doing it for religious reasons. If so, their interpretation of the Bible is seriously flawed.

Take, for example, Kenneth Miller, a Roman Catholic professor of biology at Brown University and author of one of the nation’s leading high school textbooks. His biology textbook, fully in support of evolution, is among those the Texas state board is considering for adoption this year. Or consider Francis S. Collins, an evangelical Christian and head of the Human Genome Project. From a Time magazine piece about Collins in 2009:

“Science can’t be put together with a literalist interpretation of Genesis,” he continues. “For one thing, there are two different versions of the creation story — in Genesis 1 and 2 — so right from the start, you’re already in trouble. Christians should think of Genesis not as a book about science but about the nature of God and the nature of humans," Collins believes. “Evolution gives us the ‘how,’ but we need the Bible to understand the ‘why’ of our creation.”

You would think that the overwhelming (let me say that again - OVERWHELMING) basis for evolution would sway some people. Unfortunately, creationists have proudly rejected out of hand the  scientific evidence behind evolution. They have reveled, as former Texas state board chairman Don McLeroy infamously said, in “standing up to experts.”

What can you say to that?

I'll leave it to an "expert" to get in the last word. Warning, some explicit language is involved here. If it bothers you, you may want to skip this.