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Kansas Board Approves Evolution

By JOHN MILBURN

The Associated Press

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Evolution was restored Wednesday as a central theory in the state's science classes, ending 18 months of debate and international ridicule over how Kansas teaches the origins of man.

The state Board of Education approved the new science standards in a 7-3 vote.

``I believe now that we have science standards that the rest of the world could look to,'' board member Carol Rupe said.

The new standards will replace ones adopted in 1999 that omitted references to many evolutionary concepts as well as the big-bang theory of the creation of the universe.

Board member Steve Abrams voted against the new standards, arguing that evolution is a flawed theory and that he isn't espousing any religious doctrine in questioning its teaching.

``What I do espouse is that this is not good science,'' Abrams said.

Evolution, a theory developed by Charles Darwin and others, holds that the Earth is billions of years old and that all life, including humans, evolved from simple forms through a process of natural selection.

Some religious fundamentalists and others object to the teaching of evolution, saying it contradicts the biblical account of creation.

The Kansas board caused an uproar two years ago when it voted 6-4 in favor of science standards that removed evolution from its central place in the teaching of biology.

At the time, Gov. Bill Graves called the board's action ``terrible, tragic, embarrassing.''

Harvard professor Stephen Jay Gould equated the Kansas standards to teaching ``American history without Lincoln.'' Bill Nye, the ``Science Guy'' of children's television, called the board's action ``harebrained'' and ``nutty.'' And a Washington Post columnist wrote a facetious memo from God to board members, with God saying, ``Man, I gave a brain. Use it, OK?''

The 1999 standards deleted references to macroevolution - large-scale evolutionary changes that create new species - but kept references to ``microevolution,'' or changes within species, and natural selection, the idea that advantageous traits increase in a population over time.

Last fall, however, voters ousted two of the board members who de-emphasized evolution, including the chairwoman at the time.

Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center of Science Education, welcomed the renewed emphasis on evolution.

``It's too bad that they got such a black eye over this issue,'' Scott said. ``And it was unfair because other states have gone through similar struggles.''

Kansas is one of several states, including Arizona, Alabama, Illinois, New Mexico, Texas and Nebraska, where school boards have tried to take evolution out of state science standards or to de-emphasize evolutionary concepts.

On the Net:

Kansas State Department of Education: http://www.ksbe.state.ks.us

Intelligent Design Network Inc.: hhtp://www.intelligent Designnetwork.org

National Center of Science Education: http://www.natcenscied.org

 

[Follow up Info by Ramon]

Dear Curator!

I'm afraid the article you saw on AOL recently slipped one by you; you should learn to enable your liberalism detector prior to reading anything churned out by the leftist press.

This whole business about Kansas removing evolutionism from the schools is a load of rubbish. In fact, evolution theories were even more abundant throughout the Kansas public school curricula than they were before, but only their proselytization in the classrooms and on some exams was what had been diminished. Since evolutionists can't stand such incipient apostasy, they expended much effort towards successfully restoring pagan control of the state's board of education, all the while painting any critics or doubters of their religious faith as fanatical zealots. Answers in Genesis was keeping track of the controversy from day one; visit any or all of the following links before you get lured in by the deceitful liberal spin doctors who would rather have you believe they're the sole disseminators of news.

 

Whose religion is central to evolution debate?

Chopping out the 'E-word'

It's time for TIME to get it right!

Article in Education Week

From the start, the fix was in

Confusion in Kansas - evolution not outlawed!

HERE'S THE SCOOP - WHAT'S REALLY IN THE STANDARDS!

More fallout in Kansas

Controversial Kansas school board member to run for re-election!

Evolutionary Politics

Kansas and evolution again in the news - state primary looms

Campaign of distortions leads to shake-up of Kansas school board

 

Kansas to can controversial curriculum!

Pro-evolution school board to vote on new Kansas science standards!

Dear Ramon,

I'm not at all surprised to find out the media twisted the facts enough to make it misleading. It gets everyone up in arms and sells more newspapers. I've noticed the same M.O. with other stories as well, so I've come to expect it. I also notice most media misinformation is never in the form of outright lies (because that would be embarrassing if discovered). Instead, they use omission of relevant details that would otherwise provide balance. If such information is publicly exposed, the authors can always claim the only reason it was left out was because they didn't have space to fit it in. Typical...

This is one of the reasons the media is so big on the McCain/ Finegold Campaign Finance bill: They want both parties limited to the same amount of commercials so that the reporting bias will be the determining factor in future elections. What a wonderful idea (not).

Thanks for the additional info.

 

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Rev. 2.18.01