Saturday, April 16, 2005
Holloway Demands a Do-Over
Linda Holloway, former chairperson of the Kansas State Board of Education and Christian fundamentalist who led the board in 1999 when it first devalued the teaching of evolution, has now weighed in on the evolution hearings proposed by proponents of intelligent design.
"Radical evolutionists refuse to acknowledge the existence of any controversy," writes Holloway in the JoCoKs Report. "If they refuse to debate and defend the issue, for example in the Kansas hearings, and they fall back on the tired old elitist arguments, they may soon go the way of the dinosaurs."
Two observations:
First, notice the "radical" in front of evolutionists. This is right from the Gingrich, Frist, DeLay playbook which calls for demonizing those you disagree with. As a young earth creationist, Holloway is unlikely to have any sympathy with moderate, or even conservative evolutionists. When Holloway lost to moderate Sue Gamble in the school board election that followed the 1999 attacks on evolution, it was not radical evolutionists who jammed the polling places in Johnson County to get rid of her. It was parents who were concerned that the antics of right-wing religious fanatics on the board would make it harder for their children to be accepted at top-flight universities around the country.
Second, scientists are not dodging the debate. They've already won it in the science curriculum committee. Defenders of science also won the debate hands down in four public hearings held around the state in February.
Having lost both those public debates, what Holloway and other biblical literalists (some of whom have traded their tattered bib overalls for a rented intelligent design tuxedo) are demanding yet another do-over.
The board has already made up its mind. More debate won't change that.
"Radical evolutionists refuse to acknowledge the existence of any controversy," writes Holloway in the JoCoKs Report. "If they refuse to debate and defend the issue, for example in the Kansas hearings, and they fall back on the tired old elitist arguments, they may soon go the way of the dinosaurs."
Two observations:
First, notice the "radical" in front of evolutionists. This is right from the Gingrich, Frist, DeLay playbook which calls for demonizing those you disagree with. As a young earth creationist, Holloway is unlikely to have any sympathy with moderate, or even conservative evolutionists. When Holloway lost to moderate Sue Gamble in the school board election that followed the 1999 attacks on evolution, it was not radical evolutionists who jammed the polling places in Johnson County to get rid of her. It was parents who were concerned that the antics of right-wing religious fanatics on the board would make it harder for their children to be accepted at top-flight universities around the country.
Second, scientists are not dodging the debate. They've already won it in the science curriculum committee. Defenders of science also won the debate hands down in four public hearings held around the state in February.
Having lost both those public debates, what Holloway and other biblical literalists (some of whom have traded their tattered bib overalls for a rented intelligent design tuxedo) are demanding yet another do-over.
The board has already made up its mind. More debate won't change that.
