Monday, July 17, 2006
Ohio: Telling It Like It Is
The fight over creationism, or creation science, or intelligent design, or teach the controversy, or critical analysis, or whatever they're calling it this week, "should have been dead and buried in February," says an editorial in The Columbus Dispatch.
That's when the Ohio Board of Education voted 11-4 to drop a science standard and lesson plan that called for "critical analysis" of evolution.
The creationists on the board also want to teach the controversy over stem cell research, but, as The Columbus Dispatch editorial board notes, there is no debate about the science involved in stem-cell research and cloning. "The only debate would be over the morality of these practices, a worthy discussion, but not one appropriate for a class devoted to teaching the scientific method."
That's when the Ohio Board of Education voted 11-4 to drop a science standard and lesson plan that called for "critical analysis" of evolution.
But a few dogged members still insist on "teaching the controversy" about evolution, even though the controversy has been manufactured by disingenuous people who wish to introduce the supernatural into science classrooms.""Intelligent design" notes The Columbus Dispatch, "is code for the Christian version of creationism.
The creationists on the board also want to teach the controversy over stem cell research, but, as The Columbus Dispatch editorial board notes, there is no debate about the science involved in stem-cell research and cloning. "The only debate would be over the morality of these practices, a worthy discussion, but not one appropriate for a class devoted to teaching the scientific method."
