Antievolution & Law and Politics & Media Austringer on 13 Oct 2008 09:58 am
Texas: Houston Chronicle Endorses Laura Ewing
The Houston Chronicle endorsed Laura Ewing for the District 7 State Board of Education race. There’s an additional bit quoted from the recent press conference of a coalition of scientists in Texas who are challenging the SBOE on the religious antievolution leanings of many of the board:
The question facing the board, in the first overhaul of the science curriculum in more than a decade, is whether the curriculum will continue to include teaching the “strengths and weaknesses” of scientific theories, including evolution. It sounds reasonable. But a coalition of Texas scientists says the “strengths and weaknesses” provision is simply an excuse to expose students to “supernatural and fringe explanations” instead of traditional scientific principles. Sahotra Sarkar, a professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas, stated the case for the coalition: “We should teach students 21st-century science, not some watered-down version with phony arguments that nonscientists disingenuously call ‘weaknesses,’ ” she told the board recently. “Calling ‘intelligent design’ arguments a weakness of evolution is like calling alchemy a weakness of chemistry, or astrology a weakness of astronomy.”
The Houston Chronicle should note that Dr. Sarkar is male, not female as they state above.
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on 13 Oct 2008 at 10:12 am 1.Bob O'H said …
I guess I’m not the only one wondering why Ms. Ewing isn’t standing in Dallas.
How good is she for science, though? She says she’s a creationist, but that her views don’t belong in the classroom (good for her), but presumably she’ll still find herself conflicted between science and her personal views.
on 14 Oct 2008 at 5:59 am 2.Laura Ewing said …
I am not conflicted on the message. I believe that we need to teach scientific theory in the classroom. Religion provides the why and science the how. My beliefs on how the people were created need to be dealt with in my religious practices. The theory of evolution needs to be taught in the classroom. The definition of evolution is simply showing how organisms change over time. For instance, how bacteria changes due to antibiotics is an important study and needs to be taught.
Laura Ewing