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Millions of dollars have been spent promoting Ben Stein's Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed to fundamentalist church groups, but that money would have been better spent on fact checkers. www.ExpelledExposed.com, a website launched today by the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), reveals the truth behind the creationist movie's misrepresentations. Throughout the movie, Ben Stein claims that "Big Science" represses intelligent design to advance an atheistic agenda, but that is a Creationist "Big Lie." Many evolutionary scientists, such as Ken Miller and Francis Collins, are theists. Intelligent Design fails on scientific grounds, not because of atheistic philosophy. Evolution is just a natural process, with no universally-agreed upon theistic implications except those in the minds of individuals. Evolution did demolish the argument from design, but such arguments are not the reason most people believe in God. More insidious is the movie's attempt to link evolution to racism and the Holocaust, for that is also untrue--in fact, it is a vicious libel (see "Darwinism is Racism": Refutation of a Creationist Argument). The new NCSE Expelled Exposed website is a resource for journalists, teachers, and curious moviegoers who want the full story behind the Creationist faux-documentary Expelled. Read the NCSE Expelled Exposed Press Release. |
The Texas primary on March 4 is a potentially dangerous day for math, English, and especially science education in Texas public schools. Young-Earth Creationist Barney Maddox is challenging incumbant Pat Hardy for the District 11 Fort Worth position on the State Board of Education. Barney Maddox demonstrates little understanding of modern science; instead, he is an aggressive advocate for the most credulous and vulgar form of Creationism. Texas Citizens for Science explains why, in a new report titled Young-Earth Creationist Barney Maddox is an Unqualified Candidate for the Texas State Board of Education, Barney Maddox would be a disaster for Texas education if he won the primary. The report analyzes his Creationist writings and explains why they are illogical and deceptive.
Update: A collection of news articles, letters, and essays about Barney Maddox and the March 4 primary is available.
On 2008 February 13, the extreme-right members of the Texas SBOE proposed a motion to consolidate updated English Language Arts (ELA) standards written in 1997 by Conservative Donna Garner with the official proposed TEA standards written by Texas ELA teachers with the help of a StandardsWork facilitator. About 25 ELA teachers testified against this power play, and several Republican and Democratic SBOE members spoke against it. Texas Citizens for Science analyzes this episode in detail in a new report, Texas State Board of Education Members Attempt to Adopt Discredited ELA Standards. The reason for the report is because the same right-wing SBOE members could try the same thing with substitute biology standards written by the Discovery Institute later this year.
Updated! 2008 March 28 A collection of news articles and essays about the realignment of ELA standards is available.
In 2007 November, under unusual circumstances, the Texas SBOE precipitously and without statutory justification rejected a McGraw Hill mathematics textbook from the conforming math textbook list. The math text rejection was illegal and many individuals criticized the State Board for this action. Then, in 2008 January, a majority of SBOE members refused to allow a minority report about the math textbook rejection incident into the record. Why is this episode important for science textbooks and science education? Texas Citizens for Science explains all in a new report, Texas State Board of Education's Rejection of a Math Textbook is Illegal, that reveals why the SBOE rejected the math book and analyzes the illogical and illegal reasons that SBOE member Terri Leo uses to justify the rejection.
Update: A collection of news articles and editorials about the illegal SBOE math textbook rejection is available.
A retired engineer in Florida, who happens to be a member of the Framers' Committee for Florida's new science standards, has submitted a minority report to request that "students should learn why some scientists give scientific critiques of standard models of neo-Darwinian evolution or models of the chemical origin of life." Responding to this well-known Creationist ploy--part of the Discovery Institute's anti-science marketing strategy to damage science standards in several states--Texas Citizens for Science has written a report, The Alleged "Weaknesses" or "Critiques" of "Darwinism," that refutes the DI's argument.
A sociology professor and pastoral counselor repeats the ancient Creationist argument that "Darwinism is Racism" in an op-ed column in The Philadelpia Inquirer. Not one to let a deliberate anti-Darwin misrepresentation go un-refuted, Texas Citizens for Science has written a Refutation of the "Darwinism is Racism" Argument. Updated with information about Ken Ham, the founder of Answers in Genesis and the country's largest Creation Museum.
In an email message to its friends, the Institute for Creation Research proposes what TCS terms The Disjunctive Duality of Science Distinction, a new argument to support its effort to obtain Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approval for its masters degree program in science education. The argument is actually an old one. It posits that two types of science exist, "experimental" science and "forensic, historical, or orgins" science. Only the first is real science, while the second--which, needless to say, includes evolutionary biology--is not a reliable science. Texas Citizens for Science posts the ICR message and provides a brief refutation of the argument.
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A new book is available from the National Academy of Sciences: Science, Evolution, and Creationism, 2008 Edition
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The National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine
have released SCIENCE, EVOLUTION, AND CREATIONISM, a book designed to give
the public a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of the current scientific
understanding of evolution and its importance in the science classroom.
Recent advances in science and medicine, along with an abundance of
observations and experiments over the past 150 years, have reinforced
evolution's role as the central organizing principle of modern biology, said
the committee that wrote the book.
The Academy, which operates under Congressional mandate to advise the government on scientific matters, issued the report at a time when the theory of evolution, first proposed in the 19th century, faces renewed attack by religious Creationists in the United States. Despite the overwhelming evidence supporting evolution, opponents have repeatedly tried to introduce nonscientific views into public school science classes through the teaching of various forms of creationism, intelligent design, or bogus "weaknesses" of evolution. Copies of the press release and news articles are available. |
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Texas Citizens for Science has written a Press Release that describes the major motivation for the rapid, incompetent, and--until now--stealthy process of the ICR site evaluation and certification approval by two committees of the THECB. ICR is on-track to make millions of dollars by charging tuition from students in the U.S. and many foreign countries for its new on-line distance education Graduate School Creationism program. Upon completion of the on-line course of study and full payment of fees to the ICR, each student will be awarded a legal, authentic, and Texas-certified Masters Degree in Science Education. This money-making but pseudoscientific travesty depends on winning certification from the THECB, which until now has been progressing smoothly and quietly.
Texas Citizens for Science has written a Report on The Institute for Creation Research and its ongoing effort to deceive the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and convince it to give ICR the Certification it wants. ICR will probably not mention that California refused to give ICR it's official State Certification, or mention the Biblical Literalist TRACS accreditation ICR had for many years but recently terminated, or acknowledge that ICR's true purpose is not to educate students about science but to pervert science education in the United States. To cap it off, TCS has obtained and posted the official THECB Report of Evaluation of ICR and ICR's Response. Also now available is the full record of ICR's quest for accreditation in California, Degrees of Folly by William Bennetta. You won't believe what is in these documents!
Update: A collection of news articles and editorials about ICR's application for THECB certification is available.
The Institute for Creation Research (ICR), now located in Dallas, Texas, in their new "Henry M. Morris Center for Christian Leadership," wants to teach graduate students about their particular religious ideology, Young Earth Creationism. To do this, ICR needs the help of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to give it official state Certification to seek accreditation to grant Master's Degrees in Science Education. Although this may sound crazy--since ICR is a religious ministry that promotes Young Earth Creationism and seeks to proselytize others in its Biblical Literalist and Fundamentalist faith--ICR actually believes it is a scientific organization worthy of training students and awarding them graduate degrees in science, and has never hesitated to try to fool public officials and suck them into its crazy beliefs. To expose this con game, Texas Citizens for Science wrote a Press Release that publicized the fact that the ICR's request is going to be considered by the Certification Advisory Council of the THECB today.
Over 100 Texas university biology professors signed an Open Letter to Robert Scott, the Commissioner of Education for Texas. The letter expressed concern for the forced dismissal of former TEA Science Director Chris Comer, but its main purpose was to defend evolutionary biology as a central concept in modern science education. The letter stated that it is "inappropriate" for the Texas Education Agency to expect its Director of Science to "remain neutral" about evolution. The letter concludes by saying that the Texas Education Agency "should work to bolster evolution education in Texas rather than undermining it."
Update: December 19, 2007 - Commissioner Robert Scott wrote a Reply to the Texas biology professors in which he defended his actions. In turn, Dr. David Bolnick wrote a Response to Commissioner Scott in which he further explained and justified the concerns of the Texas biology professors, especially describing scientists' long-standing criticism of the "stengths and weaknesses" Science Process Rule 3A.
On November 7, 2007, Texas Education Agency Director of Science Curriculum Christine Comer was forced to resign on illegitimate and trumped-up charges. Her forced resignation was revealed publicly today in an Austin American-Statesman news article. Texas Citizens for Science President Steven Schafersman reveals the true reasons for her forced resignation in a report titled TEA Science Director Forced to Resign. The report makes clear that there is an effort underway by some TEA administrators and some members of the SBOE to distort and diminish evolution instruction in Texas public schools by requiring that the "weaknesses" and "controversies" of evolutionary biology be presented. The effort is part of a duplicitous marketing campaign created by Intelligent Design Creationists of the Discovery Institute to damage science education in general, and biological evolution instruction in particular, in our country. Getting rid of the the agency's Director of Science--a supporter of accurate and reliable evolution instruction--was the first step in this mendacious campaign in Texas. This is the latest effort by religiously-inspired public education officials to politicize science education in our state's public schools and deprive students of the benefits of 21st Century Science.
Update: A collection of news articles and editorials about the Chris Comer forced resignation is available.
During public testimony on Thursday, November 15, Texas Citizens for Science President Steven Schafesman criticized the SBOE Proposal to revise the process by which Texas science standards are reviewed and revised, the most significant aspect of which is to hire a new Facilitator who will have the final responsibility and authority to write the science TEKS. A professional Facilitator was hired only a few hours before to handle the English Language Arts and Reading TEKS which had been written by teachers, reviewed by experts, but not yet finalized. TCS expressed several serious concerns about the new proposal, which was written in an ambiguous and poorly-thought out manner that raised many questions and red flags. The Facilitator proposal will probably be approved, but if safeguards are not put in place to protect the accuracy and reliability of science content during the process, it is likely that science education will suffer.
Three Reviews of New Texas Science Standards Documents are now available. The reviews were written by Steven Schafersman, President of Texas Citizens for Science. In them, Dr. Schafersman provides links to and reviews the just released Draft Report of the Commission for a College Ready Texas (CCRT), the draft Texas College Readiness Standards (TCRS), and two policy reports of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. The documents are all favorably reviewed for the most part, with significant omissions identified and corrected, and anyone interested in the fate of public school science education in Texas will want to read both the original documents and their TCS reviews. The first two reviews served as public written testimony by Steven Schafesman when he addressed the Texas State Board of Education during public testimony on Wednesday, November 14, in Austin.
A new Powerpoint presentation on Textbook Selection, Science Education, and Church-State Separation in Texas (1.2 MB) is now available. This presentation was given in brief form at The Texas Lyceum in Austin on July 13. The Texas Lyceum is a non-partisan organization that brings experts together once a year to address a specific controversial topic. This year the title of the conference was "Separation of Church and State--Why?" Steven Schafersman, TCS President, described why the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution is responsible for ensuring that Texas public school students continue to have access to accurate and reliable science textbooks and curricula.
The new, so-called Religious Viewpoint Anti-Discrimination Act is the latest expression of the radical religious-right ideology that dominates Texas politics. Howard and Chisum, both extreme right-wing fundamentalist Protestant Christians who repeatedly attempt to force their sectarian religious views into the Texas public school system using the power of the state and their public offices, claim the Act will allow voluntary student expression of religous viewpoints in the schools. The true purpose of this new stealth law, however, is to enable the proselytization of minority-faith and non-faith students within public schools, and to make public school administrators complicit in this violation of the Constitution. One effect of the new statute will be to allow creationist explanations for natural phenomena, much to the further detriment of science education in Texas.
Update: A collection of news articles and editorials about the Religious Expression Act is available.
The new Chisum-Bridges Memo Controversy is another manifestation of the radical religious-right ideology that dominates Texas politics. Warren Chisum, Republican Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, sent an anti-Semitic memo written by Ben Bridges--a Georgia State Representative who advocates creationism, geocentricity, and a non-rotating and non-revolving Earth--to every Texas House member. Bridge's memo claims that evolutionary biology is a conspiracy of Jewish "Kabbalists" documented in ancient "Rabbinic writings." The memo has been universally denounced by scientists, science bloggers, and the Jewish Anti-Defamation League.
The new Opinion is a major victory for Texas citizens and the Texas economy, since students--future knowledge workers--will continue to use high-quality textbooks free of political and religious censorship. This is especially true for science textbooks, which have been the target of censorship by religious-right members of the State Board of Education for decades. Read the Texas Citizens for Science Press Release for details about the just-released decision.
Terri Leo seeks an opinion from the Texas Attorney General to overturn the 1995 Texas education legislation that removed State Board authority to determine general textbook content. Texas Citizens for Science has submitted A Brief that supports the original 1996 opinion.
Attorney General Greg Abbott is currently reviewing the Leo opinion request that seeks to reverse a 1996 attorney general opinion that upheld the 1995 legislation that reformed the Texas Education Code. This legislation stripped the State Board of Education of its authority to control the content of textbooks adopted in Texas, a power it had used for decades to censor science, history, social studies, economics, health education, environmental science, and government textbooks. Current censorship by the State Board must be done publicly, with great effort and embarrassment, so the current Texas Education Code is a hindrance to the radical religious right members who want to censor textbooks easily and secretly, as they could in the past. Their failure to censor biology textbooks in 2003 is believed to be the primary motivation in their attempt to overturn the current interpretation of the Code. This latest effort to damage science education is a serious one that must be confronted.
Texas Citizens for Science president Steven Schafersman has written A Brief to the Texas Attorney General that supports the original 1996 Attorney General opinion. In it, he analyzes the language and legislative history of the 1995 bill, and examines the arguments used by Terri Leo in her opinion request. He finds that her arguments are illogical and disingenuous, and requests that the Attorney General reaffirm the 1996 opinion. The link above will take you to the Brief and links to all the relevant documents, bills, and statutes.
TBSEF is offering Texas science teachers and librarians a free creationist DVD, Where Does the Evidence Lead?, to show in science classes throughout the state. The DVD is actually a version of the well-known creationist DVD Unlocking the Mystery of Life developed by the Discovery Institute, the primary organization promoting intelligent design creationism in the United States. Texas Citizens for Science president Steven Schafersman has written A Review and Critique of Where Does the Evidence Lead? in a letter to Texas science teachers and librarians, in which he carefully demonstrates why it is inappropriate, unscientific, and almost certainly illegal to show this DVD in any Texas public school science classroom.
A new TCS analysis, House Bills 220 and 2534 Will Return Texas to Its Dark Ages, has just been published. In it, Steven Schafersman, President of Texas Citizens for Science, brieflly describes the history of textbook censorship in Texas by its State Board of Education and explains why House Bills 220 and 2534 would have made it easier for current State Board members to censor textbooks by forcing publishers to change and insert textbook content that agrees with their extremist political, ideological, and religious beliefs, as well as directly promote bigotry in public schools.
Note added (April 26, 2005): Both of these bills died in committee. It will be difficult to pass these again for two years, until the next session of the Texas Legislature. TCS will monitor any special session for school finance to be sure that bills such as these do not become law. In addition, vouchers, virtual charter schools, and public school privatization all failed. With the exception of school finance (a big exception), this session has been a victory for public school education, students, and Texas citizens. We must always be vigilant, however, against the efforts of the 4Rs (Radical Republican Religious Right) to destroy public education in Texas.
To oppose anti-science legislation by writing to your state legislator, you can go to the Texas House of Representatives and to the Texas Senate.
On November 5, 2004, the Texas State Board of Education finally approved the censored health education textbooks for use in Texas public schools for the next six years. As reported earlier, these books are inadequate and dangerous, because they omit information about contraception and prophylaxis to help prevent unwanted teenage pregnancies and sexually-transmitted diseases. Instead the health texts adopt an abstinence-only method of sex education, a method revealed in numerous scientific studies to be ineffectual, counter-productive, and thus dangerous. Please read the November 5, 2004, TCS Press Release on this topic (this press release is also available as a Word document).
The original Written Testimony of Texas Citizens for Science is available online and as a PDF file and Word document. This testimony was submitted to the State Board of Education for the textbook hearing in Austin on Wednesday, July 14, and is the most complete description of the issues and problems with the health textbooks. The document reviews and analyzes the treatment of sex education in five different health education textbooks. In brief, the five 2005 health textbooks submitted for adoption this year treat teenage sexuality even worse than the 1998 book described in the Health Textbooks section: all promote abstinence-only sex education and avoid mentioning any other methods of prophylaxis for prevention of STDs and contraception for prevention of pregnancy. Four are "Texas Editions," and you know what that means: keeping the students ignorant. Over 60% of Texas students engage in sexual activity before graduating from high school, so the textbooks, the state health education curriculum, and the state's public education officials are all complicit in the extremely high teenage pregnancy and STD rates in Texas. Please go to the Health Textbooks section for further information.
Watch this section for future reports on (1) the effort of some Texas state legislators to allow a state voucher program for private religious schools, and (2) the renewed effort to get Texas to adopt William Bennett's flawed and science-censored virtual charter home-school curriculum.
Texas Citizens for Science was formed in January, 2003, to promote the use of accurate and reliable science in Texas public education, government, and institutions. TCS is the successor to the Texas Council for Science Education that was active during 1980-1994 in support of the same goals.
During its first year, TCS devoted its attention to reviewing biology textbooks that were adopted by the Texas Education Agency in 2003 for Texas high schools, and defending their scientific accuracy in public hearings before the Texas State Board of Education.
In 2004, after the biology textbook adoption success in 2003, TCS began to work in four new areas identified by the new navigation menu choices listed above each page.
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Texas Citizens for Science Announcement Email List
Texas Citizens for Science maintains an email list on Yahoo Groups named TexNews to keep you informed about science education issues in Texas. This is not a discussion list, but a one-way announcement and information list. You will not receive messages from other list members, nor can you send messages to the list. This is a relatively low volume list.
There are two ways you can subscribe to TexNews: You can send an email message to texnews-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. You will then receive a message to confirm your subscription. This second step is necessary to prevent others from signing you up to lists without your knowledge. Or, you can visit the webpage at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/texnews/ and click the button "Join This Group!" Either way will work, but if you choose the latter, you will have to obtain a Yahoo account and Yahoo ID.
Last updated: 2008 May 11
Texas Citizens for Science 6202 Driftwood Drive Midland, TX 79707 Phone: 432-352-2265 Email: tcsATtexscience.org (Help stop spam: substitute @ for AT before mailing) Web: http://www.texscience.org |
