Is our children learning?

Now that creationism and "intelligent design" have been relegated by courts to the dustbin of fundie anti-science, wingnuts have seized upon the next big thing in their quest to further scramble the brains of our nation's youth: "strengths and weaknesses". According to this NYT story, this concept -- teaching young science students about how Evolution fails to (yet) explain every single detail about Life on Earth -- is being pushed by a near-majority of the Texas State Board of Education for inclusion in the textbooks which will be used in Texas science classrooms over the next decade.

So... yawn. These same people keep bringing back the same old crap, and it keeps getting slapped into the third row by non-stupid members of our nation's judiciary, usually after mobs of angry screaming biologists with many jumbles of letters after their names state unequivocally, once again, that none of this stuff is in dispute by anyone who is recognized as an actual scientist.

But what I like is these people they wheel out to front this b.s. Witness one Dr. Don McLeroy (and, before you ask, no, he is not a doctor of biology, nor a doctor of medicine, but rather a dentist):

Dr. McLeroy believes that Earth’s appearance is a recent geologic event — thousands of years old, not 4.5 billion. “I believe a lot of incredible things,” he said, “The most incredible thing I believe is the Christmas story. That little baby born in the manger was the god that created the universe.”

But Dr. McLeroy says his rejection of evolution — “I just don’t think it’s true or it’s ever happened” — is not based on religious grounds. Courts have clearly ruled that teachings of faith are not allowed in a science classroom, but when he considers the case for evolution, Dr. McLeroy said, “it’s just not there.”

“My personal religious beliefs are going to make no difference in how well our students are going to learn science,” he said.

To which I say: please, God, let's hope so.

Though let's not take it as a given, however, since in addition to being a crackerjack practitioner of the dental arts, Mr. Dr. McLeroy also happens to be the chairman of the Texas State Board of Education.

--------------------

And in case it isn't sufficiently obvious, I am not herein denying the existence of [G]od (though neither am I affirming it, obviously), but rather pointing out the very simple and hopefully self-evident proposition that many bible verses (as well as those of other religious texts) are, quite possibly, metaphors. Let me say that again: METAPHORS. Get it? kthxbai