Credit where credit is due

Updated The Los Angeles Times for May 6 (found through a link provided by Kevin Drum) reports on the kangaroo court on evolution now being conducted under the fiction of "public hearings" in Topeka, Kansas on the state's science curriculum for schools. The hearings,

scheduled to last several days, are focusing on two proposals. The first recommends that students continue to be taught the theory of evolution because it is key to understanding biology. The other proposes that Kansas alter the definition of science, not limiting it to theories based on natural explanations.

You read that right: alter the definition of science. Science doesn't give us the answers we want, it doesn't play to our prejudices, so we'll just change the word to include whatever trash is necessary to justify our willful ignorance.

And willful ignorance is exactly what it intends to promote:

"We're just getting to evolution now, and I have one student who puts his head down on his desk to show he's not paying attention," said Brad Williamson, a biology teacher at Olathe East High School in Olathe, Kan., about 20 miles southwest of downtown Kansas City, Mo. "Others say they're not comfortable."

So not only is their ignorance willful, they're making a point of announcing their willfulness, their refusal to listen, their determination to stick to their fantasies by shutting our whatever "uncomfortable" facts challenge it.

But as I said at the top, we should give credit where credit is due, and credit is due those participating in this bogus exercise for their honesty. They make no attempt to deny their real intent:

"We can't ignore that our nation is based on Christianity — not science. ... I don't see me changing my mind." - Kathy Martin, who is presiding over the hearings

"Part of our overall goal is to remove the bias against religion that is in our schools." - William Harris, the first witness

Nor to conceal their methods:

The churches also kept an eye on seats that could be politically helpful on the state board of education, said the Rev. Terry Fox, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Wichita, Kan.

"We encouraged people to elect a conservative school board" to revive the evolution debate, Fox said. "It was a piece of cake. It was such a low-flying election, no one was paying attention."

Interestingly, some creationist at the hearings said of actual scientists in relevant fields, who boycotted the whole absurd enterprise, "what are they afraid of?" What they were "afraid" of was lending legitimacy to this farce and its pre-determined decision.

On the other hand, when we ask the same question of the theocrats, we can conclude from the Rev. Fox that what they're afraid of is anyone paying attention.

Updated with this: Panda's Thumb, referring to an article in a Kansas City alternate weekly called "The Pitch," says that

[i]t turns out that one of the people being brought to Kansas to testify (on the taxpayers' dime) is Mustafa Akyol, an Islamic creationist from Turkey who belongs to a rather shady group known as the BAV,

which has harassed, threatened, and slandered teachers who taught evolution. The Pitch article refers to a seven year campaign in which evolution was presented as "a conspiracy of the Jewish and American imperialists to promote new world order and fascist motives," in the words of Istanbul University forensics professor Umit Sayin. As a result, BAV has gotten evolution out of, and creationism into, high school biology textbooks.

What makes this relevant here is this bit from the article:

[William] Harris says he hasn't heard of BAV. Told of the group's harassment of biologists in Turkey and evolution's defeat there, he replies, "Great! Congratulations! I mean, that is the point, once people start to see science more objectively."

Like I said, congratulations to them for their honesty.

By the way, it appears the hearings didn't go as well as the organizers hoped. Most of the witnesses were not only forced under cross-examination to admit they hadn't even read the standards they were critiquing, but that they rejected the most basic tenets of evolution, even common descent - which means they are arguing for special creation of individual species, better known simply as creationism.

Panda's Thumb also provided links to two Kansas bloggers giving something of a blow-by-blow report on the hearings: Red State Rabble and Thoughts from Kansas.

Finally, it was Pharyngula that directed me to the Panda's Thumb post.