Some states manage to pull their collective heads out of their butts and and do the right thing. There’s good news from South Carolina:

Today, in a stunning reversal of votes, the State Board of Education approved the Miller/Levine Biology Textbook that was under scrutiny. The vote went from 9-7 (vote in December) in favor of dropping the Miller/Levine textbook to 10-6 in favor of keeping the textbook on the list. This is a major victory for science education in the palmetto state. Dr. Miller, along with approximately 20 SCSE members were on hand to offer advise, critiques and personal testimony in favor the Miller/Levine Biology text.

You go, South Carolina! Now all you have to do is get those 6 idiots who voted against evolution off the school board — you’re 62% of the way to joining the 20th century!

Answers in Genesis, fresh from their success at aping real science with their fake “Museum,” has a new dishonest enterprise in the works: they’re starting a fake science journal, the Answers Research Journal, which will publish “cutting-edge research that demonstrates the validity of the young-earth model, the global Flood, the non-evolutionary origin of’created kinds,’ and other evidences that are consistent with the biblical account of origins.” Isn’t it sweet how they declare up front exactly which answers they’ll accept?

I hope they’re planning to have a very tight review process. They’re going to face some Sokal-like challenges, as one person has already announced a competition to get a crank paper published.

Keeping in mind that this is the organization responsible for the disgraceful Creation Museum, I am issuing a challenge to the skeptical community and to those of you interested in maintaining high standards in American science education. The first biologist, historian, anthropologist, archaeologist, or astronomer who can get a crank paper published in the Answers Research Journal and reveals their hoax on this site will win…a very special award to be determined later!

Silly person. Don’t you know that everything published in that journal will be a crank paper?

Attempting to infect Spain

America should be ashamed: now our resident idiots are exporting creationism to Spain (Google translation). They’re staging a conference, Lo Que Darwin no Sabía (What Darwin Didn’t Know).

My apologies to the land of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Miguel Servet, Joan Oró, and José Celestino Bruno Mutis. We aren’t all morons over here in the US, I assure you.

Yep, another Florida county approves a goofy anti-science resolution. From their minutes:

Approval of the Resolution Urging State Board of Education to Direct Florida Department of Education to Revise the New Sunshine State Standards for Science Such That Evolution is Not Presented as Fact.

Texas really has some competition now in the category of most pig-ignorant state in the country.

The Taylor County school board has taken a big step: they’ve voted to oppose evolution:

Whereas, the Florida Department of Education has drafted and is now proposing new Sunshine State Standards for Science, the Taylor County School Board opposes the implementation of the new standards as currently presented.

Whereas, the new Sunshine State Standards for Science no longer present evolution as theory but as “the fundamental concept underlying all of biology and is supported in multiple forms of scientific evidence,” we are requesting that the State Board of Education direct the Florida Department of Education to revise/edit the new Sunshine State Standards for Science so that evolution is presented as one of several theories as to how the universe was formed.

Whereas, the Taylor County School Board recognizes the importance of providing a thorough and comprehensive Science education to all the students in Taylor County and to all students in the state of Florida, it recognizes as even more important the need to present these standards through a fair and balanced approach, an approach that does not unfairly exclude other theories as to the creation of the universe.

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Taylor County School Board of Taylor County, Perry, Florida, that the Board urges the State Board of Education to direct the Florida Department of Education to revise the new Sunshine State Standards for Science such that evolution is not presented as fact, but as one of several theories.

Charming, huh? Voting is magic! Let’s vote that pi=3, little green men live on Mars, and that it will rain money every Sunday.

Mark Mathis, one of the people behind Expelled, must be doing the radio tour again. I heard he was on the Minneapolis Christian talk radio station today (I missed it, unfortunately—anyone else catch it?), and you can also hear him lying on the Coral Ridge Ministries podcast. Apparently, you can’t question neo-Darwinism in the classroom or in science; Mathis doesn’t know much about the arguments going on right now, does he? (He probably doesn’t care, since the alternatives being debated don’t involve Jesus). The rest of the show has some clueless git repeating the claim that Darwin led straight to Hitler.

Don’t bother listening unless you really want to be complete in following the nonsense they’re espousing…same ol’ same ol’.

Creationist can actively impede science. One of the largest mastodon fossils ever found was discovered on a ranch in Texas owned by a fellow named Joe Taylor — an infamous creationist who runs the Mt. Blanco Fossil “Museum”, a wacky little place that peddles fossils while claiming they support a 6,000 year old earth. Now he’s putting it up for auction, and you can buy the skull for something north of $60,000.

We can’t win this one. Even if it’s bought by a reputable museum and studied scientifically, it still means that this creationist is going to get a huge chunk of change to use in promoting more lies.

I was just notified that one of the people working for Texas Citizens for Science (the good guys) will be discussing the Chris Comer incident with someone from the Texas Freedom Network (more good guys). It doesn’t sound like there will be a lot of drama and confrontation, but there will be information and an opportunity to see the decent, intelligent side of Texas represented.

Thresholds’ host George Reiter will be interviewing Steven Schafersman, President of Texas Citizens for Science, and Dan Quinn, communications director for the Texas Freedom network, on the politics in Texas that led up firing of Chris Comer, director of science at the Texas Education Agency for ‘misconduct and insubordination’ and of ‘siding against creationism and the doctrine that life is the product of ‘intelligent design.’ The show is on KPFT, Houston, 90.1 FM, from 11am-12noon this Thursday, Jan 3, 2008. It can be picked up live on the website, http://www.KPFT.org.