The Kansas State School Board throws out Evolutionary Science
On August 11, 1999, the School Board overseeing education in the state of Kansas, adopted new eighth-grade standards for teaching "evolution."  These non-binding recommendations to the schools curriculum omit references to "macroevolution," that is, teaching that different species have common ancestors.  More importantly, the new standards introduce monotheistic religion into science.  Added is a definition of "creation" as "the idea that the design and complexity of the design of the cosmos requires an intelligent designer."
 
See Kansas' adopted science standards click here.

These should be compared to the standards that were introduced to the Board in a July, 1999 version of standards.  These alternative standards follow from the National Science Foundation and  the National Academy of Sciences -- groups that set the science standards for our public universities and governmental agencies -- and propose teaching the complete picture of evolutionary science.  However, these were NOT adopted.
 

View Kansas' alternative science standards here.

The adopted standards were provided from the Creation Science Association For Mid-America (CSA) which is centered in Kansas.  Their main objective:
 

"To educate people regarding the vast amount of scientific evidence that supports Biblical Creation as the true account of origins, and that the General Theory of Evolution is not only a false notion of history, it is an extremely dangerous one, the fruits of which have destroyed entire nations..."

Visit their website by clicking here


CSA is a creationist group, led by Tom Willis.  He helped rewrite the Kansas Science Standards.  He believes that "evolution" is a doctrinal belief promoted by the religion of "humanism" -- the godless kind -- which glorifies human achievement and accomplishments without glorifying God(s).


A peek into the scientific mind of Tom Willis
by John Catalano

"I believe that history is only available to us in detail if you have a reliable witness," Willis said. "If you believe a reliable witness, then there's no evolution. The testimony in the Bible goes against it.'

By that logic, it would be OK to burn a witch based on testimony from a "reliable witness", but not to convict a criminal based on scientific forensic evidence of "historical" events.

And for a sample of CSA dogma, here is CSA Objective number 3: 

"3. To show that Biblical Creation, because it is true, is the only "scientific" explanation of origins, and therefore is the only account of origins that can possibly be useful to science."



 
Scientific Fact
by Mark Wardin

"Imagine you find a gun with my fingerprints all over it.  You then find a bullet with groves that exactly match the barrel of that gun. It is then a fact that I once held that gun. It is also a fact that the bullet you found came from that gun. Nobody was there to witness me holding the gun, or it firing that bullet, but those statements are facts none the less. A fact is something so well supported, that all reasonable people can accept it as true, unless proven otherwise. Did I fire that particular bullet? Well, that is perhaps your best theory right now.

Now imagine a world filled with thousands of fingerprints on thousands of guns, and thousands of matching bullets fired from those guns. That is the world of evolution. Evolution is a fact. There are many overlapping theories such as natural selection and genetic drift that attempt to explain the fact of evolution.

The creationist claim that an unseen past event can never be a fact is simply false. That is why forensic science and evolutionary biology are both sciences that deal with facts."



 
 
See the first Kansas City Star articles on this topic:
*
Evolution vs. Biblical creation: The conflict continues (April 11, 1999)
*
Focus is on state science standards (June 9, 1999)


Click below for more information on Evolution
(from the unofficial World of Richard Dawkins newsletter)
ABCNEWS.com: U.S. Adults Skeptical About Evolution 
- poll results & graphics
ABCNEWS.com: GOP Candidates Want Creationism Taught
Gore Waffling in Debate Over Teaching of Creationism
National Science Board: 
Statement on Action of the Kansas Board of Education on Evolution
Chicago Sun Times: Earth is living proof of evolution by Roger Ebert
The Kansas Science Standards and the Nature of Science 
by Dr. Paul Decelles
The Church of Darwin by Phillip Johnson 
from The Wall Street Journal  (August 16, 1999)
Science and Creationism : 
A View from the National Academy of Sciences, Second Edition
 
Homepage
Political Action
Contact an Atheist
 Publications