The Kansas Board of Education is putting evolution on "trial," complete with witnesses and cross-examinations, to determine if it should be taught to public school children.
Different situation, robbiej. I was basing my book banning opinion on free speech legal precedents. The courts are nuts about free speech. They're not so nuts about dictating school curriculums, but I wonder if someone will bring an Establishment Clause case about this crap. Or if they can...hm.
Robbie--in answer to your question "what the hell is going on here," the link below will take you to a 1935 novel by Sinclair Lewis called "It Can't Happen Here."
It's about an America taken over by fascists who start with the media, then take the legislature and the judiciary. Then they strip the citizens of their liberties and install a fascist dictatorship.
I'm pretty sure the courts struck down even a sticker on textbooks that says something along the lines of "evolution is unproven," yada yada.
But seriously, this is such horse****. It's completely clear there's no pedagogical purpose to this; it's purely religious. Anti-evolution people who say it can't be proven clearly know nothing about science- nothing in science is proven; it can only be affirmed or disproven. And there have been findings (in South American fish, for instance) that favor a Darwinian explanation.
"Intelligent design" is the theory that can't possibly be proven, or affirmed, or anything. It clearly has no basis in anything except truisms, speculation, and yes, religious belief trying to clothe itself in robes of rationality. Why don't people insist we teach fringe theories in physics or chemistry? It's the religion, stupid. And anyone who says otherwise is full of it.
Texas has had, for a while, a law requiring that no matter what "other" theories are taught in science books, evolution MUST be taught, also. Note: a SCIENCE Book could teach "God Made the World in 6 days" and not mention evolution or Darwin and be accepted by the Texas State School Board, but not the other way around.
Is it too soon for a full-scale revival of "Inherit the Wind?" How about Brian Denehy and John Malkovich?
