They don't seem to go away. The Creationist nutjobs keep coming back with variations of their approach. The latest diversion from intelligent education has been called Intelligent Design.
They keep coming despite Judge Jones' stinging rebuke in the Kitzmiller v. Dover Board of Education case in Pennsylvania in 2005:
The breathtaking inanity of the Board’s decision is evident when considered against the factual backdrop which has now been fully revealed through this trial. The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources.
To preserve the separation of church and state mandated by the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and Art. I, § 3 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, we will enter an order permanently enjoining Defendants from maintaining the ID Policy in any school within the Dover Area School District, from requiring teachers to denigrate or disparage the scientific theory of evolution, and from requiring teachers to refer to a religious, alternative theory known as ID.
Since they lost the battle in Pennsylvania, they decided to move somewhere more friendly. So now Texas is taking steps to become the new front in the Creationists' assault on education.
This should concern citizens across the country because Texas has one of the largest public school systems in the nation and their standards affect curriculum and textbook content development throughout the country.
Why have our colleges and universities been silent on this issue? They need to speak up. Help put an end to this nonsense. What would happen if MIT (or Harvard, or Yale, or UCLA etc) stated publicly that:
- Creationism is not science, it is a faith-based belief system that is debunked by science.
- High school systems that include any form of Creationism in their science curriculum are not preparing students properly for the higher education offered at this college/university.
- This college/university will no longer accept applicants for admission who come from high school systems that include any form of Creationism in their science curriculum.
Such a stand may actually make school systems think twice before implementing this nonsense in their science curriculum. Creationists need to be embarrassed out of existence. Our colleges and universities have an obligation to speak up on this issue.