This
AP story ("'Intelligent Design' Battle Goes to Polls", by Martha Raffaele, 11/01/05) tells us that the infamous creationism-obsessed school board in Dover, PA school is up for re-election. These folks have required students to be exposed to a disclaimer in biology class:
The school board voted a year ago to require students to hear a statement about intelligent design before learning about evolution. The statement says Charles Darwin's theory is "not a fact" and has inexplicable "gaps."
Protection against perverts who who want to teach those children science, evidently.
(Look
here for a terrific send-up of the whole "warning stickers for science" idea. Different school district, different state, same idea.)
Eight of the nine board members are pro-creationist Republicans up for reelection, running against a pro-science Democratic slate. An interest fact of the politics:
Republican voters outnumber Democrats in the district nearly 8-5. But party affiliation may not matter in the election: While the challengers are running on the Democratic ticket, half of them are actually registered Republicans, according to a spokesman.
Are we finally seeing moderate, non-crazy Republicans joining up with the pro-science, pro-reason side of the political spectrum?
The election is Nov. 8. Let's see what happens. There is also a local lawsuit going on at the same time, in which the constitutionality of ID in the schools is under test, and which could be decided around the same time.
The next two weeks could be big for the war between reason and muddle! Let's hope the Flying Spaghetti Monster is on our side.
I can't resist pointing out how the article ends. We get obligatory quotations from one pro-ID voter and one pro-science voter. But look at how the pro-science voter comes across:
Saundra Roldan, a preschool teacher at the YMCA, is planning to vote for the slate of challengers. Even if the courts side with the school board, "we as voters and taxpayers should say, `You put us into this mess and we're not happy about it and we want you out of here.'"
"It should not have come to that point," Roldan said as she took a break from reading her Bible.
Yes, thank you, Ms. Raffaele! A little reminder of an important fact: This is not a battle between Christians and anti-Christians. Most religious people want real science taught in science class, and not some muddled religion-determined quasi-science. Most Bible-readers can see that the Genesis creation story is a beautiful and indelible allegory. The battle is not between those with faith and those without; it is between crazy literalists and everybody else.
Cross your fingers.
