Creationists Get Failing Grade
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:23 pm
A bid to teach creationism as science in Texas is facing extinction. Raymund Paredes, commissioner of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, today recommended that the Institute for Creation Research not be allowed to offer a Masters of Science degree in Science Education.
The ICR teaches that the earth was created in a week and that it is 6,000 years old.
Paredes made his recommendation before the Coordinating Board’s Academic Excellence and Research Committee. On Thursday the 9-member Coordinating Board will meet to take a final vote on the Commissioner’s recommendation.
Three participants spoke in favor of ICR’s application: a radio announcer with a science background, a military officer, and a tax attorney. Seven folks spoke against authorizing ICR to grant degrees. Among them were several science teachers and two representatives of science education organizations: the Science Teacher’s Association of Texas and the Texas Academy of Science.
Commissioner Paredes said in a press release that he based his recommendation on two considerations: ICR failed to demonstrate that the proposed degree program meets acceptable standards of science and science education, and the proposed degree is inconsistent with Coordinating Board rules that require the accurate labeling or designation of programs.
Dr. Henry Morris, president of the ICR, told the Observer he was not surprised by Paredes’ recommendation. Morris said there has been an “intensity of resistance from the academic community toward creationism in the last year in Texas.” He cited the dismissal of Texas Education Agency employee Chris Comer, the upcoming review of TEKS and critical thinking standards for Texas schools, and the pro-creationism movie “Expelled” as topics that had generated media attention and public debate in the last year.
Morris said if the Board votes to uphold the Commissioner’s recommendation, the Institute will appeal the decision in the next 45 days. If the appeal is denied, Morris said, the Institute may take its case to the Texas Supreme Court. “We were denied the right to operate in California and we went through a lengthy and onerous court case before we won,” he said. “It’s an option that we will consider in Texas if we are denied.”
Morris said the real issue at hand is “whether science can tolerate a different presumption about the beginning point of creation.”
The ICR attorney said it was a question of freedom of speech and the Constitution that the Institute should be granted the authority to teach science in Texas.
Steven Schafersman, who testified against ICR at the hearing, said he thought Commissioner Paredes had made a “decisive and strong decision based on sound reasoning.”
“The ICR attorney said it was about fair play and free speech, but I disagree,” Schafersman said. “They have the right to teach whatever they want, but not the right to have the state grant them the authority to teach pseudoscience.”
There’s always home schooling…
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:10 pm
This decision is a victory for the integrity of science education. The ICR was offered a chance to teach a masters course in theology but insisted on calling a clearly religious study a “science.” Their aim of diluting science education was justly thwarted.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
[…] An appeal is already being discussed. From the Texas Observer: […]
April 26th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
No Gloria,
It’s a victory for Atheism and nothing to do with science education.
It’s amusing how the atheist/naturalists continue to try to spin this controversy into a case of science vs. religion. It’s hardly that. It’s a case of religion vs. religion. The idea of origin of life and the earth via natural causes (Big Bang,Abiogenesis,Darwinism)has not been proven! It’s an assumption, nothing more. In fact scientific data continues to mount in opposition to these theories. Darwinism is a philosophical viewpoint no more scientific than the idea of creation.
It’s also lame how atheism biased writers like Melissa try to spin the story about ICR trying to push creationism as science. ICR promotes true science. In a nuthshell, all that it’s asking is that if colleges are going to allowed to teach “assumptions of origin” that they be allowed to start with the assumption life was created, not formed from nothing, for no reason, and for unknown reason seems to have quit doing it.
Morris is the only one being truthful here. It’s about freedom of speech and thought. If creationism is a false assumption let the facts prove it wrong over time. Why are people trying so aggressively to censor this line of thinking? Meanwhile in our society even the most radical viewpoints on issues are tolerated. Amazing.
May 1st, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Myles Fichter seems not to be paying attention. Steve Schafersman hit it on the head when he said no one has the right to teach non-science as science. Freedom of speech and right to opinion means you can teach anything you want, but not under false pretences. No more than you can teach physics and call it theology, you cannot teach creationism and call it science. Fichter, along with many creationists and IDers, reveal they are clueless about how science works and how scientific theory is tested and rejected or accepted when he calls for facts to prove creationism wrong over time. Using that criterion as the basis for science content, astrology, alchemy, phlogiston, and black magic would still be included in the science curriculum.
Dr. Ronnie J Hastings
May 9th, 2008 at 1:09 am
Thank you, Dr. Hastings. The moment that Myles claimed this decision was a victory for “atheism” he revealed the true nature of the argument. Science is not an “ism” and has no comment whatsoever on religion. It does not attempt to prove or disprove anything in the realm of the metaphysical or supernatural. That is not its sphere, anymore than music is the sphere of cooking, although both may use mathematics as a tool in their pursuit. The goal of creationists is quite simple: the deconstruction of science education to the point where any study that does not conform with literal biblical interpretation (as they see it), must be eliminated from the school’s curriculum.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:15 pm
[…] the vote in April, Dr. Henry Morris, president of the Institute, told the Observer that the Institute might take its case all the way to the Texas Supreme Court. “We were […]