Why Paying Attention in School is Important

The Rio Rancho (New Mexico) Public School system removed vague language about the dispute over evolution--the silly creationist argument that evolution is not settled science--from the High School Science curriculum. The Rio Rancho Observer had this Letter to the Editor:

“I read that Tom Swisstack is going to run for mayor; I don’t think that we need to go backward. We need to go forward, with new ideas — someone who cares about the water and the growth in this town, and about the people who are here already, not the people who are coming in. And I have a comment on the removal of creationism from the science curriculum. They continue to say that we have proof that we come from evolution, yet they don’t have it. They’re not very well informed, because I haven’t seen any proof. And we know that there is creation to us and we feel that should be in the classroom also. They teach these kids that we come from animals and they’re acting like animals, and I think that just opens the door for Rio Rancho to act like animals and display their anger ... These kids need to know that there is a spiritual being that they need to have in their hearts ... If we keep taking God out of everything, the devil’s going to move in.” (My emphasis added)

Whoa! The Devil's going to move in and do what? Let's hope he makes this person sit in the corner and read a real science book to start with.

The group in Rio Rancho that pushed for the original change to the science curriculum are a very politically active group of Young Earth Creationists. You know, the ones who believe the Earth was created a thousand years after the Sumerians invented ink. Reverend Huckabee folks!

We live in a Free Society, and people are free to be ignorant. Unfortunately, they also have a right to a say in what is taught in our schools. Being ignorant and undereducated is no longer something to be ashamed of, so as long as you can remember a few clever retorts from a creationist pastor who went to a third rate bible “college” many people suppose they have some sort of knowledge that is valuable. Cheap rhetoric and false logic are the coin of the anti-science realm.