Evolution suffers Kansas setback

BBC NEWS ran an article about the Kansas state Board of Education. They voted 6-4 in favor of throwing some doubt on the "facts" of evolution.

Finally. We can't teach creationism, because we can't teach religion. (But safe sex is okay.) Creationism has been redefined as 'Intelligent Design.' Can't these people get it through their thick heads. Intelligent Design does not presuppose Deity, just someone, or a race of someones, vastly more powerful than us. Someone who could create life as an experiment.

Arthur C. Clarke dabbled with this in 2001: A Space Odessey. An alien race took an existing group (monkeys/apes) and taught them to use tools, etc. Other authors have written along this basic theme also.

Yet people are terrified that I will force my morality on them if we even suggest that evolution isn't hard fact. After reading this article, all Kansas wants to do is tell students that there are problems, and that evolution is an unproven theory. So what, it is. As far as I know, no one has yet duplicated it in a laboratory anywhere. Any other theory has to be repeated by outside people before it is widely accepted.

I read a quote on another website tonight by a Chinese scientist, I believe. In China, they can criticize Darwin, but not the government. In America, we can criticize the government, but not Darwin.