14 DAY TRIAL // Following a controversial vote on Thursday, the Texas State Board of Education adopted a new school curriculum that prevented teachers from presenting so-called “weaknesses” of some of the most important scientific theories, especially that of evolution, proposed by Darwin some 150 years ago. Proponents of this decision saluted it and said that it was high time the state joined others that accepted evolution and science as the base of learning.
The huge campaign that was carried out by scientists in the name of evolution seems to have paid off, despite the fact that creationists opposed the decision every step of the way. The latter say that children should be presented with pieces of evidence from both points of view, and that they should make up their own mind afterwards.
But scientists argue that the theory of creation or Intelligent Design would make kids question even well-established scientific truths, and could create a generation of citizens that is unable to tell real scientific facts from fiction.
They also pinpoint that creationists and ID adepts twist scientific facts to fit their claims, by questioning techniques such as carbon dating. Scientists tell that they are puzzled at this tactic that creationists employ in their actions, because even the Pope, the supreme ruler of the Catholic Church, has admitted that the theory of evolution is not incompatible with the Christian belief, as long as people accept that, at some point, God gave soul to our common ancestors.
The 20-year-old rule that is expected to be removed in the final vote, scheduled to take place on Friday, is heavily criticized by evolutionists, who have it that the phrase “strengths and weaknesses” in the document is used by teachers in many Texan schools to promote their own religious views with the children, rather than teach them scientific facts. There are some who uphold that even yesterday's vote was an incomplete victory, as an amendment still opens up new ways for religious teachers to preach their own agenda to the children.
Federal courts have long since forbidden creationism and ID theories being taught to children in public schools, and have favored the theory of evolution as the main explanation of how life came to be. Still, the documents passed on Thursday held ambiguous formulations such as “[students can] analyze and evaluate the sufficiency or insufficiency of natural selection to explain the complexity of the cell.” Critics to this expression say that it's opening the door for teachers to explain the high complexity of the cell via Intelligent Design, which holds that life is too complex to have formed on its own and that a higher power was involved.