WE often mention the crazy days of the Kansas evolution hearings back in 2005 when the Kansas State Board of Education, led by Kathy Martin and Connie Morris, actually decided to re-define the meaning of science in Kansas so that it would also include supernatural phenomena — thus allowing creationism to be taught in science class.
To fully appreciate how truly insane things were, one must read some of the contemporary ravings of creationists who were thrilled by what was going on. There’s no one better for that than Jack Chick, so we’ve been digging into the archives of his “newsletter,” Battle Cry.
There, dear reader, we found this oldie-goldie from July/August 2005, the height of the Kansas madness: Evolutionists Are In A Panic Mode. Here are some excerpts, with bold added by us:
Kansas State Board of Education member, Connie Morris, concluded that “evolutionists are in a panic mode” after scientists supporting the teaching of evolution in schools boycotted a four-day hearing called by the school board. The purpose of the hearings was to present the board with both sides of the evolution-intelligent design question.
That’s right. The science witnesses boycotted the proceedings because they were dominated by creationists, including a Muslim the Board recruited from Turkey, Mustafa Akyol. But many of their witnesses were from the Discovery Institute‘s creationist public relations and lobbying operation, the Center for Science and Culture (a/k/a the Discoveroids, a/k/a the cdesign proponentsists).
Let’s read on in Chick’s article:
Evolutionists called the hearings “a sham and publicity stunt” and refused to attend the hearings. Instead, they mounted a smear campaign in the local media portraying members of the board as ignorant religious fanatics.
Which they were. We continue:
“I can only conclude that they [evolutionists] don’t have any evidence,” observed board member Morris.
She was truly amazing. Here’s one more excerpt:
Honest research is quickly debunking one evolution myth after another. … Their only recourse is to ignore the evidence and attempt to assassinate the character of anyone who dares suggest another view. Otherwise, they have to admit that evidence is mounting that a Designer was involved and they are not ready to surrender to Him.
In a box off to the side, Chick added this extra tidbit:
Martin Luther had a comment about his culture in 1520 that still rings true today: “Though our children live in the midst of a Christian world, they faint and perish in misery because they lack the Gospel in which we should be training and exercising them all the time. I advise no one to place his child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Schools will become wide-open gates of hell if they do not diligently engrave the Holy Scriptures on young hearts. Every institution where men are not increasingly occupied with the word of God must become corrupt.”
– Martin Luther in Appeal to the Ruling Classes; 1520.
That’s how it was in Kansas. But right after those infamous hearings the Kitzmiller trial began in Dover, and that’s when everything started going downhill for the creationists. The next Kansas elections brought in a new Board majority that reversed the creationists’ science standards.
So, dear reader, when you think things are bad — and they are — try to remember that not too long ago they used to be even worse.
Copyright © 2010. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.
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The Sensuous Curmudgeon 
Slow news day?
In five years you’ll have to have a new topic.
The boycott was probably the best thing the scientific community could have done. But not, ironically, by reducing the board’s credibility as was the goal. Rather, the boycott was highly successful because it turned out Pedro Irigonegaray was a one-man a**-kicking machine.
Gabriel Hanna asks: “Slow news day?”
One of the worst.
eric says:
I thought so at the time. I also thought McLeroy’s Texas creationism hearings should have been boycotted. And the Louisiana legislative hearings. All of those events are set up as show trials.
Whoa! Jason Lisle’s “instant starlight” paper is at the AIG website. I’ll have to post about that.
Do you have the link? I can wait for the post too.
Here’s another topic:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11383757
I did it. I also wrote Lisle directly asking him why he didn’t talk about the constants and what experiments he could suggest that would result in a measurement of zero for one or both of them. If he replies I’ll let you know.
Fine. Now put that latest comment in the other thread and I’ll clean up this one.