Science in Texas, maybe

I won’t make a lot of comment on this, because the evidence
pretty well speaks for itself. Please consider the following two websites: 
Texans for Better Science Education (TBSE), and Texas Citizens for Science (TCS).
Each highlights news items; each relates them to Texas
education. Sounds like they are both on the same page, right? Look a little
closer. They are polar opposites in their definitions of science. One supports
all scientific views, and one supports only those that are in line with
Darwinian evolution. Perhaps I should say one is for real science and one is for
diluting science with religious claims. It depends on which site you use to
describe the other.

My comments will be brief, because they are not about the
rightness or wrongness of these opposite views, but about their approaches to
the issue and the way each portrays the other. Check it out: On the TCS site you
will find words like "illegitimate" and "distort" to describe opposing views. In
their Nov 29th entry they frame an event as "part of a
duplicitous marketing
campaign created by Intelligent Design Creationists of the Discovery Institute
to damage science education in general, and biological evolution instruction in
particular." They are correct in putting "intelligent Design" and "Discovery
Institute" in the same sentence, but no where will you find the words
Intelligent Design and Creationists juxtaposed on either an intelligent design
or creationist website. Do a Google search on "intelligent design creationists,"
and see how many of those sites claim to be either ID or creationist in
viewpoint. The answer is zip. Only Darwinian evolution sites use that phrase to
lump two distinct views together.

Then check out the other site. To describe the same event,
TBSE says the person resigned after rules violations, and they site the
Austin American-Statesman newspaper. The TCS site cites only themselves,
even in the site they cite. TCS uses words like duplicitous and
mendacious to describe
their opposition. TBSE gives little effort to sophisticated or even plain
adjectives to describe either their own or opposing views, apparently content to
allow the facts to speak for themselves. TBSE makes no effort to prevent
Darwinian views from being presented in schools, and in fact argues for both
"strengths and weaknesses" to be presented. TCS is all about preventing
alternative views.

I see no need to discuss the two views here. I find a
lesson in simply looking at tactics. Without even investigating the arguments
further, which one would you suspect of "illegitimate" accusations or to "distort" the facts? Which
would seem more likely to have a bias concerning religion?

This entry was posted on December 2, 2007 at 10:56 pm and is filed under Politics, Science and faith. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.