Election Could Flip Kansas Evolution Stance
Election Could Flip Kansas Evolution Stance
By Peter Slevin
Copyright by The Washington Post
Tuesday, August 1, 2006; Page A03
CHICAGO, July 31 -- Evolution's defenders, working to defeat Kansas Board of Education members who oppose modern Darwinian theory, are challenging three incumbent Republican conservatives and the political heir to a fourth in Tuesday's primary.
A shift of two seats to moderate Republicans -- or to Democrats -- in November almost certainly would lead to a reversal of state science standards celebrated by many religious conservatives and reviled by the scientific establishment.
With turnout expected to be low, neither side is making confident predictions about the state's latest skirmish at the intersection of science, religion and politics. The board's majority shifted to the moderate side in 2000 only to swing back in 2004.
Impassioned players far removed from what is expected to be a sweltering midsummer primary day are watching the issue. The board's critical stance toward evolution prompted favorable comments from President Bush last year and scorn from the scientific community.
The Discovery Institute, a Seattle think tank best known for backing "intelligent design," the idea that a creator plays a central role in natural development, is running radio advertisements in support of the standards.
An Institute-sponsored Web site said partisans are "using their voices to try to undermine Kansas' science standards and stifle discussion of the scientific evidence they don't like."
It is a charge that infuriates mainstream scientists who consider the question of evolution settled. The Kansas standards have been denounced by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Science Teachers Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The editor of Scientific American, John Rennie -- who has described the board's conservatives as "six dimwits" -- posted on a blog to urge Kansas voters to defeat board members "who have inflicted embarrassing creationist nonsense on your home's science curriculum standards."
Three members of the conservative majority are seeking reelection, as is the son-in-law of a fourth. Janet Waugh, a Democrat who opposed the new standards and lamented that Kansas has become an international laughingstock, drew a conservative Democratic challenger who supports the standards that allow for criticism of evolution.
Connie Morris, a member of the majority, defends the standards as "truly scientific." She said Monday, "There's plenty of scientific evidence that refutes the theory, and students deserve to know that."
The document approved by a 6 to 4 vote in November asserts a "lack of adequate natural explanations for the genetic code." It also dropped a phrase from the previous standards that had defined science as "a search for natural explanations of observable phenomena."
Critics said that opened the door to supernatural explanations.
The board's approach was in line with the thinking of Bush. He rejected the stance of his White House science adviser when he told reporters last summer that "both sides" should be taught.
Another issue in this year's race is the board vote, by the same 6 to 4 majority, to require students to get their parents' permission before taking sex education. Some board members said sex education should say only that people should abstain from having sex until marriage.
"It's hard to know whether to laugh or cry," the Wichita Eagle wrote in a July editorial, calling on voters to clean house.
"The whole debate about evolution in Kansas hurts the state's image," said Bob Beatty, a professor of political science at Washburn University. "You get cartoons in newspapers across the world, and I've seen them, where they have someone looking like a caveman and it says 'Kansas' on them."
Staff writer Kari Lydersen contributed to this report.
By Peter Slevin
Copyright by The Washington Post
Tuesday, August 1, 2006; Page A03
CHICAGO, July 31 -- Evolution's defenders, working to defeat Kansas Board of Education members who oppose modern Darwinian theory, are challenging three incumbent Republican conservatives and the political heir to a fourth in Tuesday's primary.
A shift of two seats to moderate Republicans -- or to Democrats -- in November almost certainly would lead to a reversal of state science standards celebrated by many religious conservatives and reviled by the scientific establishment.
With turnout expected to be low, neither side is making confident predictions about the state's latest skirmish at the intersection of science, religion and politics. The board's majority shifted to the moderate side in 2000 only to swing back in 2004.
Impassioned players far removed from what is expected to be a sweltering midsummer primary day are watching the issue. The board's critical stance toward evolution prompted favorable comments from President Bush last year and scorn from the scientific community.
The Discovery Institute, a Seattle think tank best known for backing "intelligent design," the idea that a creator plays a central role in natural development, is running radio advertisements in support of the standards.
An Institute-sponsored Web site said partisans are "using their voices to try to undermine Kansas' science standards and stifle discussion of the scientific evidence they don't like."
It is a charge that infuriates mainstream scientists who consider the question of evolution settled. The Kansas standards have been denounced by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Science Teachers Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The editor of Scientific American, John Rennie -- who has described the board's conservatives as "six dimwits" -- posted on a blog to urge Kansas voters to defeat board members "who have inflicted embarrassing creationist nonsense on your home's science curriculum standards."
Three members of the conservative majority are seeking reelection, as is the son-in-law of a fourth. Janet Waugh, a Democrat who opposed the new standards and lamented that Kansas has become an international laughingstock, drew a conservative Democratic challenger who supports the standards that allow for criticism of evolution.
Connie Morris, a member of the majority, defends the standards as "truly scientific." She said Monday, "There's plenty of scientific evidence that refutes the theory, and students deserve to know that."
The document approved by a 6 to 4 vote in November asserts a "lack of adequate natural explanations for the genetic code." It also dropped a phrase from the previous standards that had defined science as "a search for natural explanations of observable phenomena."
Critics said that opened the door to supernatural explanations.
The board's approach was in line with the thinking of Bush. He rejected the stance of his White House science adviser when he told reporters last summer that "both sides" should be taught.
Another issue in this year's race is the board vote, by the same 6 to 4 majority, to require students to get their parents' permission before taking sex education. Some board members said sex education should say only that people should abstain from having sex until marriage.
"It's hard to know whether to laugh or cry," the Wichita Eagle wrote in a July editorial, calling on voters to clean house.
"The whole debate about evolution in Kansas hurts the state's image," said Bob Beatty, a professor of political science at Washburn University. "You get cartoons in newspapers across the world, and I've seen them, where they have someone looking like a caveman and it says 'Kansas' on them."
Staff writer Kari Lydersen contributed to this report.
posted by Carlos T Mock at 7:38 AM
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