Here’s Wikipedia on McLean v. Arkansas:

A lawsuit was filed in theUnited States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas by various parents, religious groups and organizations, biologists, and others who argued that the Arkansas state law known as the Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science Act (Act 590), which mandated the teaching of “creation science” in Arkansas public schools, was unconstitutional because it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Judge William Overton handed down a decision on January 5, 1982, giving a clear, specific definition of science as a basis for ruling that creation science is religion and is simply not science. The ruling was not binding on schools outside the Eastern District of Arkansas but had considerable influence on subsequent rulings on the teaching of creationism.

“PRIMARY school students are being taught that man and dinosaurs walked the Earth together and that there is fossil evidence to prove it.

Fundamentalist Christians are hijacking Religious Instruction (RI) classes in Queensland despite education experts saying Creationism and attempts to convert children to Christianity have no place in state schools.

Students have been told Noah collected dinosaur eggs to bring on the Ark, and Adam and Eve were not eaten by dinosaurs because they were under a protective spell.”

Source story.

Wow. Just…. Wow.

The Livingston Parish School Board looks like it may be first in line to test this hypothesis. According to The Advocate:

During the board’s meeting Thursday, several board members expressed an interest in the teaching of creationism, an alternative to the study of the theory of evolution, in Livingston Parish public school classrooms.

[...]

Benton said that under provisions of the Science Education Act enacted last year by the Louisiana Legislature, schools can present what she termed “critical thinking and creationism” in science classes.

Board Member David Tate quickly responded: “We let them teach evolution to our children, but I think all of us sitting up here on this School Board believe in creationism. Why can’t we get someone with religious beliefs to teach creationism?”

While there is some mention of the ACLU, there is no sign that the board is thinking about the legal ramifications of this. Some of the arguments that were made are just odd, for example:

Martin, noting that discipline of young people is constantly becoming more of a challenge for parents and teachers, agreed: “Maybe it’s time that we look at this.”

I’m guessing that this is the standard “We need to teach them Christianity so they’ll be moral” argument, though it may just be a poorly written section of the article.

“It appears that although the Court has twice required Plaintiff to re-plead and set forth a short and plain statement of the relief requested, Plaintiff is entirely unable to file a complaint which is not overly verbose, disjointed, incoherent, maundering, and full of irrelevant information”

– From the Texas Court Ruling (pdf) which continues to deny the Institute for Creation Research the right to award a Masters Degree

You ever notice how some true believers – not all such, and not all of any one type – but how some true believers cannot pass up a chance to write a manifesto?

As a resident of the Southern US, I tend to make the mistake of thinking that the power struggle between fundamentalists and secularists is confined to my region, and that the rest of the world is somehow a little more enlightened. A UF reader has kindly sent in a letter informing us of a similar struggle Down Under. From the email:

Over here in Australia the battle is on a slightly different footing as organized religion battles to stay in the class room. They have 1 hour per week, and an unwritten agreement that there will be no alternative tuition during scripture time. This is being challenged with an ethics class and the churches are fighting tooth and nail to stop it.

I have to say: that Save Our Scripture website is pretty creepy, and it looks like they have their tentacles in a number of different issues, from education to anti-gay legislation to video game ratings. (My apologies to any intelligent, gay, video game-loving cephalopods out there.)

Fortunately, the Big Controversy of Evolution hasn’t raised its ugly head yet in Australia…oh wait, what’s that? It has?

Damn.

Is there a place the fundies haven’t gotten to?

Charles Darwin’s On the Origin Of Species: A Graphic Adaptation
by Michael Keller

The Tangled Bank
by Carl Zimmer

Evolution, Second Edition
By Douglas J. Futuyma

Evidence of Evolution
by Susan Middleton and Mary Ellen Hannibal

Evolution: The story of life
by Douglas Palmer

Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be
by Daniel Loxton

Rapture Ready!
by Daniel Radosh

Evolution vs. Creationism, 2nd edition
by Eugenie C. Scott

(source)

(via)

Many people alive today possess some Neanderthal ancestry, according to a landmark scientific study.

The finding has surprised many experts, as previous genetic evidence suggested the Neanderthals made little or no contribution to our inheritance.

The result comes from analysis of the Neanderthal genome – the “instruction manual” describing how these ancient humans were put together.

Between 1% and 4% of the Eurasian human genome seems to come from Neanderthals.

But the study confirms living humans overwhelmingly trace their ancestry to a small population of Africans who later spread out across the world.

My new theory is that fundamentalists inherit more of the Neanderthal genome than others…

(via)

• National and state polls on evolution, creationism, or some combination of the two.
• International polls
• Polls on creationism related to the supernatural origin of life
• Polls on evolution that look at public perception, understanding, and acceptance of evolution and science
• Polls on the intersection of science and religion
• Polls of scientists, students, teachers, and other specific audiences

Thanks, NCSE!

(Dino-Riders. Should it bother me that I recognized it right off? Or should it bother me more that my next thought was, “They were way cooler than Dinosaucers.”)

Of course, we all know that this view of dinosaurs is flawed. Had they been equipped like this, they could have totally taken Noah’s Ark.

Critics of the teaching of evolution in the nation’s classrooms are gaining ground in some states by linking the issue to global warming, arguing that dissenting views on both scientific subjects should be taught in public schools. [...]

The bill, which has yet to be voted on, is patterned on even more aggressive efforts in other states to fuse such issues. In Louisiana, a law passed in 2008 says the state board of education may assist teachers in promoting “critical thinking” on all of those subjects. [...]

The linkage of evolution and global warming is partly a legal strategy: courts have found that singling out evolution for criticism in public schools is a violation of the separation of church and state. By insisting that global warming also be debated, deniers of evolution can argue that they are simply championing academic freedom in general.

I’m all for teaching competing scientific theories and comparing them. I don’t think creationism qualifies as a scientific theory — but maybe teachers should talk about creationism and why it’s not science, just like all the other creation myths.

Debunking religious nonsense shouldn’t really be part of a science class, but it seems at least with creationism, there are enough adherents to make it worth debunking in the classroom, just like if there were a minority of students who held to a flat earth.