A new monkey trial?

This week’s Current cover story examines both sides of the battle that will soon take place in the Texas Education system over “intelligent design.” Basically, the way Texas teaches science is going to be up for review (all the subjects are periodically updated and tweaked to ensure maximum effectiveness) and the religious right sees this as their opportunity to make Texan kids even less proficient in science by pushing a creationist agenda in favor of teaching the theory of evolution.

It’s an interesting debate, really — just how do you compare and contrast two things so completely, utterly incomparable? There’s really no way for either side to win this argument, because their shouldn’t even be one. Evolutionary science is pretty much unanimously accepted by, oh, the entire world of scientists and other nerds who sacrificed their social skills to know what they’re talking about. Creationists are in the minority — but they are apparently louder and more vocal then many scientists, and can bully their way into positions of power to push their agenda. Ironically, science nerds are traditionally unable to effectively counter a bully, and seem content to let these guys take their lunch money (read: undermining logic, reason, and facts).

Hey, Texan science educators: Gain some confidence, look Creationism square in the eyes and say, in the strongest voice you can muster: “Hey you, get your damn hands off her.” And yes, McFly, you should swear.