And speaking of ignorance in the classroom:

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a big fan of our right-wing-fundamentalist-reality-challenged biblebanging brothers and sisters who seem to be setting a bigger and bigger part of the agenda here in “Murica” these days. Teaching abstinence to teens in lieu of birth control is irresponsible. Teaching both makes sense. Teaching both evolution and creationism is irresponsible, teaching evolution makes sense.

Whoa, how can I say that? Evolution is only a theory! Well yeah, but to a scientist, a theory is not the same thing that a theory is to you or me. We think a theory is an educated guess or a hunch. To a scientist, a theory is a whole different critter. To quote the National Science Foundation, scientific theories “are explanations of natural phenomena built up logically from testable observations and hypotheses. Biological evolution is the best scientific explanation we have for the enormous range of observations about the living world.”

Creationism and its clone, Intelligent Design are discredited, contrived (dare I use the word) creations of the religious right and have no business being taught as alternatives to evolution.

Hey, the Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is a theory also. Nonetheless, that atomic bomb is pretty impressive, eh?

Evolution Takes a Back Seat in U.S. Classes
By Cornelia Dean, February 1, 2005, The New York Times

Dr. John Frandsen, a retired zoologist, was at a dinner for teachers in Birmingham, Ala., recently when he met a young woman who had just begun work as a biology teacher in a small school district in the state. Their conversation turned to evolution.

"She confided that she simply ignored evolution because she knew she'd get in trouble with the principal if word got about that she was teaching it," he recalled. "She told me other teachers were doing the same thing." …

… Dr. Gerald Wheeler, a physicist who heads the National Science Teachers Association, said many members of his organization "fly under the radar" of fundamentalists by introducing evolution as controversial, which scientifically it is not, or by noting that many people do not accept it, caveats not normally offered for other parts of the science curriculum. …

There is no credible scientific challenge to the idea that all living things evolved from common ancestors, that evolution on earth has been going on for billions of years and that evolution can be and has been tested and confirmed by the methods of science. But in a 2001 survey, the National Science Foundation found that only 53 percent of Americans agreed with the statement "human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals."

And this was good news to the foundation. It was the first time one of its regular surveys showed a majority of Americans had accepted the idea. According to the foundation report, polls consistently show that a plurality of Americans believe that God created humans in their present form about 10,000 years ago, and about two-thirds believe that this belief should be taught along with evolution in public schools. …

Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, said he thought the great variety of religious groups in the United States led to competition for congregants. This marketplace environment, he said, contributes to the politicization of issues like evolution among religious groups.

He said the teaching of evolution was portrayed not as scientific instruction but as "an assault of the secular elite on the values of God-fearing people." As a result, he said, politicians don't want to touch it. "Everybody discovers the wisdom of federalism here very quickly," he said. "Leave it at the state or the local level."

But several experts say scientists are feeling increasing pressure to make their case, in part, Dr. Miller said, because scriptural literalists are moving beyond evolution to challenge the teaching of geology and physics on issues like the age of the earth and the origin of the universe. …

So there you have it, my fellow Muricans, our right-wing-fundamentalist-reality-challenged butthead brothers and sisters consider the teaching of evolution “not as scientific instruction but as an assault of the secular elite on the values of God-fearing people.”

And next they want to start in on geology and physics. Holy crap!