Ah Kansas!

How strange it must be to live in Kansas. Their Board of Education seems to be in constant flux, and, more to the point does not seem to be focussed on education. The latest from the elections for the illustrious Kansas Board of Education is here at the New York Times; Evolution Opponents Lose Kansas Board Majority

Yes, evolution is causing a stir again. The issue just won’t go away. Let’s say it clearly: evolutionary theory is accepted, it is established as the bedrock of biology. There are tons of details that scientists argue about, but no one other than right wing religious kooks say that evolution is wrong. It isn’t. Nowhere else in the world does this become a political issue. But here in America the religious extremists are so powerful that they don’t want our children to learn good solid science. Evolution is the most important scientific idea ever articulated. Ever. Einstein does even come close in his impact. Darwin and his ideas have had and will have a more profound impact than Einstein could ever dream of. And yet America allows these religious fools to stop our kids learning.

The ignorance of Americans is a legend abroad: a vast majority of Americans don’t realize that we and our ape relatives are decended from a common ancestor. The science is irrefutable. The tests have been run time and time again.

The religious nutcases say that evolution is “only” a theory. As if that is a problem. All science is “only” a theory. Do they say that about gravity? About thermodynamics? About chemistry? Do they say that water being made of hydrogen and oxygen is “just a theory”? No. No they don’t. So why do they think it’s important to tag evolution that way? Because they cannot stomach the fact that evolution drives a coach and horses through their biblical teachings about the creation of life. They cannot come to terms with the error of their ways. So they want to darg us all back to the dark ages by suppressing the truth.

That’s they way of the Taliban. It’s also the way of the Kansas Board of Education.

Fundamentalists all stink.