Science Not Good Enough for Blount County, TN

Via Atrios, this item from the Maryville, TN Daily Times which reports that a local schoolboard voted 2-1 to reject three new biology textbooks because they don't teach creationism as a theory alongside of evolution. There are a few things to note here:

First, creationism is not a scientific theory. Creationism appeals to supernatural causes and is in principle unfalsifiable. But creationists continue to use the rhetorical trick of calling both evolution and creationism "theories", even though they clearly mean "ideas" or "narritives", which are very different things. Yes, there are people who reject the science in certain instances where they think it conflicts with their religious beliefs, but that rejection of science should not be taught as science.

Second, when creationists call evolution "merely a theory", they are again using the common meaning of the word to imply evolution is not well-accepted in the scientific community — it's a theory, not a "fact". Laying aside for a moment the question of whether there really are any "facts" (in the strict epistemological sense, I say no), evolution, while still "merely a theory", is still as close to being a "fact" as science allows. There is still vigorous scientific debate as to the mechanisms of evolution, but the — excuse me — fact of evolution is not seriously disputed by the mainstream scientific community, and indeed, serves as one of the fundamental underpinnings of modern biology.

Third, the actions of this local school board provides additional evidence of why a national curriculum would be a good idea. "Local control" of schools never made education better; and as cases like this one show, it is positively counter-productive.

Fourth, four members of the school board didn't even vote on this issue. "The four nonvoting board members apparently were reluctant to get involved in the discussion with memories of the Scopes' Monkey Trial in the not so distant past." If these four could have changed the outcome, and didn't vote out of fear of political reprisals, they are guilty of something far worse than just the abject stupidity of two of their colleagues.