Creationists Evolve

The recent edition of the Washington Spectator (alas, no link) has an article written by Lauri Lebo, who covered the Dover Intelligent Design trial and was featured in the recent PBS Nova show about the trial. Says Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education, "Creationists are proof of evolution." Their tactics evolve in response to each battle. The next battle is in the Texas Education Agency, important because the state's department authorizes textbooks for the entire state (a job that is handled by individual districts in Michigan) and is the second largest (behind Calif.) bulk purchaser of books. Publishers cater to Texas and that limits textbook options in other states. Step 1 of the battle was to eliminate Christine Comer, a science teacher, from the TEA on grounds that she wasn't neutral to the creationist debate. She won't be there to protect scientific integrity when standards are set for statewide testing. Step 2 isn't as far reaching as insisting on teaching Creationism or ID, but merely teaching the "strengths and weaknesses" of evolution, such as why the Cambrian Explosion is a serious problem (this Wikipedia article will tell you more than you want to know about this stuff that happened half a billion years ago). But this tactic can have students question all scientific ideas. We know that gravity works, but we don't know how it works (waves? particles?), so is that a weakness that allows us to dismiss gravity? Dan Quinn of the Texas Freedom Network says, "How can you have a rational debate if every time you say 'it's not science,' they say 'you're bashing religion'?" Which sounds to me like they are admitting it is a religious issue.