Brownian hyper-linkin', one snowy morning... Hey, Jimmy Carter may be history's greatest monster, but credit where credit is due:

Former President Jimmy Carter said the state school superintendent's efforts to remove references to evolution from science curriculum standards will handicap students and damage Georgia's reputation.

"As a Christian, a trained engineer and scientist, and a professor at Emory University, I am embarrassed by Superintendent Kathy Cox's attempt to censor and distort the education of Georgia's students," the former president declared.

So what was Superintendent Cox up to?

State Schools Superintendent Kathy Cox said she removed references to evolution from the proposed biology curriculum because it is "a buzzword that causes a lot of negative reaction."

Cox, fielding questions at a news conference Thursday, defended her decision to remove the word "evolution" from the curriculum. She said it was not designed to appease Georgians who have religious conflicts with the scientific theory that all living things evolved from common ancestry.

"This wasn't so much a religion vs. science, politics kind of issue," Cox said. "This was an issue of how do we ensure that our kids are getting a quality science education in every classroom across the state."

Not by giving people who are completely ignorant of biology and science power over the biology curriculum, madame. Cox is "a former social studies teacher". Unsurprisingly, she is keen on "intelligent design".

"That is a scientific theory," she said. "Now people say, 'Oh, those folks, they're kook scientists.' But it does have scientists, rather than theologians, talking about other ways we may have come into being."

Uh huh. I started out this morning with a visit to Coffee Grounds, which twigged me to the articles above. Quite by coincidence a later visit to the Loom uncovered a discussion of related shenanigans in Minnesota. From the trackback function of that post I was introduced to the interesting Pharyngula, who had a link to a very nice, er, synopsis of intelligent design theory. As the author of the synopsis states, regarding his footnotes, "[i]f you feel that this would detract from the humor, then feel free to skip it". (I'd say it's worth your while to follow the links, if you are unfamiliar with the subject.) I don't think Cox would split a gut, though.

This didn't end my morning meanderings off on several different more or less related tangents, but, ach!, look at the time - other duties call. Bore ya later...

Posted by Moira Breen at January 31, 2004 07:40 AM