We laugh at the yahoos on the Kansas Board of Education who are dragging their state down the drain with bad science education, but don't confuse that with laughing at Kansans. There are some very smart people down there. I am very impressed with this op-ed by Cassie Gentry—she very effectively takes down an Intelligent Design advocate…and she's a college freshman in English.
I'd suggest that she ought to think about coming up to Minnesota and majoring in a science, but I think they need more like her right where she is.
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The first comment on that article is astoundingly wrong. Very impressive.
Hang in there, Cassie, I've been where you are.
That first comment was posted by Kazmer Ujvarosy, a deluded dingleberry who established the "independent" stink-stank "Frontline Science" and who "is uniquely qualified to help you understand what makes scientific sense, and what does not," even if he does say so himself.
Rock chalk! Cassie made all of us on the KU campus proud today.
Ah, Leonard Magruder. He's an ever-present wingnut around these parts (along with the ubiquitous Fred Phelps) who hassles many of us with unsolicited e-mail rants on the usual subjects. Arrogant, vociferous, and tedious in the extreme. He's the founder of "Vietnam Veterans for Academic Reform" - interesting, since he is by his own admission not a Vietnam vet, and in fact I don't believe he's a veteran at all. Surprise, surprise.
He claims to be a "retired professor." I smell a rat. A very quick search of various scientific databases on the KU library site turned up no publications of any kind - not necessarily surprising, as he claims to have been employed at Suffolk Community College in NY, a teaching-centered institution, but you would think there might be *some* sign of his "academic" life out there. Unless, of course, he's a liar. I'll have to look more closely, but I ain't holding my breath. Fake ivory-tower credentials are all too common on the creationist/right-wing side, even as they all claim to hate us all. Too bad Cassie didn't take on Leonard's personal history as well as his little speech.
help me out here: when i was a kid learning about things for the first time, and was taught about evolution, silly me, but i believed it, and nothing i've learned since has ever made me want to question it. what's more, i don't remember anybody standing up in class wondering "what about creationism?"
is all this ID and YEC crap shedding light on a population that has always existed, and never believed in evolution? or is it giving people permission to ... what, Challenge The Man, prove their faith, disregard fact, or something else? are they growing, or just "coming out?"
It's an excuse for people to engage in wishful thinking, rather than the typically less pleasant critical thinking.