It has been brought to my attention by vigilant blogger Mike O'Risal that creationism is coming to Maine (the state in which I live, vote, and pay taxes) with an absolutely idiotic new mutation- teach neither evolution nor creationism!
The architect of this ridiculous little 3/5ths Compromise is Matthew Linkletter, a member of School Administrative District 59 in Madison, Maine, who believes that both evolution and creationism are "world views" and "philosophies" that "cannot be proven" and so they do not deserve to be in science classrooms. PS. Matthew Linkletter calls himself a "Christian."
Linkletter has nothing even plausibly mistakable for the understanding of science that is required to make calls like this. A "theory" is not the sort of thing you prove or disprove, it is an umbrella explanation that unifies the mechanism of several KNOW, FACTUAL OBSERVATIONS (such as speciation, the fossil record, the untold billions of clues from molecular biology, etc.). In this sense, then, "Evolution" is a "theory" in that evolutionary processes explain a number of incontrovertible facts about our biome, and "evolution" lower-case e is a "fact" in that we know beyond all reasonable doubt that populations are changed on the genetic level over time by selection processes and allopatry.
The District 59 Board of Directors website only gives a PO Box for Matthew Linkletter's contact information (P.O. Box 254, Athens, ME 04912), but the board chair is freely available at:
P.O. Box 22, Anson, ME 04911
696-3006 Home
696-4200 Work
If anyone living in New England wants to join me, their next school board meeting in which the issue will be considered is on May 19th at 7 PM in the Administrative Center at 55 Weston Avenue in Madison, Maine.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
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3 comments:
I live in Maine as well, and this makes me want to cry. Our state already hemorrhages jobs like crazy, and it's difficult enough for people to earn a living up here - now this idiot wants to prevent kids from having a well-rounded education, which will eventually make the entire situation worse as these kids won't be accepted by any colleges because they haven't had any real science classes...and they'll wind up working at gas stations or fast-food restaurants for the rest of their lives because of Matthew Linkletter.
F***ing brilliant, that's what he is.
Seems they had another meeting yesterday in preparation for the May 19 decision.
I've been sending out emails this morning in an attempt to get some of the A-list bloggers and the NCSE to pick up on this. It's weird... the story isn't being picked up by the press or the big blogs. I don't why it's going under the radar as it is, but this isn't something that deserves to be ignored.
I have lived in Maine for 10 years, though I now live in Lithuania, and i can attest to the fact that the entire public education system is pathetically disorganized and dangerously underfunded. I remember as a child, protesting with violin in hand at the steps of city hall to prevent Portland Public Schools from eliminating art and music from the curriculum altogether! This creationist nonsense seems just the thing to round off our horrible record. What I find especially disturbing is the fact that when there is a conflict between two 'world views' or 'personal beliefs', the decision is not to teach either. When has the rational reaction to a conflict of ideas been hushing them entirely? At least teach them both...
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