From: Sarah Berel-Harrop (sec@hal-pc.org)
Date: Sat Oct 11 2003 - 18:31:37 EDT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Roberts" <michael.andrea.r@ukonline.co.uk>
To: "Pattle Pak Toe Pun" <Pattle.P.Pun@wheaton.edu>; <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2003 3:08 PM
Subject: Re: Texas debates handling of evolution in textbooks (fwd)
> Why is Discovery Institute distributing such a bad book as Icons of
> Evolution?
>
Michael, you might be interested to know that the
"analysis" of textbooks up for adoption was based
on Icons. Essentially, all the DI big guns came to
Austin this September to ask the Texas State Board
of Education to reject textbooks that did not
incorporate "Icons"-style criticisms in the textbooks,
and that includes the peppered moth. Incidentally
devo biologists get pretty hot over the recapitulation
nonsense from Wells. So it's not just you or the
peppered moth people, it's pretty much every
knowledgeable person in each field that Icons purports
to debunk. If ID has a research program, they should
be doing that, not lending support to Icons. Makes it
look like the 'politics' is eclipsing the 'science'.
Additionally, the DI people made statements to the
SBOE that were misleading & flat-out wrong, and also
made a big deal in the local press that they were not
permitted to testify (Wells, West, Chapman, & Behe
were permitted to address the board after the hearing)
but they fail to mention that no fewer than four - maybe
five DI fellows did in fact testify & that in the first few
hours & sympathetic board members circulated their
written testimony as well. So they were getting trying
to get mileage on a persecution charge in the press
using counterfactual information.
These tactics are just repugnant, that's all I can say,
it gets me pretty worked up.
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