Dec 26 2007
Pastafarians win ID debate in FL
It’s so nice to actually win one. There’s a great diary over at Big Evil Orange right now by diarist davidkc, called Flying spaghetti monster defeats anti-evolution FL school board. Apparently, the Polk county school board in Florida had a number of Intelligent Design believers that wanted it taught and reflected in the new science standards (which, by numerous accounts are quite pathetic).
The Ledger followed up with another story a week later where it polled all school board members on the issue and reported that five of seven school board members declared a personal belief in the concept of intelligent design, and four of those five board members said they would like to see intelligent design taught in Polk schools as an alternative to evolution. One of those four board members, Margaret Lofton, made her views on the topic quite clear:
“If it ever comes to the board for a vote, I will vote against the teaching of evolution as part of the science curriculum,” Lofton said. “If (evolution) is taught, I would want to balance it with the fact that we may live in a universe created by a supreme being as well.”
Heh. “Balance it with the fact”. Sharp one. Anyways, the Pastafarians of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monstergot wind of this, and wanted to make sure that in the name of “balance” that the school board also included the Pastafarian creation story. In case you don’t know, the FSM thing was started a few years back when the enlightened folks in Kansas decided to ditch evolution from their educational standards. Long and short of it, it started to get a lot of attention, and made the school board look like the idiots that they were.
And the school board members didn’t hear from just the Pastafarians. Local residents wrote scathing letters to the Ledger criticizing the school board members’ positions: - “It looks as if Polk County School Board members Fields, Harris, Lofton, Sellers and possibly Cunningham would have us return to those dark days of yesteryear when the old men who wove the creation fairy tale believed Earth was the center of the universe and that it was flat,” wrote one Ledger reader. - “Look out Polk County - as long as our School Board considers flouting science standards, we will remain Hillbilly USA,” wrote another local citizen.
Polk school board members were clearly caught off-guard by the speed and verocity of the response to their public support for ID/creationism in the classroom, and they quickly backed off any efforts to teach intelligent design. “They’ve made us the laughingstock of the world,” board member Lofton told the Tampa Tribune, in reference to the Pastafarians.
See, now this is the stuff that Dawkins and Harris are talking about, that is often accused of being so “harsh”. We need to forcefully confront these ridiculous beliefs and actions with more ridicule. Score one for reason on this one.
Posts
This is great news. All praise to the FSM and his Noodly Appendage.
This is more evidence of why all school boards nationwide should be abolished. I appreciate their deep "concern" for how our "childrens" are learnin’ and all, but a lot of them don’t know their heads from their asses.
Especially in Polk County.