CAMPAIGNERS against teaching creationism in schools scored a victory last week deep in America’s Bible Belt.
At a tense meeting of the Texas State Board of Education, the board voted eight to seven to erase a seemingly innocuous phrase in the rulebook that allows teachers and students to debate the “strengths and weaknesses” of scientific theories. Since 1994 creationists have used this as a pretext to cast doubt on evolution in lessons and textbooks.
The supposed weaknesses are completely bogus, and removing the wording “is a real victory”, says Michael Zimmerman of Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, an anti-creationist.…
