Dentist ushers a New Dark Ages in Texas Education

SCIENCE EDUCATION: New Texas Standards Question Evolution, Fossil Record -- Bhattacharjee 324 (5923): 25a -- Science

Don McLeroy, a dentist, chair of the Texas Board of Education, leads a 13:2 vote establishing new standards for education in the Texas class room, including talking points from the intelligent design literature -- creationism once again. Proponents of this dogmatism say, "the next step will be to press publishers to modify biology text books."

CREDIT: HARRY CABLUCK/AP PHOTO

Dentists and pharmacists, pretending to be doctors have always seemed a bit suspect. It would be interesting to see how this dentist would explain the evolution of human teeth, or the dating of human teeth way earlier than creationists suggest. You don't hear any rabies claiming creationism, and it's their ancient literature. It's as if there is a subset of human brains that cannot fathom allegory or metaphor. What would an alien make of the Shakespearean description, "She hangs upon the night as a pearl in an Ethiop's ear." I fear the yellow rose of Texas will be darkened by a new age of religious fundamentalism. Yet with some of the best universities in the country, surely real doctors will prevail.

The picture is worth a thousand words: AAAS journal, Science, 3 April 2009 pp25.