Kansas is it's own world.

At the least, it's its own country. I'm an American, and I refuse to accept that Kansas is stil part of my country. We're not all complete idiots, and they are, apparently, doing everything that they can to change that. They're having state hearings to debate how they ought to teach evolution and creationism in schools. The sheer amount of stupidity in this whole thing - I'm quite tempted to refer to it as a shenanigan - is overwhelming. While I'm tempted to break down the CNN article sentence by sentence, I don't have that much time. So I'll just pick out some of my favorites.

"I feel like I'm in a time warp here," said Topeka attorney Pedro Irigonegaray who has agreed to defend evolution as valid science. "To debate evolution is similar to debating whether the Earth is round. It is an absurd proposition."

Point: There has not been debate over that in many, many, many years. There was a nice ancient Greek man named Ptolemy who was certain that the Earth was round, and it wasn't a revolutionary idea then. This is just a pet peeve of mine, as you hear it all the time and it's (basically) a logically flawed argument if it's taken word-for-word.

"We're not against evolution," said Calvert. "But there is a lot of evidence that suggests that life is the product of intelligence. I think it is inappropriate for the state to prejudge the question whether we are the product of design or just an occurrence."

Oh, the joke here is so obvious I can't even bring myself to make it. Anyway: The state of Kansas is not, as far as I can tell, deciding whether or not humans are "just an occurence" or something else. I don't think any state is doing that. I do think that nearly 150 years of scientific research is saying: "According to the research that many highly qualified scientists have done, this is the most scientifically sound theory." The state (most states, anyway) are saying, "In our science classes in public school, we ought to be teaching the most scientifically sound theories."

The current proposal pushed by conservatives would not eliminate evolution entirely from instruction, nor would it require creationism be taught, but it would encourage teachers to discuss various viewpoints and eliminate core evolution claims as required curriculum.

Any teacher worth their salt is going to do this. Perhaps the problem is not the subject matter. Perhaps, instead of spending taxpayers' money on needless 'trials', the state of Kansas should be spending that money on educating, training, and hiring quality teachers who don't need to be ordered to discuss alternate viewpoints.

Detractors also argue that evolution is invalid science because it cannot be tested or verified and say it is inappropriately being indoctrinated into education and discouraging consideration of alternatives.

Uh - what? What horrible, horrible things are they doing to logic in Kansas? No, evolution cannot be 'verified' as such. Natural selection (which is the basis for Darwin's theories of evolution) has, in fact, been verified. Repeatedly. If their argument against evolution is that it cannot be tested or verified, what makes intelligent design/creationism superior? Are we going to 'prove' the bible? In my opinion, if any science teacher - if any teacher of any subject - ever said that something being in the bible - one single book - is reason enough to accept it as fact, then...well, I'd go ahead and say that they're not really a teacher. A teacher ought to stimulate though and encourage you to look at everything around you and draw your own conclusions from it. Unless, of course, that's not the way things are done in Kansas.

"If students ... do not understand the weaknesses of evolutionary theory as well as the strengths, a grave injustice is being done to them," Abrams said.

That's absolutely correct. Also, if students don't understand the weaknesses of biblical theory, a grave injustice is being done to them. If high-level math students don't understand the weaknesses of Euclidean geometry, a grave injustice is being done. If students don't understand the weaknesses of one historical point of view over another, then a grave injustice is being done: that particular injustice happens all the time.

That, however, is a rant for another day.