Over the last five years, Lauri Lebo has probably learned more about evolution and intelligent design than she ever wanted to. As the York Daily Record's education reporter, she covered intelligent design's First Amendment battle in the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover trial. She went on to write a powerful and very personal book about her experiences entitled The Devil in Dover - An Insider's Story of Dogma v. Darwin in Small-town America that recounts her experiences surrounding the trial.
Lebo has now written a Religion Dispatches article about the recent battle over the Texas science standards. In it, Lebo highlights the irony of anti-evolution Board members claiming to be promoting the critical examination of evolution while simultaneously flaunting their own scientific ignorance concerning the topic.
Back in March, Board chairman Don McLeroy incorrectly argued that "stasis is the opposite of evolution." While it could legitimately be argued that stasis is the absence of evolution, McLeroy's claim that stasis is contrary to evolution merely reveals that he lacks even a rudimentary understanding of modern evolutionary theory.
Although McLeroy's arguments have clearly evolved, his knowledge of evolution never seems to change. By staunchly refusing to learn anything about the actual theory of evolution, McLeroy and his fellow anti-evolutionists on the Texas State Board of Education are apparently hoping to serve as a living example of stasis.
Unfortunately, this evidence of stasis is the only data they ever seem to provide.
posted by Jeremy Mohn
