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Patrons Fail in Quest to Supplement Evolution Teachings
By Lana F. Flowers
The Morning News

ROGERS -- The six minutes dentist Don Eckard and patron Mark Moore used to talk about deficient science textbooks did not sway the Rogers School Board.

The board at a Monday meeting listened to Eckard and Moore but made no motion and took no action on the men's request to supplement high school biology textbooks with additional critical analysts of evolution.

Eckard asked the board to approve a DVD, "How to Teach the Controversy over Darwin Legally."

The school board in April took the need for supplemental materials under advisement but voted to adopt the secondary science textbooks.

Eckard on Monday continued his argument that the biology book presents a one-sided argument for evolution without presenting other scientific opinions.

"There is a controversy. There is a problem," Eckard said.

All textbooks are written from the author's viewpoint or opinion and promote an agenda, Eckard said.

In addition, he said textbooks written for and marketed in larger states may not meet all the Arkansas education standards.

Moore also said the biology textbook does not critically analyze evolution or the evidence cited to support evolution, including insects becoming resistant to pesticides over time or microbes' resistance to antibiotics.

A committee of science teachers reviewed the proposed DVD, said Jim Johnson, assistant superintendent for secondary education. The committee unanimously recommended the supplemental DVD not be approved, Johnson said.

Eckard stood up to ask why.

Joye Kelley, school board president, told Eckard his time to speak had expired and the school board was not there to debate with him............

NWA Online

At fundie insistance many TX-approved and therefore nationally used textbooks define theory as "scientific guess". With that kind of science training in public school, you can see how the fundies keep this argument going.

DOUG
This morning the Today show had a piece on a public school that uses a textbook called The Bible and Its Influence. The book purports to teach familiarity with the Bible from the perspective of its influence on our culture.

The Bible Literacy Project is the organization that promotes the use of this book.
See here.

Their website had a video clip of the Today show piece.

The fundies hate this textbook because it is too neutral and it gives standard contemporary Biblical research, such as the claim that Jesus was born in Nazareth. (The fundies forced the BLP to promise to revise this "error" in the 2007 edition of this book.)

Other problems the fundies have with it:
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Page 29 of the Bible Literacy Project textbook reads "other origin stories tell of many gods who are created, etc." Hagee says this "plants the concept in the mind of children that polytheism is just as acceptable as monotheism, which is contrary to the Bible." Also unchanged is a Bible quotation from an interpretation by Dr. Robert Alter, an endorser of and contributor to the textbook, saying God created the world "out of welter and waste." Hagee contends this leaves a "completely wrong" impression of the creation account. Hagee says the unchanged phrase on page 34 promotes polytheism: "By contrast, some traditions and philosophies see humans as no more or less sacred than other living creatures."

Below is just a sampling of some of the troubling passages in the latest version of "The Bible and Its Influence" that remain unchanged:

"Job is one of the most difficult books in the Bible in that it provides no clear cut moral or answer to Job's situation." (page 161)

"God's help comes with strings attached – commandments or laws that the Israelites must obey in order to keep faith." (page 72)

"The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning.' [Job 42:12] This ending, though pleasing in some ways, has failed to satisfy various readers over the centuries." (page 160)

"It is always good to remember not to try to apply current standards to the biblical accounts." (page 50)

"Many students although aware of good and evil, have not thought deeply about it. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, God is considered to be good, all knowing and all powerful. Yet this view presents a problem." (page 163)

"Gideon won the battle by a bit of trickery." (page 81)

"The pattern of family trickery and deceit continues." (page 56 speaking of the family of Abraham)

"American writer and reporter Lincoln Steffen's 1926 defense of Leninist (Communist) politics was called 'Moses in Red.'" (page 65)

The text's dialectic method of questioning faith is reinforced on page 13 where it claims William Tyndale, translator of the Bible, "coined such phrases as 'Let there be light,' 'My brother's keeper,' and more. Teachers are instructed to "Devote particular attention to the phrases coined by Tyndale." This creates doubt over the true author of the Bible. Tyndale only translated the Bible, but the Bible Literacy Project implies that he was the one coining the phrases and writing the sentences.

It is obvious why the National Council on Islamic Education has endorsed the guidelines to which the textbook was written. Teachers are instructed "to explain that the traditional Islamic reading of this story [ sic. Abraham and Isaac] (incorporated into the Qur'an) substitutes Ishmael for Isaac; Muslims see Ishmael as the oldest son and true successor to Abraham."

See here.