A lot of you Loyal Readers may question why I crusade against the contamination of science with befuddled religious thinking and intellectual laziness. This is a good example of how the confusion of science, religion, and prejudice can be dangerous — the politicians who circulated these memos hold positions of some power within their Legislatures.
Particularly disturbing are the themes of anti-Semitism and deliberate ignorance of relatively basic scientific learning (like the idea that the Earth revolves around its axis) in favor of religious doctrine. If these guys had their way, they would be teaching schoolchildren that the international Zionist conspiracy created the lie of Copernican heliocentrism (the idea that the Earth revolves around the Sun rather than the Sun around the Earth) in order to subvert the teachings of the Old Testament. Absolute nonsense, of course, and rightly condemned by both advocates of science and clear-headed Christians.
Links by way of Rightwing Nuthouse and Talking Points Memo.
Talk about good news and bad news. Americans sending mixed signals on science