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Overheard at the monkey trial:

This Magazine Staff

Kansas is at it again. According to a report in the NYTimes, the State Board of Ed in Kansas, backed by a conservative majority is holding hearings designed to introduce new science standards — standards that would leave the door open for teachers to disregard the ‘theory’ of evolution in favour of the ‘biblical fact’ of creationism — and they are being helped by the testimony of godly scientists. Okay.

Some little samplings from the hearings (Pedro Irigonegaray is a lawyer representing the interests of, um, Charles Darwin):

“Do the [current] standards state anywhere that science, evolution, is in any way in conflict with belief in God?” the lawyer, Pedro Irigonegaray, asked William S. Harris, a chemist who helped write the proposed changes.

When a later witness, Jonathan Wells, said he enjoyed being in the minority on such a controversial topic, Mr. Irigonegaray retorted, “More than being right?”

Sighing was Cheryl Shepherd-Adams, a physics teacher who took an unpaid day off from Hays High School to attend the hearings. “Kansas has been through this before,” she said. “I’m really tired of going to conferences and being laughed at because I’m from Kansas.”

“Don’t be silly, Toto. Scarecrows don’t talk.”

Okay, one of those quotes was not actually from the monkey trial. Guess which one!

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