The Institute for Creation Research (ICR) thought they had found the promised land when they moved to Texas. Texas has as many fundamentalists as any state and it has been a real battle here to keep creationism out of high school science classes -- a battle that is still being waged.
The ICR wanted to issue their own version of a master's degree in science. Their science master's degree would be in "creation science". If they could get state accreditation for the degree, then they could get these fraudulent "science" teachers into schools across the state (and maybe across the South). But they ran into a problem. Even Texas is not that crazy.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) voted unanimously to deny the ICR the authority to issue the degree in creation science. The THECB ruled that the degree would not really be in science (but religion) so it did not meet the state's standards for a science degree. Well, fundamentalists never give up easily so they took the THECB to court claiming they imposed "an unconstitutional and prejudicial burden against ICRGS's (ICR graduate school) academic freedom and religious liberties."
But the United States District Court for Western Texas disagreed with them a couple of days ago. The court said the "Plaintiff (ICR) is entirely unable to file a complaint which is not overly verbose, disjointed, incoherent, maundering, and full of irrelevant information." The court found that the THECB's "decision was rationally related to a legitimate governmental interest, and there is no evidence the decision was motivated by animus toward any religious viewpoint."
In plain English, the state has a right to set it's science standards and doing so does not deny anyone their religious freedom. Whether the fundamentalists like it or not, science and religion are different things and religion should not be taught as science (or vice versa).
I'm sure the ICR will probably appeal this decision, but I doubt a court of appeals will overturn this very rational decision.
And yet, degrees are awarded in political science. I can't think of anything less scientific than politics. Go figure!
ReplyDeleteBut when you get a degree in political science it is not recognized as a science degree, but a social science degree. The ICR wanted their degree in religion recognized as a science degree.
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