GA Evolution Stickers Ordered Removed

Doug Gross (AP) reported last Thursday (13JAN) that a federal judge ordered these stickers to be removed from the Cobb county (Georgia) science books:

"This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered."

U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper said this about the stickers,

"By denigrating evolution, the school board appears to be endorsing the well-known prevailing alternative theory, creationism or variations thereof, even though the sticker does not specifically reference any alternative theories."

I don't see mention of any other "theories" regarding creation (or 'where we came from') mentioned in those stickers.

This story begins to take on a very unusual twist once we look at the number of people on either side of the fence.

Fact #1: In 2002, over 2000 parents had complained that the science books "presented evolution as fact, without mentioning rival ideas about the beginnings of life".

Fact #2: SIX parents and the American Civil Liberties Union sued claiming the stickers violated the separation of church and state and "unfairly singled out evolution from thousands of other scientific theories as suspect."

At a trial in federal court in November, the school system defended the stickers as a show of tolerance, not religious activism.

"Science and religion are related and they're not mutually exclusive," school district attorney Linwood Gunn said. "This sticker was an effort to get past that conflict and to teach good science."

But the judge disagreed: "While evolution is subject to criticism, particularly with respect to the mechanism by which it occurred, the sticker misleads students regarding the significance and value of evolution in the scientific community."

This judge is a clueless mystery of the universe himself. Charles freakin' Darwin recanted his own ideas of his death bed. But, that's not part of the "science" that we teach in public schools. It must really stink to try and prove a false truth your entire life and finally admit to yourself that you were wrong all along, shortly before you die.

I hope this decision is reversed shortly. That ruling is completely ignorant.

Crispy