Profiles in Stupidity: Don McLeroy

Recently, I wrote about the appointment of biblical creationist Don McLeroy as the head of the Texas Department of Education, despite the fact that he favors replacing the past few hundred years of geology, biology, cosmology, etc. with pseudo-scientific, overtly religious beliefs. Well, the man recently gave a speech at Grace Bible Church where he revealed his intentions of using "intelligent design" as a tool to start teaching public school children about biblical literalism.

The audio of the speech can be heard here: .

A transcript is available here.

A few choice quotes:

• "I am the only nonacademic in this group"
• "If you open a high school textbook, they basically state as a fact that we share common ancestry with life that first got started and some went to be plants and eventually trees and some became us. And that is what I mean by Darwinism."
• "Neo-Darwinism is another description term for just evolution, common descent that talks about genetic variability so it gets it more precise. And is that the target? It’s not supported by evidence, it’s not Biblical, so that must be the target of intelligent design, but really it’s not the main target either. Actually, in intelligent design we are focused on a on a bigger target, and in the words of Phillip Johnson 'the target is metaphysical naturalism, materialism or just plain old naturalism.' "
• "Whether you’re a progressive creationist, recent creationist, young earth, old earth, it’s all in the tent of intelligent design. And intelligent design here at Grace Bible Church actually is a smaller, uh, tent than you would have in the intelligent design movement as a whole. Because we are all Biblical literalists, we all believe the Bible to be inerrant"
• "naturalism has enslaved our society’s mind"
• "we’re really not sure about how much mind control stuff really works"
• "The analogy of evolution as the matrix, it’s, it’s really amazing that we do live, seems to me, in a matrix-type world. I mean, we have been programmed, our society has been programmed, in the way we look at things outside. It’s very interesting. But what do the Scriptures say?"
• "Remember keep chipping away at the objective empirical evidence."
  

Remember, Texas, this man will be in charge of the science education of your children.

Texas Governor Puts Creationist in Charge of State Education

Texas Governor Rick Perry recently appointed former dentist Don McLeroy (pictured left) to head the State Board of Education. Unfortunately for the schoolchildren of Texas, Don McLeroy actively opposes teaching real science and instead opts for silly discredited ideas as replacements.

In 2003, McLeroy was among a minority of school board members who voted against adopting high school Biology textbooks simply because of their account of evolutionary theory. McLeroy complained that the books were "too dogmatic" and did not contain enough criticism.

In a letter dated October 30, 2003, McLeroy explained his objections to evolution, and simultaneously revealed a deep misunderstanding of the topic he was arguing against:

"Given all the time in the world, I don't think I could make a spider out of a rock. However, most of the books we are considering adopting, claim that Nothing made a spider out of a rock.

I don't think I share a common ancestor with a tree. However, most of the books we are considering adopting, claim as a fact that we all share a common ancestor with a tree."

McLeroy added that "it is wrong to teach opinion as fact."

But evolutionary theory isn't the only scientific idea McLeroy opposes:

"In 2001, McLeroy and a majority of the board rejected the only Advanced Placement textbook for high school environmental science because its views on global warming and other events didn't comport with the beliefs of the board majority. The book wasn't factual and was anti-American and anti-Christian, the majority claimed. Meanwhile, dozens of colleges and universities were using the textbook, including Baylor University, the nation's largest Baptist college."

Sucks for you, Texas.

UPDATE: Texas has the highest teen birth rate in the country (63 births out of every 1,000 teens, as opposed to the national average of 41), and simultaneously emphasizes abstinence-only education. When asked if there might be a link between the two, Don McLeroy had this to say:

"The idea that just giving them a lot of information is going to solve it, I think, is kind of naive," he said. "Certainly, it's more of a societal problem than it is a school problem."

Yeah, as if information will help...