http://act.demandprogress.org/act/txwaronscience/%3Freferring_akid%3Da1220261.299940.dMWDUz%26source%3Dauto-e

I've been shying away from political topics per Kerm's request, but this one really gets to me. I'm getting really sick and tired of the anti-intellectualism exhibited by the far-right. Please tell me you guys aren't this freaking nuts.

Since I live in Texas, I can tell you firsthand that Creationism isn't taught in our science curriculum, and I'm pretty sure this will never happen and this article is not to be trusted.

I'm very surprised to hear that; I'm constantly reading articles about how the Texas school board is constantly promoting Creationism.

I've also heard about that, but when I talk to my teachers (both Republican and Democrat) they tell me that the board will not do this.

This article, linked to by the Demand Progress article, explains how these pious morons plan to take control of the school board:

http://tfninsider.org/2011/02/09/creationists-target-texas-science-classes/

I am amused that Texas has a statewide school board. What an absurdity.

I'm suspicious of some degree of quote mining and misrepresentation of the story in that second article. While it's certain that there are a few YECs with technical degrees, radical ones tend to be rather difficult to find. Also, even if they are YEC's, how many of them will be impacting the Biology curriculum? It doesn't really matter whether they're creationists if they're designing the physics curriculum.

You are mostly correct, but there are at least a few extremely intelligent YECs out there who could have an impact on a physics curricular. See this page for an idea of what I'm talking about. Honest study of the implications of some of the models listed on that page could actually be beneficial to the mathematical and analytical skills of budding physicists.

That's true, but I'm still concerned about the influence they can have if they can get enough of these loons on the board. Honestly, if there's one group of people that should be systematically exterminated it's these "young-earth creationist" retards.

Qwerty, I'd argue that they're still bringing a degree of anti-science sentiment to the physics curriculum in that case, but I see what you're saying.

You can't ban anyone who follows a particular set of beliefs from serving on the board, as much as you might want to, it opens up all sorts of doors for abuse. However the board should stand strong against being bullied into accepting extra members who aren't qualified or entitled to serve.