(Topeka) Board member Morris: Evolution a 'fairy tale'

[brooklynite]

TOPEKA, Kan. - Evolution is an "age-old fairy tale," sometimes defended with "anti-God contempt and arrogance," according to a State Board of Education member involved in writing new science standards for Kansas' public schools.

A newsletter written by board member Connie Morris, of St. Francis, was circulating on Monday. In it, Morris criticized fellow board members, news organizations and scientists who defend evolution.

She called evolution "a theory in crisis" and headlined one section of her newsletter "The Evolutionists are in Panic Mode!"

...snp...

Morris was one of three board members who last week endorsed proposed science standards designed to expose students to more criticism of evolution in the classroom. The other two were board Chairman Steve Abrams, of Arkansas City, and Kathy Martin, of Clay Center.

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/state/11885987.htm

[Kraklen]

1. How ironic.

Considering.

[RPM]

21. Yup - just what i was thinking - A fairy tale...

Just like:

Making women from Ribs
Evil Apples
40 Day Floods with an Ark riding it out
A man being swallowed by a whale, and spit out alive
I could go on....

Fairy Tales... just liek evolution...

[BiggJawn]

25. Don't forget decomposing dead walking again...

Don't recall any mention if Lazarus had his youthful good looks restored to him, or if he looked like this:


"He doth layeth in his tomb these three days, and he stinketh..."

[hatrack]

2. Right . . . as opposed to where Cain's wife came from . . .

How day and night were created four days before the sun, and Lot's incestuous daughters.

Whatever.

[El Supremo]

3. How did this idiot get elected??? n/t

[Pirate Smile]

11. Look who is going to run for Secretary of State in Kansas.

"Suffrage doesn't please female Kansas state senator

By FINN BULLERS - The Kansas City Star
Date: 09/27/01 22:15

A prominent female state senator has said that she does not support the 19th Amendment, which guarantees women the right to vote, and that if it were being considered today she would vote against it.

Sen. Kay O'Connor recently told the co-presidents of the Johnson County League of Women Voters that the amendment was the first step in a decades-long erosion of traditional family values.

The Olathe Republican was in the audience at a public affairs forum on juvenile justice at Johnson County Community College on Sept. 19, when league co-president Delores Furtado asked her if she was planning to attend the league's "Celebrate the Right to Vote" luncheon.

"You probably wouldn't want me there because of what I would have to say," O'Connor told Furtado after the forum had ended.

"Wasn't it in the best interest of our country to give women the right to vote?" Furtado asked the senator.

"Not necessarily so," O'Connor said. "

http://www.kcstar.com/item/pages/local.pat,local/3acd030e.927,.html

Posted on Thu, Jun. 02, 2005


Sen. O'Connor sets her sights on being Kansas secretary of state

By STEVE KRASKE

The Kansas City Star


Kansas Sen. Kay O'Connor, the outspoken conservative who once became embroiled in a controversy over a woman's right to vote, wants to be the state's top elections official.

On Tuesday, O'Connor formed a political committee that will enable her to begin raising money for a secretary of state campaign.

“I really want the secretary of state to do more,” said O'Connor, 63.

Her entry could mean a GOP primary pitting O'Connor against Ron Thornburgh, the three-term incumbent. Thornburgh is considering a run for governor, but has not ruled out trying for a fourth term.


http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/11791807.htm

[RPM]

22. then give up your vote you backwards twit

I'll be happier if you didn't vote, reproduce, or otherwise have outside social contact...

... unless you want to join the 21st century.

:eyes:

[hyphenate]

26. I remember that!

I wasn't posting here at DU very much, but on another board, and I recall many of us laughing hysterically at this schafly wannabee.

It's really pathetic when puke women prefer to be subjugated rather than enjoy the liberty and freedom we should be entitled to.

And then there are just some dumbshits like the idiot who calls evolution a "fairy tale." Lock her up and throw away the key, please!

[Toots]

49. she would vote against it.... What an ironic thing to say

:shrug: sometimes I wonder if there is truly hope for mankind. Why do Repubicans hate our Freedoms?

[lumpy]

89. Ferking unbelievable

that there exists a woman in this country who would want to go back to the 19th century.

[clydefrand]

4. Is this country going completely nuts? Are there no educated

people any more in "education"? Where have these people been all these years? Do they never travel, study, discuss, read scientific literature, visit museums? I'm just amazed at the ignorance that I'm reading about on a daily basis.

[RaleighNCDUer]

42. School boards are not a part of the education establishment.

They are citizens' councils that are open to election, and any moron can be on the school board.

Like this one.

[Dulcinea]

48. The mouth-breathers are at it again.

Has it never occurred to them that God gave us brains so we could figure these things out for ourselves? Just wondering.

[Tux]

81. Never

Evangelicals base everything on emotion. Critical thinking gets in the way of god. Thus, education, reading, anything intellectual is seen as evil since it separates a fundie from god. That is why they hate education, colleges, professors, science, technology, and anything that requires thought. They take the Bible literally so they don't have to think about anything.

[Felix Mala]

84. Intelligent people left Germany in droves in the early 30's...

Professor Henry Jones: It tells me that goose-stepping morons like yourself should try reading books instead of burning them.

from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

[Endangered Specie]

5. The urge to talk about what one knows nothing of is most fascinating...

she belongs in a zoo.

[El Supremo]

6. Yes, The Missing Link!

Or stuffed like th Dodo Bird.

[K-W]

19. Ignorance is romantisized.

Its what makes people think Bush is charming.

Anti intellectualism leaves its mark.

[CatholicEdHead]

7. They only attack the "man-monkey" "theory"

and never have anything to back it up as they also do not recgonize the scientific method and that definition of "theory".

She needs to look up natural selection and adaption over time.

[NoMoreMrNiceGuy]

8. Christians Vs. Scientist s.... both are wrong and both are right

I now the truth to mankinds beginnings and I ain't telling. I'll give you a hint...we were created but not by a god and evolution does have a hand in our development.

[jean]

9. ack - no matter how disgusting, it's good she's showing herself in

all her ignorant glory.

[Aviation Pro]

10. Considering....

...the source, I'm surprised God allowed her ancestors to evolve from a single cell organism. Of course, the Almighty has an incredible sense of humor and is laughing heartily at this dumb bitch.

Oh, by the by Constance, substituting one addiction for another, in your case substance abuse to Haysus, still makes you a weak-kneed addict.

[MnFats]

12. while we're at it, let's get back to teaching the sun revolves...

....around the earth.

....it's the only way it could be, since God made us in his own image, which makes us the center of the universe.

[Thor_MN]

13. Clearly delusional

Since my State bird is a loon, I'll just have to call her nuts.

her email according to the site below is: [e-mail] if you want to drop her a line.

Odd that her bio doesn't mention where she attended college...

http://www.ksde.org/commiss/ksbe5.html


Connie Morris took office, representing Kansas State Board of Education District 5, in January 2003. She has been an elementary classroom teacher for nine years, working for six years in the first grade classroom. She has two daughters, Jessica and Lacy, ages 21 and 18, who attend the University of Kansas studying social work and journalism. Connie and her husband Kelly farm and ranch and own a plumbing business in St. Francis where they have resided for 12 years.

Connie has served on numerous school committees and was a member of the Kansas Behavioral Science Regulatory Board appointed by Governor Graves. Her autobiography, From the Darkness: One Woman’s Rise to Nobility, has been published by Huntington House Publishers. The book is Connie’s story of recovery through Christ from incest, rape, domestic violence, substance abuse, and poverty during her early years in the Appalachian Mountains region.

[clydefrand]

16. Wish I had seen this address before. I just sent one to the Kansas

State School Board. I hope she will get to read how ignorant I think she is.

[NAO]

14. If teaching evolution is outlawed, only outlaws will evolve!

More good stuff at Evolve Fish:
http://www.evolvefish.com

[kodi]

15. this is what dean is talking about. we need to run candidates against this

local activism includes someone running for school board or county commissioner. those folks work the system, move up to state representatives and are the farm system for federal elected officials.

what dean calls for is to get more of our own folks running for these offices so we can stop this nonsense at every level of government.

[mitchum]

17. How pitiful is your self-esteem, if you're threatened by evolution?

Ms Morris a sad case indeed. That still doesn't prevent me from despising both her and her stupidity.

[Rex]

18. Everyone board the Rapture Bus!

Fundamentalist are in panic mode!

[struggle4progress]

20. What an incredibly adolescent attitude towards public policy: her main ..

.. interest is obviously attention ...

[TexasLawyer]

23. What IS the matter with Kansas????!!!

[struggle4progress]

32. They don't want to have to evolve any further. eom

[livinginphotographs]

24. So evolution is a fairy tale

But a book that talks about some old guy in the sky who zaps shit is not?

Yeah, um, okay. :eyes:

[anotherdrew]

27. Electricity is of the devil!

He shouts before saying, "look! I'll prove it!" as he starts praying loudly while fixing to stick his johnson in the socket... I think we all know where that's going...

Clearly for this guy, evolution missed his mind genes.

[thebaghwan]

28. I wouldn't so much as stop to take a piss in Kansas!

n/t

[gauguin57]

29. Uhhhhh ....

Did they find Adam and Eve's fossils and no one told me? Fairy tale? Gimme a fu**ing break!

[LynnTheDem]

30. Any wonder the rest of the world thinks we're the most ass backwards bunch

on the planet?

[HR_Pufnstuf]

31. Evolution happens

How did the poodle get here?

Could it be that man has already proved evolution via his interaction with the poodle over its existence?

Did the poodle not evolve from a more primitive dog species during the span of man?

Isnt selective breeding, and the genetic changes that result over time, the basis for evolution theory?

Doesnt Creationism teach that the God created all life? Even poodles?

Man created poodles, just like he has created God.



Back at ya righties.

[sakabatou]

33. WTH is wrong with the Topekan Board of Edu.?

[donco6]

52. It's even worse - it's the State Board of Education

But I don't have an answer to your Question. I truly wish I knew.

[sakabatou]

55. It's like every year they have to villify evolution

[donco6]

60. They go back and forth.

Last time they had a whacko board like this, they passed new standards, then they got booted off at election time and replaced with moderates who put the old standards back in. Now they've got another group of whackos back on the board - even worse than the first group.

It's all pretty sad. I'm glad I don't live there anymore.

[truthisfreedom]

34. and Santa Claus lives in my basement! come see!

those Santa-bashers were all wrong! he's all white and hairy and fat and everything! and he drinks a lot!

[Disturbed]

35. Fundie Fascists are like a virus...

they creep into local levels and spread.

[Lexingtonian]

36. well, now we know

where to go looking for the Missing Links.

Guessing from her book title, this woman has rather larger problems than being unable to get her mind around Evolution, and curious delusions of grandeur.

[donco6]

53. Christians are all nobility, didntcha know?

They're all Children of the King.

[Zhade]

37. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

What an idiot! Scientific evidence of evolution, NONE for creationism.

I repeat: NO EVIDENCE FOR CREATIONISM/INTELLIGENT DESIGN. TONS FOR EVOLUTION.

This guy's just mad that HIS fairy tale isn't forced down everyone's throat.

(Sorry, believers. I'm fucking sick and tired of your conservative brethren stamping their feet, insisting that something THEY CAN'T PROVE is the one and only truth, at the expense of actual truth as verified by science.)

[Roland99]

46. It's a she...not a he.

Isn't she supposed to be barefoot and pregnant? Sounds like her husband best get her back in line.


:sarcasm:

[IndianaGreen]

38. We need some of those mainstream Christians to speak up against

the fundies. How come the only people on stage portrayed as Christians are always the rightwing fundies?

[Tux]

82. Maybe

That is how they are? I'd like to meet this mythical liberal Christian people talk about. Maybe they're like the ivory billed woodpecker, they exist but are hidden.

[dissent1977]

39. Kansas School Officials Calls Evolution 'Fairy Tale'

Kansas School Official Calls Evolution 'Fairy Tale'

POSTED: 9:14 am CDT June 14, 2005

TOPEKA, Kan. -- A member of Kansas' State Board of Education who's involved in writing new public school science standards calls evolution a "fairy tale" that's sometimes defended with "anti-God contempt and arrogance."

A newsletter written by board member Connie Morris said students should be taught "criticism of Darwinism alongside the age-old fairy tale of evolution."

In her newsletter, Morris said she's a Christian who believes that the creation account in the Book of Genesis is literally true.

But she also acknowledges that many other Christians have no trouble reconciling faith and evolution.

Link: http://www.theneworleanschannel.com/education/4606029/detail.html

[Kraklen]

40. It's the "age old" that gets to me.

I know 1859 was a long time ago. I don't know if that qualifies as "age old."

[Roland99]

41. Do they hit people with Stupid Sticks in Bible Class?

[Tesha]

47. Credulous people become "true believers".

They also believe what the media and the father-figure Republicans
and pastors tell them.

Tesha

[xxqqqzme]

43. we can only hope she is the end

of her gene pool.

[Toots]

44. Meanwhile in Alaska reason prevails

Alaska editorial: Board restores reason to evolution studies

Without much fuss, the Alaska Board of Education put an essential bit of science back into the state science standards last Friday. That was thanks to more than a bit of civil discussion that took place the day before.

Anchorage School Superintendent Carol Comeau and Anchorage science curriculum director Gail Raymond helped lead the way. They asked the board to upgrade the theory of evolution from a grudging parenthetical reference to its central role in the life sciences. The Anchorage School District proposed changing the last part of the life science standard to: "... an understanding of how science explains changes in life forms over time, including genetics, heredity, the process of natural selection and biological evolution."

And the state board, to its credit, did just that - unanimously.
<snip>
But to teach the "evolution vs. intelligent design" controversy in science classes would give too much weight to ideas that haven't earned their scientific keep. There are better challenges to evolution on scientific grounds.

That does not mean evolution is only a hypothesis. As speakers at last week's Alaska Board of Education hearing on state science standards pointed out, the theory of evolution is as sound scientifically as the theory of gravity. Both raise unanswered questions, but they are generally accepted in the world of science, acted upon in real life and, most of all, supported by the preponderance of evidence.

The serious scientific challenges to evolution or Darwinism are not from creationists or intelligent design theorists who draw their inspiration from faith, but from scientists who draw their conclusions from evidence. Evolution is sound theory, not fixed dogma. It can both withstand and profit by continued scrutiny and revision.

Let the professionals, including that splinter minority of scientists who hold with "intelligent design," carry on a thriving scientific argument in books, speeches, journals and the like. Let students in
the public schools be exposed to the questions and challenges in fair proportion to their weight in the scientific debate.

http://juneauempire.com/stories/061405/opi_20050614001.shtml

[Lorien]

45. Hey, we're not the ones who believe in the talking snake. n/t

[Roland99]

50. Don't forget to take part in their survey!!

22% believe the Bible has all we need.

:eyes:

[QuettaKid]

54. where is that survey?! not seeing it anywhere...nt.

j

[Roland99]

58. Oh...my bad...it was from an article merged into this topic:

http://www.theneworleanschannel.com/education/4606029/detail.html

[Richard Steele]

62. Voted...THX for noticing that, Roland!

Current results:

Q: Do you think the theory of evolution should be taught in schools?

Choice / Votes/ Percentage of 3139 Votes:

Yes, it's the best science available. 1337/ 43%

Yes, but only alongside other theories. 1139 / 36%

No, the Bible tells us how life came to be. 663 / 21%

[insane_cratic_gal]

51. I guess DNA must be a fairytale

too.

difference between human and chimp DNA is less than 2%.

<snip>

The latest twist in the debate over how much DNA separates humans from chimpanzees suggests we are so closely related that chimps should not only be part of the same taxonomic family, but also the same genus.

The new study found that 99.4 percent of the most critical DNA sites are identical in the corresponding human and chimp genes. With that close a relationship, the two living chimp species belong in the genus Homo, says Morris Goodman of Wayne State University in Detroit

[Zerex71]

56. And the Earth being 6,000 years old isn't a fairy tale?

Or that there will be this "Second Coming" they keep talking about? If that's not mythology then I don't know what is.

[Zerex71]

57. And the Earth being 6,000 years old isn't a fairy tale?

Or that there will be this "Second Coming" they keep talking about? If that's not mythology then I don't know what is.

[geniph]

59. And people wonder why I hate Republicans running unopposed

for anything, even dog-catcher. Their willingness to put up candidates, even obvious sacrificial candidates, for every single elective office is the reason they've been able to stack school boards with fundie fruitbat nutcases like this.

Never let a Republican run unopposed. If no one else files for an office, for heaven's sake, raise the filing fee and run yourself. We can't let them do this anymore. They've been following this strategy for 30 years now, and they've damned near succeeded in taking over the entire apparatus of government by so doing.

A school board member becomes a prime candidate the next time there's an opening in the state legislature. State legislators run for the U.S. House. They then have the statewide recognition they need to run for Senate or Governor, and the governorships provide many of the Presidential candidates. Never allow any elective office to be ceded without a fight.

[Chauga]

61. I really feel for kids who have to go to school in Kansas.

[depakid]

63. You should- because they get laughed at

as do the teachers who attend professional conferences.

Hell, the whole state of Kansas gets ridiculed for that matter

[Moderator]

64. kick

[usregimechange]

65. KC Star: Evolution politics become personal

TOPEKA — The vote may not come for months, but six of the 10 Kansas Board of Education members clearly are prepared to inject criticism of evolution into curriculum standards.

Also apparent is that the ongoing debate has frayed relationships between the board’s conservative and moderate wings. At a board meeting Wednesday, a heated debate over the teaching of evolution centered on personalities as much as science education.

...

The four moderate members said the school board is not qualified to render scientific judgments, and they accused the others of mingling faith with public school standards. They called recent hearings into the teaching of evolution a sham.

...

In the newsletter, Morris said she takes biblical creation accounts literally and that evolution is an impossible “fairy tale.” She called Gamble “continually disruptive and rude.”

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/11904896.htm

[iamjoy]

66. Creation Is The Fairy Tale

and the author of the bible couldn't even get the story straight. There are two versions of creation at the beginning of Genesis.

[Tesha]

79. The psychological concept of "projection" exlains a lot.

One "projects" onto others those hopes, dreams, and fears that you
most deeply feel. Christians call evolution a "fairy tale" because
deep in their hearts, they know all that praying they do amounts
to nothing and when they die, they're going to rot with the rest
of us.

Tesha

[salin]

67. So what do average Kansas think about all of this?

[bunkerbuster1]

70. Does it matter?

Since when have radical clerics given two craps about what their constuencies believe?

Put it this way--do you really think most Iranians believe the garbage that their Ayatollahs tell them about the decadent West?

[salin]

72. Is the state board of education elected?

is there a point where they go too far? Is there any place for public response? I thought that one earlier effort (to take evolution out of kansas standards and textbooks) was turned back, wondering if that could happen again?

[bunkerbuster1]

77. yes, and 4 of the 5 last year ran unopposed.

per

http://www.kssos.org/elections/04elec/2004GeneralOfficialResults.pdf

only the 4th district had a challenge. the rest, eerily enough, show "100%" results for the lone Reep.

It's like an Islamic republic, with pork!

(j/k, I grew up in KS, but I weep for what's happened to my childhood home.)

[MuseRider]

83. Hi salin!

They are elected. This last election it took me over a week to get enough information about the two I got to vote on. NOTHING was published about their actual thoughts on education, only little platitudes about our wonderful children. I had to call people and talk to a lot of others to learn anything about these people and then I read between the lines on their little stories. How many people do you think actually give the KBOE enough thought to go searching for information? Maybe after this they will. :shrug:

We have to go through this every few years because standards are reviewed and voted on by the board. The last few times this has become a regular thing to come up on Science.

[salin]

87. I wish you the best with this - gather information

keep what you find along the way. Every thing that comes out now - and later. Get a file going. About each member currently mentioned in the news. Then as it gets closer to election time - get all of the information into as many hands as possible.

[MuseRider]

88. Thank you.

I am so involved in other things that I did not even think about doing something like that. Wonderful suggestion and easy to do. I will hold it and get it out to the papers before the next election.

[atommom]

80. We're embarrassed and frustrated and more than a little bit

pissed off.

The one good thing about this is that we can hope for an anti-fundie backlash at the polls next time!

[fasttense]

68. I hope my next doctor doesn't come from Kansas. n/t

[greymattermom]

71. it is scary

I teach at the only medical school in Kansas. We get complaints from a select group of students if we mention evolution. Most of us just ignore it. But, then again, I have tenure.

[GOPBasher]

69. A bunch of nutcases.

It's amazingly "liberal" these days to teach science in science class. what a wonderful theocracy!

[Demeter]

73. Yes! Please Criticize Evolution--How Dare It Work?

After all, for 150 years the theory of evolution has predicted genetic events past and present, with nary a bobble. The details may still be evolving (snigger) but the basic theory models reality, which is what a theory does!

How DARE it actually have a useful, reliable function that serves no power base?

[rucky]

75. maybe you're right, but that's just because god made it that way. n/t

[emanymton]

76. Reality Is A Concept Whose Time Has Not Come

[Bassic]

74. Amazing

Simply amazing. I don't understand how creationists can keep a straight. Now I haven't seen many people who believe in creationism (not many here in Canada), so I feel I must ask. Are these actualy educated people or a bunch of slack jawed yokels being led around by the clergy? (Although I have seen some slack jawed yokels with more sense than lawyers or doctors when it comes to religion)

[Lerkfish]

78. I think they're right: for THEM, evolution never happened....

the knuckle-draggers.

:)

[Felix Mala]

85. I think we need an Evolution amendment so schools will stop wasting

time and money on this issue. We'd also find out who the morons are.

"Considering the full weight of evidence in the scientific community, the theory of evolution shall be the primary explanation for the ascendency of life on earth."

[opihimoimoi]

86. She will be one known to cause the ultimate BACKLASH and reverse

the Fundie Movement...sending them back into a hole from where they came from.

Ignorance came only take one so far....and this movement, which produces folks like the above woman, will soon wither as did the 3rd Reich, the Yellow Horde, etc.

All Movements Based on BS can only last as long as the scam is undiscovered.....

ITS a SCAM...this creation shit is a SCAM.....

TO FOOL IS TO RULE......

Its NOT the Age of REASON.....

Its the AGE OF EXPLOITATION.......