Stickers Unstuck

January 13, 2005 11:38 AM

Evolutionary Stickers Struck-down. (login req'd)
"In a ruling issued today, U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper said the stickers, which call evolution 'a theory, not a fact,' violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution."
(A pseudo-follow-up to a post from November 2004)
posted by grabbingsand (37 comments total)

Win!
posted by TwelveTwo at 11:47 AM on January 13, 2005

From the stickers link:
Georgia Secretary of Education Kathy Cox said a new state science curriculum would drop the word "evolution" and replace it with "changes over time."

There you go. Problem solved!
posted by SAC at 11:48 AM on January 13, 2005

The Decision Is Available as a PDF.
posted by Blake at 11:53 AM on January 13, 2005

Score one for the literates!
posted by Plinko at 12:00 PM on January 13, 2005

God be praised!
posted by Four Flavors at 12:01 PM on January 13, 2005

Reason: 1
Superstition: 0
posted by exlotuseater at 12:02 PM on January 13, 2005

I don't think that score is accurate. Didn't Bush win?
posted by TwelveTwo at 12:04 PM on January 13, 2005

From the Decision:

Due to the various challenges that arise in this area, the Court believes it prudent to state from the outset what the instant case is not about.

First, the Court is not resolving in this case whether science and religion are mutually exclusive, and the Court takes no position on the origin of the human species.

Second, the issue before the Court is not whether it is constitutionally permissible for public school teachers to teach intelligent design, the theory that only an intelligent or supernatural cause could be responsible for life, living things, and the complexity of the universe.

Third, this case does not resolve the ongoing debate regarding whether evolution is a fact or theory or whether evolution should be taught as fact or theory.

To be clear, this opinion resolves only a legal dispute. Specifically, the narrow issue raised by this facial challenge is whether the sticker placed in certain Cobb County School District science textbooks violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and/or Article 1, Section II, Paragraph VII of the Constitution of the State of Georgia.

I think I just became a Judge Clarence Cooper fanboy.
posted by grabbingsand at 12:05 PM on January 13, 2005

Me too.
posted by TwelveTwo at 12:09 PM on January 13, 2005

I suppose the other stickers have to go, too.
posted by fleacircus at 12:18 PM on January 13, 2005

I'm happy for the ruling, but the wording is a little bothersome, as evolution is both a fact and a theory.
posted by grimcity at 12:22 PM on January 13, 2005

I want to put a sticker on a textbook that says, "Gravity is a theory, not a fact."

While I'm at it, I might as well start a campaign to remove the teaching of this fuzzy so-called "theory" of gravity in our schools, and replace it with my new theory, called "Intelligent Pulling." Which basically states that God makes stuff stick together, not some "physical" force.
posted by salad spork at 12:22 PM on January 13, 2005

Dammit, fleacircus, I thought I was being original. Nice link!
posted by salad spork at 12:23 PM on January 13, 2005

I want to put a sticker on bibles that says, "This textbook contains material on Christianity. Christianity 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."

By the way, the printable version of the story doesn't require registration.
posted by RylandDotNet at 12:32 PM on January 13, 2005

All you fuckin' hippies with your facts and hard data. Go smoke another doobie ya fuckin' hippies!
/David Cross
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 12:32 PM on January 13, 2005

The essential problem isn't that evolution is "a theory not a fact"; it's that creationism is 'a fabrication not a theory'.
posted by boaz at 12:32 PM on January 13, 2005

And what exlotuseater said.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 12:33 PM on January 13, 2005

What boaz said.
posted by rushmc at 12:37 PM on January 13, 2005

(er well it was just a repeat link)

I was briefly trying to cleanse the Wikipedia Evolution pages of Creationist nonfacts awhile ago. I'd link to it in the hopes that rational MeFis could continue the fight but I'm too scared to go there, lest I be sucked back into the debate.
posted by fleacircus at 12:38 PM on January 13, 2005

It's okay salad spork, you made me smile after a hard day's work. Thank You!
posted by boymilo at 12:43 PM on January 13, 2005

The essential problem isn't that evolution is "a theory not a fact"; it's that creationism is 'a fabrication not a theory'.

I think that the Georgia School should also teach that the world came from the sacred Nomo or that the sun is pulled across the sky by a chariot; you know, to be fair and balanced and all.
posted by Bag Man at 12:56 PM on January 13, 2005

You'd think that the creationists would get tired of losing but it doesn't seem that way. How many times to they have to get smacked down by the courts before they give and go do something productive?
posted by octothorpe at 1:04 PM on January 13, 2005

One win in a hundred is enough to achieve their aims, octothorpe. They take the long view.
posted by rushmc at 1:18 PM on January 13, 2005

I want to put a sticker on a textbook that says, "Gravity is a theory, not a fact."

Well actually RylandDotNet, it may be.
posted by elendil71 at 1:34 PM on January 13, 2005

Whoops, that was to salad spork, sorry.
posted by elendil71 at 1:43 PM on January 13, 2005

All you fuckin' hippies with your facts and hard data. Go smoke another doobie ya fuckin' hippies!

Too bad I'm at work, but now I'm jonesin'.
posted by salad spork at 3:13 PM on January 13, 2005

Evolution explains why I have fingernails and toenails like all the other mammals.
posted by disgruntled at 3:31 PM on January 13, 2005

posted by specialk420 at 5:16 PM on January 13, 2005

375 years ago last week, Galileo Galilei finished writing his Dialogue concerning the two chief world systems. In this book, he uses a character called "Simplicio" to argue for the papist notion - commonly held at that time - that the earth is the center of the universe.

How is all this relevant to the year 2005 and to the theory of evolution?

More
posted by wbm$tr at 5:20 PM on January 13, 2005

Teaching a college biology lab about 10 years ago I had a student (pre-seminary) actually threaten to kick my ass when we did evolution. Only 40 miles away was Rhea County Tennessee, the site of the Scopes trial. Oddly, the arguments have not changed one bit in all the years since that trial.
posted by UseyurBrain at 9:11 PM on January 13, 2005

As a Cobb County resident (to specify, from that town with all the guns), I let out a personal cheer when hearing the judge's decision.
posted by itchie at 6:58 AM on January 14, 2005

As Mr. Winston Wolfe once said, "Lets not start sucking each other's dicks just yet". I live 2 hours down I-20 from Cobb county and there hasn't been a peep locally about removing the same stickers from the textbooks in my county. The local paper hasn't even done a story on the decision, even though it is national news. And you can definitely bet that the decision in Cobb county will be appealed. It is nice to win the occasional battle like this one, but the aggressive promotion of ignorance continues to be a large part of the right-wing agenda here in GA.
posted by TedW at 7:16 AM on January 14, 2005

Teaching a college biology lab about 10 years ago I had a student (pre-seminary) actually threaten to kick my ass when we did evolution.

Because, you know, to a small mind, might does make right.

See: Iraq.
posted by rushmc at 7:50 AM on January 14, 2005

I'm just thinking about how fun it would be to be a biology or physics teacher, and prefacing ALL discussions with "This is a theory, not a fact". Evolution, gravity, reproduction, digestion, atoms, electricity, everything.
posted by Bugbread at 9:04 AM on January 14, 2005

It might even get kids to figure things out for themselves.
posted by sonofsamiam at 9:51 AM on January 14, 2005

I want to put a sticker on a textbook that says, "Gravity is a theory, not a fact."

Relativity is a theory. Gravity is the somewhat vague term for what we perceive as mass attracting mass. We are still not sure we understand how it works.
posted by mdn at 11:30 AM on January 14, 2005

He that troubleth his own house shall Inherit The Wind: and the
fool shall be servant to the wise of heart.
- Proverbs 11:29
posted by NationalKato at 9:40 PM on January 14, 2005