Well, that was fast.
Texas Board of Education creationist Barbara Cargill today proposed an amendment to the science standards saying that teachers have to tell their students there are different estimates for the age of the Universe. This is not even a veiled attempt to attack the Big Bang model of the Universe, which clearly, and through multiple lines of evidence, indicates the Universe is 13.7 +/- 0.12 billion years old.
So Ms. Cargill is right, if she means that “different estimates” range from 13.58 to 13.82 (given one standard deviation) billion years old.
But she doesn’t mean that at all, does she? If you read her website, you’ll see she’s an out-and-out creationist. She has a large number of, um, factual errors on her site that are clearly right out of the Creationist Obscurational Handbook.
Anyway, her antiscience amendment passed 11 - 3.
So tomorrow that will go to the final vote on whether it will be added to the standards or not. With such a majority voting to pass it along, it looks like it will pass, and Texas students will get their chance to learn that the Universe is 6000 years old, and when they try to get a job or do anything later in life, they will be routinely laughed at.
That’s great, Texas! Keep on keepin’ on.
So I rescind my earlier post, and tentatively (until the final vote tomorrow) submit:
