Evolution

Drawing on the deep resources of "creation science" advocacy groups, American fundamentalists are arming themselves with the latest books challenging details of Darwinian theory, getting elected to majority positions on school boards and learning ways to word curricula so that creationism and evolution get equal respect.While they have gotten very good at making a case for teaching alternative theories, a small group of scientists and educators stands in their way.Most of America's children are not being taught that the world might have come into existence only 10,000 years ago, vs. the nearly 4.5 billion years advocated by scientists, and this is largely because of the SWAT-like efforts of the National Center for Science Education.

BOSTON -- What a shame that we can't recruit more creationists to the ranks of Darwin. They are, after all, such perfect examples of the very thing they oppose: evolution.What does this extremely fit group of survivors do when they encounter an obstacle? They simply evolve into another, more complex, form of political life.Consider the latest shape they have taken in Kansas. Last week, the majority of religious conservatives on the Board of Education decided to delete nearly every reference to evolution from the science curriculum.

YOU CAN'T judge the book of life by its cover.This book -- which contains recipes for living organisms written in the language of genes -- also tells the story of an organism's evolutionary history.A quick read shows a straightforward story, a wholesome Walton's Mountain passage of gradual genetic changes to the next generation. But as scientists are getting closer looks at thousands of genes from dozens of life forms, they're finding that the tale of evolution is more like "Melrose Place."

This week's decision by the Kansas Board of Education to delete references to evolution from the science curriculum evokes memories of one of the century's most celebrated trials. In the summer of 1925, a Tennessee high school teacher named John T. Scopes was convicted of teaching evolution in violation of state law. The prosecution was led by three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, the defense by legendary attorney Clarence Darrow. That most famous of Evening Sun correspondents, H. L. Mencken, was in Dayton, Tenn.

What's immoral is failing to teach kids scientific truthsDavid Vannoy's letter regarding the recent decision by the Kansas Board of Education barring the teaching of evolution in state schools ("Kansas shows courage in reviving moral roots," Aug. 20) raises several questions that ought to be addressed.Mr. Vannoy asks, "Is it not censorship to preclude teaching creationism?" Perhaps the question should be rephrased, "Is it censorship to preclude the teaching of pseudoscience as science?" No, of course not.Should the flat-earth theory or the earth-centered theory of the universe be taught in science courses?

At the University of Nebraska, Professor Timothy Gay rouses more than 70,000 Cornhuskers during home games with a lesson in physics and football on a 17-foot JumboTron screen.At the American Physical Society in College Park, Leon Lederman puzzles over a scheme to persuade an "X-Files" producer to launch a drama called "LA Science."At the University of Virginia, physicist Lou Bloomfield leads students in a series of lessons about bicycles, microwave ovens, roller coasters, compact discs and light bulbs.

It was a grotesque mixture of bigotry and pseudo-science that flourished in America, inspiring biased immigration laws, limits on interracial marriage and the sterilization of more than 60,000 people.And while the eugenics movement came to a very bad end a half-century ago, it may still hold important lessons for us. Its echoes can be heard in the theories linking race and intelligence. And advancing technology is bringing its once far-fetched goals increasingly within our grasp.Eugenics was founded by a 19th-century British mathematician, Francis Galton, whose enthusiasm for evolution and tendency to see the world in terms of numbers led to pioneering work in the application of statistics to biology.

PITTSBURGH -- By the final gun, most of the crowd of 46,715 at Three Rivers Stadium had gone home."That was an amazing thing, to see the Steeler fans leave like they did," Ravens kicker Matt Stover said. "I've never seen that in my career."Stover was 0-for-10 at Three Rivers as a member of the Modell franchise, including a playoff defeat in 1994. Owner Art Modell was 4-26 and 0-for-the-'90s.Yesterday was the day that the dam finally broke, the day the Three Rivers hex finally ended, the day the Ravens finally seized the moment in a 31-24 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

THE STATE board of education in Kansas jeopardized the future of that state's children by censoring what they learn about the past. This will curtail their education and harm their opportunities as adults.If allowed to stand, the new curriculum would discourage parents of young children from moving to Kansas. The board could not have created a worse impediment to economic development.The board hired a panel of scientists to draw up a state curriculum required of all local schools. Three board members then rewrote the recommendation to banish evolution from the requirement, inhibiting the study of biology and harming that of geology.

I SUPPOSE every religion has its fundamentalists, although I've never heard of a Buddhist one. Believe every word of it, they say, while the rest of us interpret scripture to suit our convenience. Holding firm keeps a lot of folks honest.Believing is a matter of purest faith for fundamentalists. If the Bible says God created the world in seven days, that's the way it happened, no changes, no slippery interpretations.That's where fundamentalism runs smack into evolution, which holds that creation took billions of years and has a lot of complications Genesis never mentioned: Dinosaurs.

Has Baltimore become a haven for new music? It sure looks that way. "I've always been optimistic about new music here," says Baltimore-born, Peabody-trained composer Judah Adashi, founder of the Evolution Contemporary Music Series. "I'd definitely say that, with our series, Mobtown Modern, what Marin [Alsop] is doing at the BSO, and the High Zero Festival, we have a vibrant scene going. You might find something like this on every street corner in New York, but given the relative size of our town, there are really dynamic things on almost any given night," Adashi says.

Blue eyes are typically associated with beauty, or perhaps Frank Sinatra. But to University of Wisconsin anthropologist John Hawks, they represent an evolutionary mystery. For nearly all of human history, everyone in the world had brown eyes. Then, between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago, the first blue-eyed baby was born somewhere near the Black Sea. For some reason, that baby's descendants gained a 5 percent evolutionary advantage over their brown-eyed competitors, and today the number of people with blue eyes tops half a billion.

Author to talk on 'Gospel of Evolution' The Rev. Michael Dowd, author of Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life, will give two presentations at the Towson Unitarian Universalist Church next week. He will give the sermon at 10:30 a.m. Sunday and a 90-minute presentation on "The Gospel of Evolution" at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The church is at 1710 Dulaney Valley Road. Information: 410-825-6045.Dowd will also hold a book signing at 7 p.m. Monday at Barnes & Noble, 8123 Honeygo Blvd.

"My dear, let us hope that it isn't true!" the wife of the bishop of Worcester is reputed to have exclaimed 150 years ago, on hearing that human beings might be descended from apes. "But if it is true, let us hope that it doesn't become widely known!" When it comes to sociobiology - better known these days as "evolutionary psychology" - the bishop's wife has modern counterparts: The religious right and the secular and supposedly scientific left are remarkably on the same page, both sides inclined to dispute or misrepresent the relevance of evolution to human beings.

ONLY A THEORY Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION A Scientific Defense of Faith By George E. Vaillant Broadway Books / 238 pages / $24.95 In 1794, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, became a casualty of the French Revolution. Arrested and sentenced to death, he pleaded for time to complete his research. "The Republic has no need of scientists," the judge replied. Lavoisier was beheaded, his body thrown into a mass grave. Although scientists fared much better in the 19th and 20th centuries, millions of people remain uneasy with or hostile to them.

How many times has this happened to you? You leave work, decide that you need to get groceries on the way home, take a cell phone call and forget all about your plan. Next thing you know, you've driven home and forgotten all about the groceries. Or this: You decide, perhaps circa Jan. 1, that it's time to lose weight. But by the first of May, your New Year's resolutions are a distant memory. Human beings are the only species smart enough to plan systematically for the future - yet we remain dumb enough to ditch even our most carefully made plans in favor of short-term gratification.

A TALK WITH ALEX ROSS An die Musik's Evolution Contemporary Music Series continues at 8 tonight with "An Evening With Alex Ross." The classical music critic for New Yorker will talk about music as well as his book The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century. The presentation is followed by a reception and book signing. Admission is $10-$15. An die Musik is at 409 N. Charles St. Call 410-385-2638.

Chris Chester won't be consumed by what he eats. Chester, who gained 60 pounds in five years at Oklahoma by eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, has been maintaining 305 pounds on his 6-foot-3 frame by downing nutrition shakes and eating small meals four to five times a day. But Chester, who has become the starting right guard for the Ravens in his second year in the NFL, isn't obsessed with adding bulk. "It all depends on how you gain weight," he said. "If you try to do it overnight, you're going to be out of shape, and it'll be totally unhealthy and it'll affect your play.

Monkey Girl Edward Humes ecco / Harper Collins / 400 pages / $25.95 Ididn't expect to be surprised by Edward Humes' Monkey Girl. In many ways, I'd already lived it. My teenage years were spent in a relatively rural area of East Texas, where a God of a decidedly fundamentalist stripe held sway. A pastor's view seemed behind nearly everything my peers said and about half of what they did. Although I wasn't particularly religious, religion was not something I could escape. To date that pretty girl, I had to go a few rounds at her father's Baptist church.

Downloaded singles 1.Irreplaceable, Beyonce 2.Say It Right, Nelly Furtado 3.Fergalicious, Fergie 4.How to Save a Life, The Fray 5.It Ends Tonight, The All-American Rejects [ITUNES] Downloaded albums 1.Radio Disney Exclusive: Push It to the Limit, Corbin Bleu 2.Hip Hop Is Dead, Nas 3.Wintersong, Sarah McLachlan 4.Now That's What I Call Christmas! 3, Various artists 5.Daughtry (bonus track), Daughtry [ITUNES] Downloaded TV episodes 1.A Benihana Christmas, Parts 1 and 2, The Office 2.The Eye of Jupiter, Battlestar Galactica 3.Saturday Night Live Dec. 16, 2006 - Justin Timberlake, Saturday Night Live Sketches 4.Make Love, Not Warcraft, South Park 5.The Convict, The Office [ITUNES]