The Great Leap Backwards

You've just got to love the Red states. Or, perhaps more reasonably, fear them.

It seems that Atlanta, Georgia is still not sold on this whole "evolution" thing; after all, what's 150 years and the support of the entire scientific world really prove, anyway? Forced by a cruel government into including evolution in its science textbooks, a school district in Atlanta has found a way to make sure its students don't fall for that rigamarole - here's the warning label that has adorned said textbooks for two years now:

"This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution 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."

It's just now come to court, because some parents are concerned that the sticker invalidates all of the lessons on evolution which follow it. Supporters of the sticker argue that it doesn't say evolution definitely is false, but rather encourages students to think critically about it. Just like they should about whether two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom really make a molecule of water, or if that's just a theory. Or like students should not put too much faith in the theory that the earth revolves around the sun; that's just a theory, too.

I won't defend evolution - that's just ridiculous, as it has been proven over and over again to be fact. But what does it say about the South that they can't let science tell us how things are, and leave religion to tend properly to matters of faith. It's the job of science to explain the world in terms of facts and things that can be proven (like evolution); it's religion's job to deal with unprovable matters, such as God and morals and the like. There really is no conflict here between them; science and religion each have separate, important jobs - and science's job is to show how the world works. Evolution is in science's court, and science has proven it to be true.

On a side note, I just can't help but think about the fact that the only way to get a Democrat into the White House is to nominate someone from the South, because that's apparently the only way many Southerners can imagine that he (or she) would represent the whole country, and not just those left-wing liberal Yankees. At least, that's my theory.