Evolve, Bitches!

The Gay Uncle got some good news from Texas this morning. And no, it wasn’t only this adorable photo of his brother Derek and bandmate Chad at the South By SouthWest music conference that appeared online in Vanity Fair (go to #10 in the slideshow). It was an update on the battle over teaching evolution in schools. Because Texas has one of the largest school systems in the country, its state education board tends to help dictate what gets included in American textbooks. (Another reason to implement NATIONAL school standards, developed by SMART PEOPLE.) And just last night, in a tie vote, the Texas board decided that they would uphold the teaching of evolution as basic biological science. Why is this a cause for celebration, when the theory of evolution has pretty much been accepted as basic biological science by smart people everywhere for about 150 years? Because some narrow minded religious bigots have been trying to undermine this and inject idiotic calls for questioning the fundamental validity of the theory, and they’ve been pretty much shut down. (Though like a virus carried in toxic mutton, they might just be lying dormant until they gather enough strength to infect our whole brain.) Here’s what the G.U. thinks about religion and science: keep them separate. (Duh!) You want to be religious? Fine. Do it. But we’re not about to bring back the encouragement of wife beating, slavery, frog over-population, spontaneous bush-burning, or turning folks to salt as national educational policies just because they were practiced in some bedtime stories that folks told each other to make them feel safe. Gunc is a proud member of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and gives them a significant annual donation every year. If you agree with him, you might want to consider doing the same.