The inimitable Peter Irons has been hot on the trail of the Nathaniel Abraham case, the ditzy creationist who is upset because he got fired from an evolutionary biology lab. There are some interesting tidbits below, specifically the fact that Abraham claims the job ad did not make reference to acceptance of the theory of evolution as fact, yet when Irons dug up the job posting, it does say that this is work on evolutionary relationships.

It’s a bad sign when you’ve got to misrepresent the facts in your court complaint.

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OK, astronomers and physicists, get to work. This movie is supposed to be a refutation of modern science, but it’s full of bogus claims like, ‘Since 98% of the sun is hydrogen and helium, the earth ought to be 98% hydrogen and helium.’ There is a lot of similar trivially idiotic nonsense, all marshaled to support the false contention that if science can’t explain it, then god must have done it, but here’s the thing: almost none of it is in the Index to Creationist Claims. We need an update!

There are some rational people in Florida, as Robyn Blumner’s column makes clear. Not only does she mock Texas for their foolish harrassment of Christine Comer, but she goes on to point out the disastrous consequences of Republican religious meddling, and that Huckabee is going to be more of the same.

Here is something scary-ignorant. Last week, the Web site ChristiaNet.com, which bills itself as “the world’s largest Christian portal,” cheered the results of a survey it took finding that half of its 1,400 Christian respondents said that dinosaurs and man roamed the Earth at the same time.

Putting aside that the schoolteachers of these people should be slapped silly, these are Huckabee’s peeps. We can’t afford to put this kind of backward thinking and scientific illiteracy in the driver’s seat again.

That also highlights one of the sources of the problem: that these Christwits are proud of their ignorance.

And speaking of Chris Comer, the TEA education commissioner, Robert Scott, has spoken up. It’s nothing new, but is what you’d expect: denial. He claims there are no litmus tests for political ideology at the TEA, and that religion is irrelevant, and that Comer had a history of personnel problems that lead to her dismissal.

Here are the concluding questions of the interview, where it all gets very confusing.

Was her advocacy of evolution over creationism an element in her dismissal?

She wasn’t advocating anything. My understanding is that the e-mail she forwarded – let me rephrase that. She wasn’t advocating for evolution. But she may have given the impression that … we were taking a position as an agency – not as an individual but as an agency – on a matter.

She wasn’t advocating for evolution, OK. So why was she called into meetings to discuss the problem of forwarding this email, and why was she pressured by human resources to quit? And what “matter” caused the problem, then? I get the impression that Mr Scott is lying clumsily to obscure the actual issues involved.

And this, of course, is a good question:

Why shouldn’t the agency advocate the science of evolution? Texas students are required to study it.

I don’t think the impression was that we were taking a position in favor of evolution. We teach evolution in public schools. It’s part of our curriculum. But you can be in favor of a science without bashing people’s faith, too. I don’t know all the facts, but I think that may be the real issue here. I can’t speak to motivation but … we have standards of conduct and expect those standards of conduct to be followed.

I don’t get the impression that the TEA is favoring evolution, either, more shame to them. The rest — accusation of faith-bashing and violated standards of conduct — is simply more desperate floundering to cover what is turning into a major gaffe by the creationists.

There are a few novelties in this one: a) it’s in Florida, not Texas; b) it’s a creationist in the department advocating creationism; and c) she didn’t get fired for writing it. You can read the whole thing at Florida Citizens for Science, but here’s the stupid part.

The science standards that are in place now do not include the word Evolution anywhere. In fact, they are ambiguous enough that the districts and schools in Florida have been able to teach evolution as a theory along With other theories. In addition to that, if these new standards are adopted, the new instructional materials adopted and placed in our schools will be aligned to these standards, which means that our new materials will explicitly teach evolution – and not as a theory!!!

The current Florida standards are weak and vague, and this twit is complaining…because it leaves the teachers the latitude to actually teach a fundamental concept of biology. I guess their goal in Florida is to close the loophole. And of course it’s rather obvious that she has no understanding of the meaning of the scientific term “theory”.

Man, the quality of the people who are ending up on state school boards is depressing.

It was short, mainly taken up with Chris Comers trying to tell her side of the story, and not getting it all in within the time allotted. The main points I got out of it were:

• It sure sounds like this was a planned expulsion, with pressure being applied for weeks ahead of the incident that prompted it.

• It’s not entirely clear, but this does not sound like a voluntary resignation. She was sandbagged with a letter from the Bush appointee, Lizzette Reynolds, that opened with a statement that she had committed a firing offense; she was later summoned without warning to a long meeting that grilled her over the “problem”; and she was then summoned to the Human Resources director’s office. Perhaps she signed a resignation letter, but this was not a case where she was given any choice.

• At the last Texas Education Agency textbook approval session, McLeroy invited the whole board of the Discovery Institute to testify, as well as Eugenie Scott. Scott was scheduled last … and came up to speak at 2am. What a sneaky way to make sure the opposition is ignored!

• The real bad guy is being exposed: Glenn Branch of the NCSE was openly credited with being the fellow who sent the email that got Comers fired. Phooey. Now everyone will know who the Secret Satan at the NCSE is.

I am so amused. A creationist lost his job at Woods Hole, and he was a zebrafish developmental biologist. Hey, I know a little bit about that!

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Don’t miss this one: tomorrow on Science Friday, Flatow interviews the expelled director of the Texas science curriculum.

Education and Evolution in Texas
(broadcast Friday, December 7th, 2007)
The education official responsible for the science curriculum in the state of Texas resigned last month saying she was forced to step down after being reprimanded for informing colleagues of a talk on the conflict over the teaching of evolution. Christine Castillo Comer, former Director of Science in the curriculum division of the Texas Education Agency, forwarded several colleagues an email notice of a upcoming talk by Barbara Forrest, co-author of the book “Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design.” Castillo Comer’s supervisor said the email was grounds for termination as the ‘FYI’ email “implies endorsement of the speaker and implies that TEA endorses the speaker’s position on a subject on which the agency must remain neutral.”

In this segment, Ira talks with Christine Castillo Comer about the case and about evolution, ‘intelligent design,’ and creationism in Texas.