The Catch-All

It's the reason for whatever happened. In WWII the catch-all for any problem with an airplane was gremlins, as brilliantly shown in Roald Dahl's book. For those on the left the catch-all the past few years has been our president; more positively, those on the right would tell you all good things came from Reagan.

Go far enough to the right, though, and it seems that the catch-all for all that is wrong with the world is evolution.

The latest Texas tempest is another brouhaha over evolution vs. creationism, as seen in an article in the December 19th New York Times. The lede alone is enough to raise eyebrows:

A Texas higher education panel has recommended allowing a Bible-based group called the Institute for Creation Research to offer online master’s degrees in science education.

The action comes weeks after the Texas Education Agency’s director of science, Christine Castillo Comer, lost her job after superiors accused her of displaying bias against creationism and failing to be “neutral” over the teaching of evolution.

And farther down the page, things get really, really weird. Regarding the institute:

It also says “the harmful consequences of evolutionary thinking on families and society (abortion, promiscuity, drug abuse, homosexuality and many others) are evident all around us.”

I'll almost grant the link between evolution and abortion, especially if you think about it in terms of the more disgusting elements of eugenics. But drug use, promiscuity, and homosexuality? That's a terrible argument from any perspective, and the thought that anyone could genuinely believe that is troubling.