You are hereOregon: Creationism Continues to Simmer in the Pacific NorthwestIn Oregon, whenever a school board considering creationism requests advice from the state's Attorney General, they are told it's illegal. Then the same question pops up in another district. Media Type: topics: More Patter of Little PandasReports readers will by now by familiar with the "intelligent design" book, Of Pandas and People. We have reported ongoing efforts to introduce the book into public schools as an alternative to naturalistic evolution. Sometimes the significance of this book probably gets lost (it is, after all, just one book, so why should we care about it?). Media Type: topics: Texas: No Pandas for PlanoThe creationist textbook Of Pandas and People has been rejected again, this time in Plano, Texas, not far from Richardson, home of the book's publisher, the Foundation for Thought and Ethics. Media Type: topics: Televangelist Promotes Of Pandas and PeopleTelevangelist James Dobson's group, "Focus on the Family," is a leading proponent of the religious right agenda. In the summer 1992 edition of his Citizen newsletter, Dobson directs his supporters to march down to the school board and demand of Of Pandas and People be used when evolution is taught. Pandas, of course, is a creationist "intelligent design" book intended as a supplement to high school biology courses. Media Type: topics: They're Here!
Year: 1989 Title: Of Pandas and People Several years ago, I was a witness in Arkansas testifying against a bill pased into law mandating the teaching of Biblical literalism, alongside evolution, in state schools. The ACLU brought suit on the grounds that this violated the separation of Church and State. The law was thrown out, as was right and proper, but I still remember what one of the ACLU lawyers said: "Don't think the Creationists will go away. They won't! They'll just regroup and be smarter and sneakier next time." Dallas: Haughton Publishing, 1989. topics: resources: Gross Misrepresentation
Year: 1989 Title: Of Pandas and People Of Pandas and People is a wholesale distortion of modern biology. It is straight fundamentalist creationism, but this may not be apparent to many readers because the philosophy is couched in a user-friendly voice, with plenty of slick graphics and nice photographs. The text seems sweetly reasonable, but as one reads farther and deeper, the tone becomes angrier and the distortions of science more pervasive. Dallas: Haughton Publishing, 1989. topics: resources: A View From the Past
Year: 1989 Title: Of Pandas and People Can structures such as fins, feathers, and skulls be the result of "common engineering work of an intelligent artisan?" In answering this question, Charles Thaxton, the Academic Editor for Of Pandas and People, affirmatively sums up the premise of this book which is "life is like a manufactured object, the result of intelligent shaping of matter." In striving to meet the goal of presenting data "that bear on the central question of biological origins," the authors make the following assertions: Dallas: Haughton Publishing, 1989. topics: resources: Alabama Textbook Selection in ContextLast summer, the Alabama State Board of Education, after much vacillation, required for the first time that evolution be included in the state curriculum guide. That was the good news. The bad news was that, for political reasons, a statement was sent out to teachers saying, "Consistent with the expressions of the U.S. Supreme Court in Edwards v. Media Type: topics: Selling PandasTitle: Selling Pandas Issue: 1 For about a year, the Foundation for Thought and Ethics (FTE) has been trying to get the creationist book Of Pandas and People into the public schools as a supplementary text. Scott Brande described how FTE, Haughton Publishing Company (the nominal publisher), and various religious activists tried to get it approved in Alabama (NCSE Reports 9(6):5, 10(1);8). Eugenie Scott has reviewed Pandas (NCSE Reports 10(1):16). Year: 1991 Date: January–February Page(s): 10–11 This version might differ slightly from the print publication. The Foundation for Thought and EthicsReaders of NCSE Reports know that a new creationist book, Of Pandas and People, is making the rounds. Scott Brande has described the efforts of Haughton Publishing Co. to get Pandas adopted in Alabama as a supplementary text (NCSE Reports 9(6):5 and 10(1):8). Pandas presents the "intelligent design" version of the origin of species in an attractive wrapper without any explicit sign of religious creationism (see review, NCSE Reports 10(1):16). Pages
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