The Greatness that is America.

This article is brilliant. Brilliant. To know that I share my country with these kindly folk, I swell with pride and painful gas. Some excerpts are below. Boldface added by me. [blockquote] The way they used to teach the origin of the species to high school students in this sleepy town of 1,800 people in southern Pennsylvania, said local school board member Angie Yingling disapprovingly, was that "we come from chimpanzees and apes." Not anymore. ...The idea of intelligent design was initiated by [b]a small group of scientists[/b] to explain what they believe to be gaps in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, which they say is "not adequate to explain all natural phenomena." ...The intelligent-design theory makes no reference to the Bible, and its proponents do not say who or what the greater force is behind the design. But Yingling, 46, who graduated from Dover High School in 1976, and other supporters of the new curriculum in this religiously conservative slice of rural Pennsylvania say they know exactly who the intelligent designer is. "There's only one creator, and it has to be God," said Rebecca Cashman, 16, a sophomore at Dover High. She frowned when asked to recollect what she learned about evolution at school last year. "Evolution -- is that the Darwin theory?" Cashman shook her head. "I don't know just what he was thinking!" Patricia Nason at the Institute for Creation Research, [b]the world leader in creation science[/b], said her organization and other activist groups are encouraging people who share conservative religious beliefs to seek positions on local school boards. "The movement is to get the truth out," Nason said by telephone from El Cajon (San Diego County). "We Christians have as much right to be involved in [b]politics[/b] as evolutionists. We've been asleep for two generations, and it's time for us to come back." ...John West of the Discovery Institute in Seattle, the main sponsor and promoter of intelligent design, defended the theory he says addresses "evolution follies." "[b]Mainstream criticism[/b] should be raised in classrooms," West said. ...The drive to bring more religion and what have been labeled "moral values" into the classroom goes beyond challenges to Darwin's theory, Scott said. The Charles County school board also proposed to censor school reading lists of "immorality" or "foul language" and to allow the distribution of Bibles in schools. In Texas, the nation's second-biggest school textbook market, the State Board of Education approved health textbooks that defined abstinence as the only form of contraception and changed the description of marriage between "two people" to "a lifelong union between a husband and a wife." ...Brown, the former school board member, says he is not arguing with other people's religious beliefs. ..."A guy came up to me and said, 'Wait a minute, you believe in God and evolution at the same time? [b]Evolution isn't in the Bible![/b]' " said Brown, nibbling on a deep-fried mozzarella stick at the Shiloh Family Restaurant on Route 74. As he became more agitated, his voice grew louder, and other customers -- mostly gray-haired women and elderly men in baseball hats -- turned their heads to look at the couple. Carol Brown kept putting her index finger to her lips, gesturing for her husband to be quieter. After the Browns left the restaurant, a waitress in her 30s slipped a note to a Chronicle reporter. "Beware," it read. "[b]God wrote[/b] over 2,000 years ago that there would be false prophets and teachers. If you would like to know the truth read the Bible." [/blockquote]