“Intelligent design” creationism is a step closer to being taught in Texas science classes, as “social conservatives” on the State Board of Education appoint three creationists to a six-member committee to review science curricula.

Not just any creationists, either; two of them are affiliated with the Discovery Institute, and authored the ludicrous pseudo-scientific “intelligent design” textbook Explore Evolution. The tactic is to get this textbook accepted in Texas, and thereby influence textbook buying all over the nation.

They’ve put the fundamentalist foxes in charge of the scientific henhouse, and the victims will be the children in Texas public schools.

AUSTIN – Social conservatives on the State Board of Education have appointed three evolution critics to a six-member committee that will review proposed curriculum standards for science courses in Texas schools.

Two of the appointees are authors of a book that questions many of the tenets of Charles Darwin’s theory of how humans and other life forms evolved. One of them, Stephen Meyer, is also vice president of the Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based group that promotes an explanation of the origin of life similar to creationism. The other author is Ralph Seelke, a biology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Superior.

Also on the panel is Baylor University chemistry professor Charles Garner, who, like the other two, signed the Discovery Institute’s “Dissent from Darwinism” statement that sharply questions key aspects of the theory of evolution.

Three other committee members are veteran science professors from major Texas universities – the University of Texas at Austin, Texas Tech University and Southern Methodist University.

The committee was chosen by 12 of the 15 members of the board of education, with each panel member receiving the support of two board members. For example, Republican board members Geraldine Miller of Dallas and Pat Hardy of Weatherford selected SMU anthropology professor Ronald K. Wetherington, who is also director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at the university.

Six other members of the board aligned with social conservative groups chose the three committee members who have signed the “Dissent from Darwinism” document along with several hundred educators from across the U.S.

More information on the Discovery Institute.

And more information here: Texas Freedom Network: Texas State Board of Education Puts Strident Anti-Evolution Critics on Science Standards Review Panel.