Firefox article and my book!

Red panda in the Himalayan foothills of eastern Nepal, near the India border
Copyright (c) 2007 Wendee Holtcamp

I know, I know, all my blog posts lately just talk about recent articles but several have come out recently, and this one I'm really excited about! I've actually been checking the National Wildlife magazine website nearly every day in anticipation of this piece, which I knew was in the Feb/March 2009 issue which I knew came out some time in January. Hence, the obsessive checking. And here it is! As you all probably know, I traveled to Nepal last November, wait that would be November of 2007, trekking through the Himalayan foothills in search of the endangered red panda. The article is called Fighting for the Firefox: Nepal’s red panda is getting help from a small group of local forest guardians, but the highly endangered mammal still faces a troubled future as its habitat is lost to deforestation.

The first paragraph starts out...

IT’S AFTERNOON in eastern Nepal, near the India border, and a fine mist fingers its way over the broadleaf temperate forest. We’ve pitched camp near a giant mossy stone, carved all over with the words Om Mani Padme Hum, the ancient Buddhist mantra of compassion. I’ve flown halfway around the world, trekked on treacherously steep paths for days, endured squatting toilets and camped in freezing weather just for a chance to get a rare firsthand look at efforts to save one of the world’s most endangered mammals: the red panda.

In other news, I've been working hard on my book, writing new content, and rearranging my first few chapters into a cohesive story. I can write a feature article like it's nothing, since I've been doing it for nearly a decade and a half, but this is my first book and wrapping my head around the overall structure is challenging - but I'm actually having a lot of fun with it. I've cleared my plate of other tasks and made it my only focus for the time being. The first chapter in the book, The Making of a Christian Evolutionist, talks about how I came to be a Christian who accepts evolution. It takes the reader from me as a naive but faithful young child, through some challenging life situations and to the point where I became an atheist in high school and college, then ultimately back to the Christian faith. But of course during college, I became educated as an evolutionary biologist/ecologist. The chapter tells the story of my life, in a nutshell.

The next chapter is titled - as it stands now - The Fish Wars. This introduces the whole debate over evolution and creationism from the perspective of me teaching biology at the community college where I worked for several years, and the interactions with my students. This chapter gives a good, simple overview of what evolution actually is - and what it isn't. The next chapter is In Search of the Holy Grail of Truth (Or, I Don’t Quite Understand Your Question) - and it's in progress, but covers my experience testifying at the Texas State Board of Education in 2003 and this year (well late 2008 - and there's another hearing next week!), conflicting views on "truth" and how and why people come to believe what we believe.

The next chapter, There is a Striking Resemblance Between You and a Monkey, is about my travels to Colorado to spend Easter with the Epperson family, who were involved in the landmark 1968 Supreme Court case Epperson v. Arkansas that essentially overturned the infamous 1929 Scopes Monkey Trial which confirmed that it was ok to make teaching (human) evolution illegal. I love the title of this chapter! It's actually what someone said in a letter to Susan Epperson during the time of the Supreme Court battle back in the 1960s. The things people say! Yes, as a matter of fact there is a striking resemblance between you (and me) and a monkey!

So that's where I'm at now, completing and organizing and writing these first few chapters - the first half of the book. I've already done the excursions and such for the rest of the chapters too (which include narrative chapters on young earth creationism, and one on intelligfent design, among others). I'm having a lot of fun with it all, and am very excited about my progress! Prayers are much appreciated!!

bobcats in suburbia

Me giving a talk on the Galapagos and evolution.

My latest article is out on bobcats! It's the cover story in this month's Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine. Cat of All Trades: Bobcats are adapting to life in suburbia, where they mostly eat rats and squirrels - not cats and dogs.

I gave my talk to Sam's school on the Galapagos Islands this morning. I showed photos from all the islands I visited, and I talked briefly about Charles Darwin's observations of finches and giant tortoises, his theory of natural selection, the overwhelming evidence for evolution from fields such as geology, molecular biology and genetics, and how many Christian denominations have made peace with evolution (including the Episcopal, Presbyterian, ELCA Lutheran, Methodist and Catholic churches). It's challenging to give a talk to kids ranging from Pre-K to Middle School, but I managed!

card-towers of Babel

The Evolution store in Soho, New York City.
Copyright (c) 2007 Wendee Holtcamp

So I started reading A Tale of Two Cities to Sam again tonight, with only mild protest. It has been at least a month if not more since we read it, and I opened to the chapter entitled, Monseigneur in Town, and thought I swear we've read this already. I recall distinctly how often the chapter repeats the word "Monseigneur" because it is a French word and I had no idea what the heck it was. Sam, however, didn't remember the word at all. "Is that the guy who ate the chocolate?" he asked. I had to laugh here because I remembered the scene with the guy being fed hot chocolate by four servants, but I did not recall it was the Monseigneur, but as I started reading (and yes we had read that chapter), sure enough it was the guy who had been fed hot chocolate. So I guess he IS paying more attention that either he or I thinks.

The chapter depicts the lavish wealth of the French aristocracy, which contrasts to the destitution faced by much of society at the time. It's a historical novel so although fictional it's based on historical truths. This bit made me stop short, because it reminded me of the current era a bit:

Military officers destitute of military knowledge. ... Doctors who made great fortunes out of dainty remedies for imaginary disorders that never existed... Unbelieving philosophers who were remodelling the worlds with words, and making card-towers of Babel to scale the skies with...In the outermost room were half-a-dozen exceptional people who had had, for a few years, some vague misgivings in them that things in general were going rather wrong.

Anyway, I won't get into what I see as the parallels... but needless to say, they exist. I will say the philosophers line definitely reminds me of the creationists of the day, particularly intelligent design proponents who make card-towers of Babel and try to remodel the world with their words. Dang, I think I need to use that line in my book.

I'm privy to some interesting conversations on these issues with colleagues about the great opposition to plate tectonic theory by the geologists of the day for many many years but finally the evidence overwhelmed and it became common knowledge. This contrasts sharply with the way IDists try to get their (false) "science" accepted, which has been to go directly to the public, appealing to a false argument that their "academic freedom" is being threatened. The way science works is that scientists plug away for years and years, publish in scientific journals and eventually paradigns shift.

Scientists do not get theories accepted into the public by writing popular books, having their ideas discussed in churches or by church organizations (like Focus on the Family), or getting the ideas taught in public schools before even a SINGLE peer-reviewed scientific publication has been published!!! Seriously!! And the whole debacle is made worse by the media, which often presents the "other side" as having any legitimacy. It does only as a cultural and religious debate, but not as a scientific one. There is no scientific opposition to evolution. None! And as one UT grad student said at the SBOE hearing, if he were to disprove evolution, he'd win the Nobel Prize, so bring it on! Unfortunately, intelligent design does not have any history of publication in any legitimate scientific journals. Nothing!

So here are a few interesting and ironic quotes about science from the halls of history. I use these when I teach biology, except for the last gem, which someone just shared. Enjoy!

"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction."
--Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872

"If excessive smoking actually plays a role in the production of lung cancer, it seems to be a minor one."
-Dr. W.C. Heuper of the National Cancer Institute, as quoted in New York Times April 14, 1954.

"Agassiz says that when a new doctrine is presented, it must go through three stages. First, people say that it isn't true, then that it is against religion, and in the third stage, that it has long been known."
-- Karl Ernst von Baer (1792-1876), embryologist, referring to Swiss scientist Louis Agassiz (1807-1873). Agassiz founded the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology.

"Debating creationists on the topic of evolution is rather like trying to play chess with a pigeon -- it knocks the pieces over, craps on the board, and flies back to its flock to claim victory."
- S.D. Weitzenhoffer, in 2005

I'm rolling on the floor laughing at the last quote!!! Oh, did I mention I saw a rat or mouse in my garage the other day?! I have set a mouse trap. I hope my vegan friends don't get mad... I love mice and rats, I truly do (remember, I live-trapped such "small mammals" for many years during my undergrad and graduate research!) but I will have a cow if it crawls in my walls and croaks...

In Austin

The view from on top of Enchanted Rock, a giant batholith. Enchanted Rock State Park, Texas. I visited this for my Top of Texas cover story for Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine. It was dusk and the light was gorgeous!
Copyright (c) 2006 Wendee Holtcamp

I'm sitting in the Texas State Board of Education hearings for their Board meeting, which will today allow for public testimony over the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills). Just wanted to mention a Houston Chronicle Evosphere blog that is updating the situation in real time. At 11am there was a press conference in which Texas Freedom Network Director Kathy Miller first spoke followed by a couple UT professors including Dr Andy Ellington whose talk was great. I'm going to get it and put it online when I get a copy. The weather today is gorgeous!

Last night I stayed with Debbie Pagell, documentary producer from the Cultural Film Fund, which is producing It's Your World, the ecotravel series which was being filmed on my trek through Nepal with Tim Gorski, Jon Kane and Mei-Ling McNamara. We went to eat at this awesome restaurant Vivo, which has margaritas infused with hibiscus... yum! And at the end of the meal, they delivered to each of us a wonderfully fragrant long-stemmed pink rose! Apparently they do that for every single person who eats there. How cool is that? Check out this Youtube video created from footage filmed on the trek I was on!! I have photos of these exact same shots they video'd (at the above link back in history on my blog...)

I Support Strong Evolution Education!

An adorable little girl in a car in eastern Nepal.
Copyright (c) 2007 Wendee Holtcamp

I've been working on my testimony which I am giving Wednesday in Austin at the State Board of Education hearings over the revised TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills), specifically about the science TEKs, and even more specifically about TEKS C3A which is the one that could be used by creationists to weaken evolution education. I attended the 2003 hearings about the adoption of textbooks, which will be covered in my book (on making peace between evolution and Christianity), and so I figured I really must attend the 2008 hearings as well. On TEKS C3A controversy exists over the phrase teaching the "strengths and limitations" of scientific theories. While this sounds harmless or even beneficial, the reality is this phrase is used by religiously motivated individuals who oppose evolution - despite the Constitutional demand for the separation of church and state. This kind of tinkering led to the 2005 Kitzmiller vs Dover School Board court case which cost Dover over $1 million for a lawsuit which sided very strongly on the side of opposing the teaching of intelligent design in science classrooms - because it is not science, but religion. I'll include my draft testimony below.

Also of interest, the Texas Freedom Network just released a survey of Texas university scientists that finds overwhelming opposition to watering down evolution in schools.

The report highlights five key findings from the survey:

1. Texas scientists (97.7 percent) overwhelmingly reject “intelligent design” as valid science.

2. Texas science faculty (95 percent) want only evolution taught in science classrooms.

3. Scientists reject teaching the so-called “weaknesses” of evolution, with 94 percent saying that those arguments are not valid scientific objections to evolution.

4. Science faculty believe that emphasizing “weaknesses” of evolution would substantially harm students’ college readiness (79.6 percent) and ability to compete for 21st-century jobs (72 percent).

5. Scientists (91 percent) strongly believe that support for evolution is compatible with religious faith.

Here is my testimony (draft form):

I’m here to testify as a Christian who is educated as a biologist, and a mom of 2 middle school aged kids – one of whom goes to public school and one who goes to a private Episcopal school, which by the way teaches evolution alongside the Christian faith. I have taught biology at the college level, and I currently work as a freelance science writer. In fact, I am working on a book on making peace between evolution and Christianity which will be published in 2010 and will include some details from this very hearing.

I have 2 quick points I want to make, followed by some more general comments. 1st, I think it’s highly unethical that you did not even put the final version of the revised TEKs online until Monday afternoon – knowing that most people would not even have a chance to look at them, 2 days before the hearing. 2nd, on TEKS C3A. I support the Sep 15th version of TEKS C. 3. (A) which says, “analyze and evaluate scientific explanations using empirical evidence, logical reasoning, and experimental and observational testing;”

The Nov revision introduces the phrase “strengths and limitations” which is no different from the flawed “strengths and weaknesses” argument that has been roundly rejected by scientists. Although I understand the TEKS do not anywhere explicitly discuss Intelligent Design, this “strengths & limitations” language is pushed exclusively by religiously-motivated opposition to evolution, and is used as a wedge to allow teachers to cast aspersions on evolution in classrooms.

My first question to you - members of the State Board of Education – Are you willing to play dice with our taxpayer money on the possibility of costly court battle by introducing religiously motivated language in Texas science standards? The 2005 Kitzmiller vs Dover School Board case cost Dover over $1million.

My 2nd question to you – are you willing to play dice with our children’s education as our nation’s science lead deteriorates? In 2005 the National Academy of Sciences report “Rising Above the Gathering Storm” decried our nation’s deteriorating science education and critical thinking skills. It stated, “Having reviewed trends in the United States and abroad, the committee is deeply concerned that the scientific and technical building blocks of our economic leadership are eroding at a time when many other nations are gathering strength.”

Evolution does not threaten religious belief – including Christianity - except if you read Genesis absolutely literally, which most Christian denominations do not. The Presbyterian, Episcopal, Methodist and Catholic Churches - among others - formally accept an evolving Creation. Nearly 70% of our nation’s founding fathers were either Presbyterian, Episcopal or Congregationalist – (a denomination which later became part of the Presbyterian Church and was associated with founding Harvard Yale and Dartmouth). Our Founding Fathers very much appreciated both logical, scientific reason and religious faith as compatible but also demanded – as Thomas Jefferson said – a wall of separation between church and state. The majority of our nation’s 43 Presidents also have hailed from Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Methodist denominations (over 62%), all of which believe that Genesis is not a divinely dictated textbook. America’s Founding Fathers deeply respected religion and its values, but they equally valued science and reason.

So to summarize, I urge you as elected members of this Board who are accountable to the public: Do not harm the bedrock of science and reason upon which our nation was founded by weakening Texas science standards with the “limitations” language. It’s inclusion will only weaken science education, our state, our children’s future and the ability to create brilliant and critically thinking minds in our state and our nation.