By The River

It's been a bad six months for the creationists. First, Judge John Jones III in Harrisburg ruled decisively against so-called Intelligent Design in a case brought by parents against the Dover Area School Board in York County. Now comes the Missing Link, a fossil fish with legs that the journal Nature says is a transitional species between fish and land animals. The strange creature, now named the Tiktaalik, was found in the Canadian Arctic. One of the arguments of the anti-evolutionists has always been that no transitional species had been found in the fossil record, ergo, Genesis is literally true. No real scientist ever lost much sleep over that argument--there was plenty of other evidence. Perhaps now public school teachers can get back to teaching evolution without fear of the religious right. But don't hold your breath--I'm waiting for the first wingnut dissection of the personal lives of the scientists who found Tiktaalik to discern whether they're just mora them lyin' librals. Facts don't mean much to that crowd. It is important to remember that the religious right does not speak for all American Christians. I would guess, at most, that they speak for 25-30 percent. That leaves plenty of room for the rest of us to fight back.