Brought up in a creationist home, a scientist fights for evolution

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https://www.science.org/content/article/brought-creationist-home-scientist-fights-evolution

By JEFFREY MERVIS, Science. 

Excerpt: The National Center for Science Education (NCSE), known for fighting to defend evolution’s place in school curricula, has a new leader who knows how hard that work can be. Amanda (Glaze) Townley, who next month becomes executive director of the Oakland, California–based nonprofit, grew up in rural northeastern Alabama, where she learned firsthand how religion and culture can collide with one of the central tenets in biology. “I grew up in a young Earth creationism home, with a worldview that was based in evangelical Christianity and a literal translation of the Bible,” recalls the 42-year-old Townley. “And when I took honors biology in high school, my teacher said she’s not going to teach evolution because she doesn’t believe in it.” ...NCSE is best known for monitoring state and local legislative and ballot initiatives affecting the teaching of evolution. It played a key role in a landmark 2005 case in which a federal judge ruled that intelligent design is not science and doesn’t belong in the classroom. In 2012 it added climate change to its portfolio. Threats to both subjects have increased in recent years as part of a broader campaign by conservatives to ban certain topics from classrooms.... 

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