The Senate Education Committee of the Indiana Senate has overwhelmingly voted to approve a bill allowing for the teaching of creationism in the state’s public schools. The Sponsor is Senator Dennis Kruse.
The bill states that “[t]he governing body of a school corporation may require the teaching of various theories concerning the origin of life, including creation science, within the school corporation.” The language appears to be an effort to circumvent the holding in Edwards v. Aguillard, 482 U.S. 578 (1987), where the Supreme Court struck down a law requiring the teaching of creationism in Louisiana schools in 1987. The Court stressed that “[w]e do not imply that a legislature could never require that scientific critiques of prevailing scientific theories be taught.” The Court added that “teaching a variety of scientific theories about the origins of humankind to school children might be validly done with the clear secular intent of enhancing the effectiveness of science instruction.” (emphasis added)
This law could force a reexamination of that caveat and the overwhelming view of scientists that creationism is a religious not a scientific theory. Notably one of the two dissenting justices was Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. Other states like Tennessee have moved to re-introduce creationism in schools as a “controversy” in science. Louisiana itself has used this approach to circumvent the precedent that it created in Edwards.
This legislation could lead to another major decision if it were to get to the Court, though Scalia would find new allies in jurists like Clarence Thomas. The Court held that it was unconstitutional when “pre-eminent purpose of the Louisiana Legislature was clearly to advance the religious viewpoint that a supernatural being created humankind.” On his official legislative site, Kruse has highlighted his work with such groups as “Child Evangelism Fellowship of Northeastern Indiana,” “The Gideons International,” “Northeast Indiana Youth for Christ Board, Chairman,” “County Line Church of God,” and other such groups.
Another supporter, Sen. Scott Schneider, R-Indianapolis, said that “many” scientists agree with creationism and asked “[w]hat are we afraid of? Allowing an option for students including creation science as opposed to limiting their exposure?”
Just to be clear, the fear is not that evolution could not hold its own as a scientific theory but that we are suggesting to students that creationism has a scientific basic. Beyond the “Creation Science boards, “many” scientists are not supportive of creationism and that suggestion by Schneider shows how “facts” are invented to suggest a scientific basis for creationism. According to a 1991 Gallup poll, only 5% of scientists identified themselves as creationists. However, even this small number was questioned since it included those with training outside biology.
Notably, these schools could take the lead from Governor Romney who has stated that evolution is a scientific theory while creationism is a philosophy. In Iowa, he explained:
“In my opinion, the science class is where to teach evolution, or if there are other scientific thoughts that need to be discussed,” he said. “If we’re going to talk about more philosophical matters, like why it was created, and was there an intelligent designer behind it, that’s for the religion class or philosophy class or social studies class.”
For academics in Indiana, this must be a particularly low moment. Indiana is a state with terrific institutions of higher learning. This bill looks like an appeal from The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes — 87 years too late.
Source: Courier Journal
Biblical creationism and evolution are utter nonsense; the true origin of humanity was explained by Ambrose Bierce:
“BIRTH, n. The first and direst of all disasters. As to the nature of it there appears to be no uniformity. Castor and Pollux were born from the egg. Pallas came out of a skull. Galatea was once a block of stone. Peresilis, who wrote in the tenth century, avers that he grew up out of the ground where a priest had spilled holy water. It is known that Arimaxus was derived from a hole in the earth, made by a stroke of lightning. Leucomedon was the son of a cavern in Mount Etna, and I have myself seen a man come out of a wine cellar.”
Man originates from a wine cellar. Case closed.
Catullus,
Thank you, this makes sense. Later this evening it will make perfect sense.
Perhaps you might consider filing a friend of the court brief in Georgia where they are trying to keep Obama off the ballot.
I believe this is a stellar idea, and we should thank god Indiana has moved in this direction.
We should now encourage creationist families to move to Indiana.
STAY AWAY FROM CALIFORNIA WE ARE GODLESS HEATHENS WHO LOVE SCIENCE ENGINEERING AND TEH GAYS. STAY AWAY.
Anyway, I don’t know how to align the outcome of the civil war in ending slavery in the US, and my desire to encourage states to secede in 2012.
And we wonder why the US is falling behind in education.
A flash point has emerged in American science education that echoes the battle over evolution, as scientists and educators report mounting resistance to the study of man-made climate change in middle and high schools.
Texas and Louisiana have introduced education standards that require educators to teach climate change denial as a valid scientific position. South Dakota and Utah passed resolutions denying climate change. Tennessee and Oklahoma also have introduced legislation to give climate change skeptics a place in the classroom.
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/16/nation/la-na-climate-change-school-20120116
Stop and think about this one. Based on sheer population numbers, India and China have more gifted kids who would qualify for joining Mensa than the USA has kids.
Did you know? ….shift happens….
This presentation was created about four years ago by Karl Fisch, a teacher in Arizona, as a slide show. The video was produced by Scott McLeod. If it does not give you pause, you are not paying attention.
The music background is by Scottish composer and fiddler Dougie McLean, and was used in the movie, “The Last of the Mohicans.”
Certain sections of the scientific community needs to stop acting like a religion and get back to the method.
Religion needs to stop trying to be a science.
Praise the Lord and Trash Science:
Kentucky Gov. Cuts Education Funding While Preserving Tax Breaks For Biblically-Themed Amusement Park
By Travis Waldron on Jan 20, 2012
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/01/20/407580/kentucky-gov-cuts-education-funding-while-preserving-tax-breaks-for-biblically-themed-amusement-park/
Excerpt:
When Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) proposed his 2012-2013 budget this week, he admitted that it was “inadequate for the needs” of the state’s people. “We should be making substantial investments in our physical and intellectual infrastructure to bring transformational change to our state,” Beshear said. “This budget does not allow us to do enough of that.”
Beshear’s assessment of his own budget is, unfortunately, correct. The budget makes $286 million in cuts, including a 6.4 percent cut to a higher education system that has been plagued by funding cuts and rising tuition for years. And though it attempts to preserve K-12 education funding, it will result in less spending on Kentucky’s students and schools, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports:
Although the main funding formula for K-12 schools wouldn’t be cut, population growth means spending per student would decline. Also, education officials say the current year’s population estimate was low, resulting in a cut of more than $50 million to that funding formula.
At the same time, the $43 million tax break Kentucky approved for a Bible-themed amusement park — which will include a 500-foot by 75-foot reproduction of Noah’s Ark — could go into effect for the first time under Beshear’s budget. In addition, the budget includes $11 million to improve a highway interchange near the park. Proponents of the park, Beshear included, have claimed it will boost tourism and create jobs, but those assumptions are based on a report done by the park’s developers.
*****
Kentucky Cuts Education; Preserves Tax Breaks For Creationist Theme Park
1/23/12
http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/01/23/kentucky-cuts-education-preserves-tax-breaks-for-creationist-theme-park/
Excerpt:
In one of the most spectacularly mis-prioritized state budgets in recent memory, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear (D), is suggesting over $50 million in cuts to education – while preserving $43 million in tax breaks for the Ark Encounter, a creationist amusement park centered around a life-sized Noah’s Ark. The park is sponsored by Answers In Genesis, a non-profit organization that promotes a “literalist” interpretation of the Book of Genesis while promoting an anti-evolution (and other sciences) agenda.
There are a number of reasons why this is a bad idea. First of all, it makes no sense to cut education at this point without reforms that go along with it to ensure that education services don’t suffer as a result. This budget doesn’t do that. Education dollars are an investment in the future – both culturally and economically. Moreover, a tax subsidy in support violates – in spirit if not in letter – the sacred American principle of the separation of Church and State.
Moreover, in a time of austerity, surely it makes most sense to eliminate wasteful subsidies first, rather than essential public services. Especially subsidies that are of dubious value to begin with, whether its this “Ark Park” or a football stadium.
There are religious considerations, too. I’m not an evangelical myself, but hostility to evolution has caused a rift among evangelical Christians. For example, Liberal evangelical Fred Clark has a problem with this and other anti-science promotions by his fellow evangelicals, because he thinks that they’re not only factually wrong, but also drive people away from evangelical churches.
http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/politics/Daniels-talks-candidly-about-his-faith
Daniels talks candidly about his faith
Also shares concerns about “aggressive atheism.”
Updated: Friday, 18 Dec 2009, 9:47 PM EST
Published : Thursday, 24 Dec 2009, 6:00 PM EST
by Mark Mellinger
Excerpt:
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WANE) – With Christmas in mind, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels opened up about his Christian faith -which he calls the central part of his life- in a recent interview with NewsChannel 15 at the Governor’s Residence in Indianapolis. Among other revealing responses, Daniels -a Presbyterian- said he would agree with the Westminster Confession of Faith’s assertion that the purpose of life is “to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
Daniels told NewsChannel 15 it’s probably the most he’s talked about his faith publicly in the last 5 years. The conversation sprung at least partly from the governor’s recent recommendation of the book No One Sees God by Michael Novak, which Daniels characterized as responding to “aggressive atheism” with Christian charity.
I don’t see how the Indiana legislature can get involved in teaching creation without getting involved in God. Since the founders, somewhat belatedly, chopped the size of government in half by eliminating church topics from the realm of state, separated the metaphysical from the physical, this line of thinking seems illegal.
If the educational system somehow did it “on its own”, if the educational system could somehow stand free of the political system, there might be a possibility, but the legislature has no business dealing with this topic.
We move closer to the movie called Idiocracy becoming reality all the time. Indiana, ANOTHER bone headed move.
Religion is science. That is how they must posit this. Can you imagine the kids beating up on the teacher who tries to teach creationsim. Hey teach, On The Eighth Day God Created DOG! On the Ninth Day the Indiana Legislature. On the Tenth Day, Penn State and Sandusky.
If you are in a plane and fly over Indiana, make sure that you flush the toilet.
New study shows a strong positive correlation between low IQ persons and conservative beliefs. It was published on Live Science
An excerpt:
Full article here. I am sure there will be many follow-ups, along with a great deal of breathless and outraged pearl clutching by conservatives.
http://www.livescience.com/18132-intelligence-social-conservatism-racism.html
Of course they did….and next up is….The Right to Work Laws….Getting rid of Unions in two easy Republican Governorship’s…
Otteray,
Have you read Charles P. Pierce’s book “Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free?”
http://www.charlespierce.net/
Here’s an excerpt from the introduction. It’s about Pierce’s visit to the Creation Museum in Kentucky:
It was impolite to wonder why our parents had sent us all to college, and why generations of immigrants had sweated and bled so that their children could be educated,if not so that one day we would feel confident enough to look at a museum of dinosaurs rigged to run six furlongs at Aqueduct and make the not unreasonable point that it was batshit crazy, and that anyone who believed this righteous hooey should be kept away from sharp objects and their own money. Instead, people go to court over this kind of thing.
Dinosaurs with saddles?
Dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark?
Welcome to your new Eden.
Welcome to Idiot America.
Will they teach “which came first, the chicken or the egg machine?”
Dredd,
I like that…
OS:
Thanks for the link. Does the study mention that many of these people also have closely-set eyes?
A couple of things — first, the Biggie: Evolution, the chemical transition to biological. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/25/origin-of-life_n_1230631.html?ref=science
Now, for the anti-Cretin screed –
“Creationism,” and its twin sister “Iintelligent Design,” do not create a controversy in science. They ain’t science.
As used by the legislature, the word “theory” means nothing more (and probably a whole lot less) than the layman’s “hypothesis” — a hypothesis that cannot be observed or measured, that does not contain and explain all relevant facts in a cogent narrative, and fails to make any predictions which can be tested, all requisites of a scientific theory.
Just another bunch of religious yahoos wasting taxpayers’ money, and for what — to help God? If there is a God, He doesn’t need help or else He is not God! Thus sayeth God:
ISAIAH 55:
10 “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
I find these instances of coerced indoctrination to be a scathing indictment of the state of Christianity in America. It is as if the beleivers have seized the jaw bones of asses, i..e., politicians, to slay all sorts of Philistines instead of relying on the Sword of the Spirit, thier Bible. If the Bible is true, it cannot be overcome.
BTW Christians, most of those politicians don’t give a damn about you or your God. The fact that governmental policies of this nation and those ofits many states ensure that far too many children will go to be bed hungry is more than proof enough.
I beg the reader’s indulgence for quoting Scripture and making arguments from a position of faith. I am not trying to convince anyone of the rightness or wrongness of Christianity or any faith sysytem, but to demonstrate the conflicted nature of certain believers as an explanation for their short-sighted and self-contradicitory behavior. I do hope, however, that the reader will appreciate that not every person of faith, including some Christians, is BSC.
Elaine, I have not read Peirce’s book, but have seen excerpts with some of the money quotes.
Otteray,
“Creation Science 101″ by Roy Zimmerman
The Indiana state legislature is moving toward adoption of a law which it knows to be unconstitutional for the sole purpose of satisfying the demands of Christian conservatives. This pattern will be repeated in other Republican led state legislatures that are hell-bent on enacting a fundamentalist agenda while they still wield power. Indiana state Sen. Scott Schneider has professed commitment to teaching “various theories on the origin of life,” but that is a code phrase commonly employed by supporters of this nonsense. It is anti-science bias posing as academic openmindedness. The courts will of course strike down the law for what it is, a less than subtle attempt to introduce into secular science education the religious views of the most ignorant branches of Christianity, and Sen. Schneider and his intellectually dishonest brethren will of course then charge the judicial branch with legislating from the bench and attacking the Christian foundations of the nation. And, needless to say, the substantial legal bills incurred in the hopeless defense of the “principles” of legislators supporting the statute will be stamped “please forward” and sent on to the taxpayers of Indiana.
I’ve been wondering where are the political folk songs for these present times. Roy will do. Same with Garfunkel and Oates.
Where is the ‘science’ in this fairy tale? The Senator from Indiana says “Many scientists agree…” This is a lie. He is a liar. There is no science, no scientific studies, no scientific theories, no scientific research WHATSOEVER regarding “creationism”. This legislation will lead to public schools having to teach EVERY religion — after all, as the fanatical right-wingers are saying “What is the harm is giving children this information and letting them make up their own minds?” The “harm” is that Christian nutbags know what they claim to believe is simply outrageous to any adult, so they must brainwash children at an early age. Sounds like child abuse to me. Mitch Daniels and his dirty leg wife should be run out of the Governor’s mansion. No wonder this country is running near dead LAST in education compared to every other developed Western nation. Pathetic. You want your kid to have religion, take him to church. Leave the rest of us alone. This is legislation destined for the scrap heap of stupidity.
Mike A.,
Well said. The Teapublicans in Indiana are merely pandering to the wild eyed religious right.
Steve Beai,
Yes, the State Senator is a liar when he claims that “many” scientists agree.
Otteray Scribe,
I got maybe another take on that. Although it’s a bit chicken n egg thing.
Dumb parent produce genetically dumb children. Dumb parents believe in dumb ideas, and being RWA’s crave obedience to these ideas by their kids.
Then comes puberty, which makes kids say: “Screw them, I’m gonna massturbate and have sex anyway.” Whereupon a new dumb generation starts.
Speaking of eyes, There was a tennis super star, who was known for his closely placed eyes. And for his habit of reading comic books in his spare time. The bookshelves in his new apartment were–guess what? Yeah, empty.
Oro Lee re chemical to biological life
Quote:
This has been CONFIRMED in Dr. Jack Szostak’s LAB. 2009 Nobel Laurette in medicine for his work on telomerase.
Unquote
BTW he got his Nobel 2o years after his discovery, and left the field for more untroden turf which he prefers. Thus “abiogenesis” is his field for 20 years. I think most folks will enjoy this.
I had to watch it a couple of times, the ideas come fast and furious. Like how do you have cell walls before the lipoproteins are created? How do you have replication before DNA?
How do you have growth and competition from the beginning? How do you have structure before amino acids?
Kiinda wish I’d been there to watch. God must of laughed every million years or so, don’t you think.
What can we do? Set up an arkless expo with DNA ice cream flavors? And dinosaur movies?
Indiana has one of the worst performing public education systems in the country, and this is a state with few immigrants and a lower minority population fraction than most other industrial state. Yes, it’s where dumb native born whites settle, which is consistent with its Klan heritage. And I taught at one of those fine universities. The best students were always from out of state.
Rich,
You are right about Indiana’s KKK heritage.
Maybe these Christians are just getting scared. They dominated for 200 years. Now there are a lot of others here. Panic reactions?
Rich, you are right about our KKK heritage here in IN. I have to take exception to your line “yes, it’s where native born whites settle.” I moved to Indiana 17 years ago. And I look from state to state and wonder if I moved to a bad bad place. Then I look back to where I moved from and think, “I can’t believe I moved from AZ to IN and found some reasonable people. AZ is crazy!!!” I’ll take the “native white settlement of IN” any day over the “Brewer led coalition of crazy”I don’t know where you taught but if it wasn’t Bloomington then you should come here and spend some time THEN make that statement above. As a besides you had to see this coming here when they decided that “Vouchers” which are just handing money out to all of the Religious schools on the “Voucher Accepting schools”. The list is overwhelming filled with Christian schools.
Otteray Scribe: “New study shows a strong positive correlation between low IQ persons and conservative beliefs. It was published on Live Science…”
———–
If only there was an identifiable organic cause and a vaccine could be found.
Ask them the question: On the day before the first day, who created God?
Every school day should start off with a brief moment of science.
sufferingsuccatash,
“Every school day should start off with a brief moment of science.”
You’re not talking about creation science, I hope.
Year Of The Bible?: Pa. House Urges ‘Faith In God Through Holy Scripture’
Elaine M.
No creation science in my house.
I wonder if these people know there are TWO contradictory versions of the creation story in Genesis? The first (Gen. 1:1 to 2:3) is the familiar story used by creationists. In that account, Man (Adam) and Woman (Eve) were created last, on day six.
In the second account (Gen. 2:4 to 2:25) God created Man (Adam) early (Gen. 7). Only later did God create animals to keep Adam company. Gen. 18 “And the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a help mate for him. 19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air…” [See note at end.]
In the first story, animals are clearly created before Adam and Eve. In the second story it is equally clear that animals are created after Adam.
Do the people of Indiana really want ancient myths taught as equivalents to scientific evidence for an old Earth and evolution? I certainly hope not. Superstition like this has no place in public schools. Perhaps in the Middle Ages, but not in the 21st century.
How can the Bible be literally true if there is such a major contradiction within the first two chapters of the first book of the Bible?
Note
It sounds like God had not thought creation through very well if he did not foresee the need for something to keep Adam company and also not to realize animals just weren’t going to cut it. Perhaps God really didn’t want to create Women; perhaps he knew they would just be trouble.