Latest Challenges to the Teaching of Evolution

I stopped reading your post after, "look it like this, lads..."

Lawmakers asked to repeal of Science Education Act
(Mike Hasten, Monroe News-Star, April 28, 2011)

High school students, teachers, scientists and college professors are asking the Legislature to repeal the Louisiana Science Education Act, which the group says is a misnomer because its goal is to introduce creationism into classrooms.

The act has given Louisiana "an anti-science reputation," said Baton Rouge Magnet High School senior Zach Kopplin, whose efforts to repeal the law are supported by 72 Nobel laureates around the country.

"Louisiana is addicted to creationism," he said, recalling a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court case that threw out a state law that said creationism could be taught along with evolution.

At the urging of Kopplin and the Louisiana Coalition for Science, Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, is handling legislation (SB70) seeking to repeal the act. She and others said just having the law on the books hurts the state.

The law requires the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, upon request of a local school board, to "allow and assist teachers, principals and other school administrators to create and foster an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that promotes critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories being studied including evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning."

It says teachers are to instruct students on the material in the standard textbook but they may supplement it with other materials approved by the school board.

The measure has opened the door for creationism to be taught in school, members of the Louisiana Coalition for Science said Thursday in a rally on the state Capitol steps.

They pointed to school board discussions and plans in Livingston and Tangipahoa parishes to introduce creationism into the classroom.

The Livingston Parish board postponed its plans to include creationism this year after being advised that it could not afford an expensive lawsuit promised by the ACLU.

Proponents of Nevers' bill adopted in 2008 said it was needed because teachers were afraid to teach "the controversy" that there's an alternative to evolution.

Kevin Carman, dean of the LSU College of Science, said "The controversy to which they refer is a fabrication of their own imagination....Evolution is as integral to understanding biology as atoms are to understanding chemistry."

Carman said he and other scientists "urge legislators and Gov. Jindal to do what is right."

Ian Binns, assistant professor of science education at LSU, said that when he attends national conferences "it's an absolute embarrassment."

Binns teaches a science teaching methods class that discusses the Science Education Law.

"I want students to understand what not to do and make them understand about the supplemental materials" that can utilized, he said. "I want to make sure they understand the hidden meaning of the law."

Among those attending the rally were teachers and professors carrying signs. One said "Teachers Against Teaching Ignorance" and another "Take science education forward to 2025, not back to 1925."

Repealing the act won't be an easy task. Sen. Ben Nevers' SB733, which became Act 473 when signed by Gov. Bobby Jindal in 2008, was coauthored by 25 of 39 senators and 65 of 105 House members.

Speaker of the House Jim Tucker, R-Terrytown, said "I don't see any real support on the House side" for repealing the act.

The 1987 court ruling that threw out the old law said it was unconstitutional because it was specifically intended to advance a particular religion. It also held 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."

The Science Education Act said it "shall not be construed to promote any religious doctrine, promote discrimination for or against a particular set of religious beliefs, or promote discrimination for or against religion or nonreligion."

It says teachers are to instruct students on the material in the standard textbook but they may supplement it with other materials approved by the school board.

....Evolution is as integral to understanding biology as atoms are to understanding chemistry."

It says teachers are to instruct students on the material in the standard textbook but they may supplement it with other materials approved by the school board.

There's a reason for us thinking the world is only 6,000 years old. Just as there is for thinking it much older. And the Cherokee creation legends had proved mal-adapted as had all the others.

And the lawsuits you envisage are only "expensive" to those who are not getting anything out of them.

BTW--what happens next in these devastated towns we have unfortunately seen on the news?

Biological Warfare: Battles Under Way In Texas And Louisiana Over Science Education
(Rob Boston, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, April 29, 2011)

It looks like Texas is due for another round of fussing and fighting over creationism in public schools.

The state Board of Education continues to be dominated by Religious Right zealots who refuse to accept modern science and seek to teach religiously based concepts in biology classes. (They also reject accepted history. Remember, these are the people who hired “Christian nation” propagandist David Barton to help rewrite their social studies standards.)

Our friends at the Texas Freedom Network (TFN) have just sounded the alarm. A New Mexico-based outfit called International Databases has submitted a proposal to supply Texas schools with materials during the 2011-12 year. The group, according to an analysis by TFN and the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), promotes a litany of creationist canards.

“International Databases’ materials are not only laced with creationist arguments,” said NCSE’s Joshua Rosenau, “they are also remarkably shoddy, teeming with misspellings, typographical errors, and mistaken claims of fact.”

NCSE reports that International Databases’ materials treat “intelligent design” as legitimate science, misconstrue the views of Charles Darwin and assert that the theory of evolution is being undermined by new discoveries.

As TFN points out, the problems go back two years, when the State Board of Education approved new science curriculum standards that, while not calling for full-blown creationism, flung open a back door to it. At that time, group like TFN, NCSE and Americans United warned that the weak standards would spur creationist groups to push to have their materials adopted for classroom use. We’re seeing that now.

Of course, this is just what many on the state board want. Several of them are young-Earth creationists. AU would like to remind them of the dangers of continuing down this path. Remember what happened in Dover, Pa., when the school board there decided to teach intelligent design?

If you live in Texas, get involved.

Also, if you are in the environs of San Antonio, you can hear Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn speak on this issue and others tomorrow.

Meanwhile, things are also heating up in Louisiana. At a rally yesterday in Baton Rouge, students, scientists and teachers pressed the legislature to overturn a state law that opens the door to creationism in public schools.

The pro-science activists want to repeal the so-called “Louisiana Science Education Act,” which allows schools to use “supplemental materials” in the classroom. Naturally, this material promotes creationist ideas.

Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, has introduced legislation (SB70) that would repeal the act.

Zach Kopplin, a senior at Baton Rouge Magnet High School, has been leading the effort for better science education in Louisiana. During the rally, he said Louisiana has “an anti-science reputation” and added, “Louisiana is addicted to creationism.”

Among the other speakers was Kevin Carman, dean of Louisiana State University’s College of Science. Carman told the crowd, “The controversy to which they refer is a fabrication of their own imagination. Evolution is as integral to understanding biology as atoms are to understanding chemistry.”

Barbara Forrest, a philosophy professor at Southeastern Louisiana University and a member of Americans United’s Board of Trustees, has also been active in the struggle. Forrest is leader of the Louisiana Coalition for Science and the co-author of Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design.

I’ve followed this issue for many years. In fact, I first began working at Americans United not long after the Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law mandating “balanced treatment” between evolution and “creation science” way back in 1987.

One thing I’ve learned about creationists is that they’re tenacious. If you beat them in court, they don’t just go away. They come back with something new. Thus, “creation science” became other things – “the theory of abrupt appearance,” “the theory of intelligent design” and, most recently, claims that we need to “teach the controversy.”

The creationists’ goal is simple: instill doubts about evolution and pave the way for fundamentalist religious concepts in public schools.

Ironically, the creationists’ political and legal strategies keep evolving. Therefore, we defenders of church-state separation and good science education must remain on our (prehensile) toes as well.