Latest Challenges to the Teaching of Evolution

Indiana House speaker kills bill that would let creationism be taught in science class
(Scott Elliott, Indianapolis Star, February 15, 2012)

A bill that would have allowed schools to teach creationism along with evolution in science classes has died in the Indiana House.

House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, moved the bill to the rules committee, a procedural step that all but ensures it will not make it to a vote this year. The bill cleared the Indiana Senate last month but needed to pass both chambers to become law.

Bosma said he made the move to avoid the possibility of a costly lawsuit for the state, given the likelihood of a court challenge from evolution advocates.

"I felt, given the fact that we have a U.S. Supreme Court case that appears to me to be directly on point, that this is a fight that really should not be fought at this point."

Creation science was specifically ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 1987 case in which the court voided a Louisiana law that required creation science to be taught alongside evolution in science class. The court found the law violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution because it was designed to advance religion.

The state Senate bill did not have such a requirement but in effect offered state support for school districts that decided to teach creationism, likely drawing it into any lawsuits.

"I didn't disagree with the concept of the bill," Bosma said.

The bill's author, Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, said last month that the makeup of the Supreme Court had changed and it could rule differently next time. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

yet on its face it appears innocuous...

I didn't disagree with the concept of the bill," Bosma said.

The moral law had expired--like the Constitution.

Testimony heard on evolution education bill in NEw HAmphire

By TED SIEFER
New Hampshire Union Leader
Published Feb 15, 2012 at 3:00 am (Updated Feb 16, 2012)



CONCORD — A hearing for a bill that would require the teaching of evolution as a theory, not scientific fact, drew heated testimony Tuesday.

Bill sponsor Rep. Jerry Bergevin, R-Manchester, told the House Education Committee panel that his concerns about evolution went beyond its claimed unsoundness as a theory.

“Nations that supported atheism and evolution destroyed more human beings than any others in history,” Bergevin said, referring to the Nazis, Soviets and Chinese communists.

“Evolution,” he added, “is the air supply of atheism.”

House Bill 1148 would “require evolution to be taught in the public schools of this state as a theory, including the theorists' political and ideological viewpoints and their position on the concept of atheism.”

No one testified in support of Bergevin's bill, however, it did face several opponents, including representatives from the New Hampshire Science Teachers Association and the N.H. School Administrators Association — as well as Jackson Hinkle, a 10-year-old student from Nashua.

This bill “would be a blow to our educational system, which is already in a bad state,” Hinkle told the panel in a quiet voice. “If evolution was not presented in the scientific sense, but rather the colloquial, people would be denied modern scientific information.”

Another student, Matthew Lounsbury, a high school senior from Wolfeboro who is a member of the Legislature's Youth Advisory Council, said his group had voted unanimously to oppose the bill.

“We feel it's redundant,” he said. “Every high school senior remembers that evolution was taught as a theory. But the same point can also be applied to the theory of gravity.”

John Godfrey, of the science teachers group, emphasized that a scientific theory means more than just an idea, that it has to undergo rigorous scrutiny and testing.

“Evolution is at the extremely well-established end of the spectrum of scientific theories,” he said.

He added that the section of the bill concerning theorists' viewpoints on atheism was “a little bewildering.”

“It's absolutely impossible to compile such a database, and there's no use doing that,” he said. “Should we also say that (the scientist) was white or Christian? What does it matter what one's political persuasion is, as long as they do good science?”

Under its current minimum standards for public schools, the N.H. Department of Education requires local boards to include within high school biology curricula the teaching of “organic evolution and patterns and products of evolution, including genetic variation, specialization, adaptation and natural selection.”

HB 1148 is the second bill to come before the Education Committee that could affect the teaching of evolution. House Bill 1457, heard by the committee last week, requires that science teachers instruct students that proper scientific inquiry “results from not committing to any one theory or hypothesis, no matter how firmly it appears to be established.”

Members of the committee asked no questions and made almost no comments during the hearing, except to praise the students for participating.

The Catholic Diocese of Manchester is not taking a position on the bills.

Tertiary Butylhydroquinone (TBHQ)

This petroleum-based product is used to preserve vegetable oils and animal fats, both of which can be found in Chicken McNuggets. It is also used in the manufacture of Silly Putty. McDonalds uses this chemical in their American and Chinese McNuggets, but not in the United Kingdom. According to food experts interviewed on CNN (as reported in the Global Times of China), a gram of TBHQ consumed in one sitting can lead to "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation and collapse."

Dimethylpolysiloxane

This chemical is used to keep the oil from foaming when Chicken McNuggets are cooked. It is another Silly Putty ingredient, and is also used in some cosmetics. After testing on animals, no adverse health effects were found from dimethylpolysiloxane. Christopher Kimball, founder of Cook's Illustrated magazine, told CNN that he suspects the uniform size and shape of McNuggets owes something to the plastic-like properties of dimethylpolysiloxane. In the McDonald's restaurants of the United Kingdom, dimethylpolysiloxane is not a McNuggets ingredient.

Sodium Aluminium Phosphate

This chemical is used as an emulsifier in McNuggets. It prevents the oils used in frying from separating, which helps keep McNuggets relatively grease-free. It also helps the chicken nuggets to maintain a uniform exterior texture. Processed cheese and bakery products make use of this chemical as well. Consuming pure aluminium impairs the body's ability to absorb calcium. However, sodium aluminium phosphate is considered safe for food products because it contains relatively low amounts of aluminium.

Modified Food Starch

Modified starch is used as a binding agent for Chicken McNuggets to hold the chicken and breading together. It also helps enhance the size of McNuggets and make them a denser, more filling meal. Modified starch begins as corn starch, but is then altered in a laboratory to make it more resistant to dissolution. It is commonly used as a thickener in other food products, such as pies and sauces, and for binding purposes in paper manufacturing.

Quote:

Testimony heard on evolution education bill in NEw HAmphire

By TED SIEFER
New Hampshire Union Leader
Published Feb 15, 2012 at 3:00 am (Updated Feb 16, 2012)

“Evolution,” he [Bergevin] added, “is the air supply of atheism.”

YOU better watch it ros. Too mjuch of that kind of talk could lead to you getting involved. Ill hold your coat.

Keep an eye on that one cause they were supposed to have had hearings on both bills by Feb 14. SO something should be forthcoming from NH.

Once my daughter is school age, if anyone tries this crap in her school you can bet your bippy they'll be hearing from me.

President William Jennings Bryan

I have used Able to Know to enable myself to know things I hadn't known previously.

"do you wish to see society with no religion?

Matthew Arnold mentions the thrill of a student going against his teacher

There you go again, quoting one of our founding farters. Do you remember what WJ Bryant spoke of in his inauguration speech? Ill bet you have no fuckin idea. Im calling you a moron because you dont know what president Bryan had to say.

Id rather see a society wherein all the positions of whether to believe or not believe are treated with equal respect and not, as is the present situation in US, where some minority-view religionists are attempting to make their beliefs become law .

A real teacher gets a feeling of deep accomplishment when a student exceeds his or her teaching.

Thats what a real teacher does. A real teacher gets a feeling of deep accomplishment when a student exceeds his or her teaching. Youre just not caught up with reality. I imagine that your experience with teaching has been reading posts by me and several others whove taught as a profession. You are totally unarmed when it comes to what is or is not the goal or practice of teaching.