Tennessee Governor Allows Creationism Bill To Become Law
Facing a certain override by the state legislature, Governor Bill Haslam is allowing HB 368/SB 893, a creationism bill, to become law in Tennessee without his signature. Under Tennessee law, if there is no action by the Governor on a bill, that bill automatically becomes law after ten days. Such is the case with the creationism bill.
The bill allows educators to teach creation myth alongside real science. There’s really no other way to put it. Even students can feel free to question the validity of evolution by bringing up religious views that have no scientific evidence. Students and teachers can even use religion to question global warming and the chemical origins of life. And teachers are totally protected by the law to allow this. It’s a recipe for confusion and division in schools.
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According to The Tennessean, despite pleas from scientists and educators to veto the bill, Governor Haslam didn’t sign the bill as a symbolic gesture to express his opposition. It wouldn’t matter if he had vetoed it anyway because the legislature passed the bill by an overwhelming margin and would have easily been passed via override since it only takes a simple majority to do so.
“The bill received strong bipartisan support, passing the House and Senate by a 3-to-1 margin,” Haslam stated, “but good legislation should bring clarity and not confusion. My concern is that this bill has not met this objective.”
And he’s right about that. All this bill does is place religion where it does not belong. In the classroom. This bill isn’t about improving education. It’s about preaching Christian religious views to impressionable kids. This is the very definition of indoctrination. The Book of Genesis is not an accepted scientific theory, yet Republican lawmakers want it to be taught in school so that they can use it as a vehicle to push their twisted biblical views which are the basis for their destructive agenda. Science contradicts Republican viewpoints. So naturally, Republicans want to poison the well of knowledge with religion. Republicans don’t want the people to have decent health care, so they need to make people believe that it’s not medicine or science that heals, all you need is prayer. Republicans don’t want the people to care about the environment, so they must make people believe that God will take care of the planet as we destroy it. Republicans reject diversity and peace, so they must make people believe that God wants them to hate and make war. That’s why these school prayer and creationism bills are being touted by the GOP.
Instead of leaving religion in the home and church where it belongs, Republicans want it in school so it can distract and divide. And what about the students and teachers who are not Christians? Do they also get the privilege of expressing their own views? Probably not. The first time a teacher or student talks about the Islamic view of creation, or pagan views, or Hinduism, conservative parents and politicians will throw a hissy fit. That’s why this law is such a terrible idea. It opens the door to endless and expensive lawsuits that will cost schools and taxpayers millions of dollars, which will weaken the ability of the public school system to operate. Instead of buying books, desks, chairs, technology, and other materials to educate our kids, schools won’t have the money to do so because Republicans irresponsibly placed religion over education.
8:39 am
Hi Mr. Foster, I would respectfully ask you to consider the fact that public schools have been teaching religion for years. In the science classroom, students are being taught the religion of atheism. You talk about brainwashing with the Bible, yet students of the past several generations have been brainwashed to believing in atheism. Science has no place talking about the creation of the world nor how man got here. The creation is not something that can be tested, observed, and proved, so teaching on the subject at all for science teachers is stepping out of bounds. Again, with evolution, no person ever observed one species evolving into another species. It can not be tested and observed, and therefore does not fit in with what is accepted as science. These instead fall under the category of history (go ahead, call it historical science if you will). In history you go to primary sources, and evaluate if what they say is trustworthy. In asking who is the primary source for the creation of the world and the creation of man, I personally would have to say God, as He is the only One that was there.) If religion is not to be taught in public schools, than a big bang and evolution should no more be taught in the classroom as creationism. But if one be taught as theory, than both should be taught as theories. It is unfair to say that public schools cannot teach any form of theism when all along school are endorsing atheism. Argue in favor of no religion in the classroom, but then be consistent and say no atheism either.
12:15 am
So once again, Tennessee is the laughing stock of the intelligent world. Damn, guv, you really don’t care WHAT we think of you, do ya? Add some funds for science in your education budget, and MAYBE in 30 years, there will be enough thinking people in the state to bring it forward to the 18th or 19th century. When you start teaching distortions and lies as fact, you are a criminal, a pervert and a traitor. You degrade and destroy the nation and state you took an oath to protect.
Hey, fundies! You too, guv, and all you little-minded pseudo-Christian state-level power-grabbers. Wake the fuck up!
Science is real. Your bible is a lie. A big, 99% fiction, mixed in with a tiny bit of pre-scientific truth. “In the Beginning was the Word,” That’s it. Truth over. Bullshit meter registers around 100% for the rest.
The book was assembled in 325AD from previous writngs of other pagan and pre-Christian religions, to maintain Constantine’s power base. Nothing more, nothing less. one day, Jesus was a carpenter with a message that got him killed like a lot of other political rebels (like what’s about to happen here) the next day he is the Son of God.
Your belief in the book, or the snake-oil salesman reciting it simply does NOT matter – it is still a lie, and no matter how you pray, speak in tongues, curse, pour down thunder from heaven (not) and call me a blasphemer, it doesn’t change the one irrefutable fact – the bible is a lie, Christianity is a lie, designed for one purpose – to make you submit.
To submit. To accept a hierarchical order in which YOU are at or near the bottom. And to do so joyfully – oh lawsy, don’t they sing and dance on a Saturday night – because you’ll get yours on Judgement Day, when all the bad men who enslaved you all your life will go to Hell, where there will be wine, women and song (all the stuff fundies are forbidden,) and you’ll get to sit around forever, singing the angelic version of: Infinite number of bottles of mead on the wall, infinite number of bottles of mead; take one down, and pass it around; Infinite number of bottles of mead on the wall…