Science Prevails In Missouri And Alabama As Creationism Bills Die In Both States
Science scored a major victory in Missouri and Alabama last week as multiple anti-evolution bills died in the legislatures of both states.
In Missouri, the House Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education decided not to vote on a pair of bills that would have made creationism an accepted science even though there is no evidence supporting it. HB 1276 would have allowed teachers “to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of the theory of biological and hypotheses of chemical evolution.” In other words, the bill would have allowed right-wing religious fanatical teachers to push their anti-evolution views. The other bill, HB 1227 would have forced “the equal treatment of science instruction regarding evolution and intelligent design,” at every level in public school and in “any introductory science course taught at any public institution of higher education.” This bill would have actually forced schools and colleges to teach creationism alongside evolution, while allowing teachers bash evolution.
// ]]>
In Alabama, HB 133 failed to come up for a vote in the House after the Alabama Academy of Science issued a statement declaring that the bill would harm science education. The bill would have created a credit for creationism scheme that would have empowered “local boards of education to include released time religious instruction as an elective course for high school students.” The bill was introduced on behalf of Joseph Kennedy, a former school teacher who “was fired in 1980 for reading the Bible and teaching creationism at Spring Garden Elementary School when parents of the public school sixth-grade students objected and he refused to stop.” Kennedy wanted to “give students good sound scientific reasons to support their faith in the seven-day creation and the young Earth,” as devised by the Institute of Creation Research.
Teaching creationism in public school and colleges as part of science curriculum is wrong. Doing such a thing amounts to indoctrination. Because that’s exactly what these bills are all about. Indoctrinating students into the Christian religion, even if parents, the students, and scientists object. If students want to learn about creationism, they can do so in church. But in science class, only fact based theories that are supported by real evidence should be taught. The death of these bills is a big victory for science and reason and ensures our kids get a quality education.
Related posts:
OK, so what initiated the big bang, how did the random collision of matter perfectly create ordered structures that led to complex celestial bodies, orbiting in measurable geometric patterns, and how did the heat and chemicals from volcanoes cause protein bases to merge and create simple cells and then add DNA through thousands of generations to be come complex organisms whose biological systems contain components for continuation of species, self healing, and locomotion. And if the most adapted member of the species is the survivor, than that survivor would be a mutation and not part of the herd majority, how would that being allowed to continue ? What factual mathematically hard locked point shows how this all came to be. What hard undeniable, incontrovertible truth, is the basis for all the genetic adds from single cell to complex organism, how does an organism gain enough DNA to advance to another form of life ? And how does an explosion, proven to be a destructive force of chaos become matter that is routed to be cohesive structures. I restate questions only to ensure my queries are read.
Faith: “Strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.”
Theory: “In the sciences, a scientific theory (also called an empirical theory) comprises a collection of concepts, including abstractions of observable phenomena expressed as quantifiable properties, together with rules (called scientific laws) that express relationships between observations of such …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_(science)
What i believe is religion. What I can quantify and prove is science.
Evolution is a verifiable fact. It is the mechanism through which it occurs — natural selection — that comprises the theory.
People who do not understand how science works seem to think that a “theory” is somehow lacking in power and validity. Scientific theories are our best explanation for an event or phenomenon based on the available evidence, i.e., a theory tells us HOW it happens. Theories have generally been subjected to rigorous testing and represent the consensus of the scientific community, whereas a hypothesis is a possible explanation for a specific observation and has not necessarily been extensively tested.
Calling something a theory does not cheapen or weaken it. On the contrary, the term “theory” gives it legitimacy as something that is scientifically testable and that has been rigorously examined either mathematically or empirically to the point that the available evidence overwhelming supports it.
Quantum mechanics, special and general relativity, molecular kinetics — all THEORIES!
Theories are based on the best empirical EVIDENCE available, not PROOF. There is an incredible wealth of evidence — both geological and biochemical — to support evolution by natural selection.
Creationism and ID are faith-based concepts. Their “evidence” consists of the allegories provided in the Bible, nothing more.
I actually have no problem with the idea of discussing the merits of Creationism or ID in the public school classroom. It would make a fine topic for discussion or debate in a social studies course on Religions in Society. But this topic has no business in a biology classroom, since science is based on verifiable evidence along with empirically and mathematically testable hypotheses, whereas religious beliefs are by definition faith-based.