TENNESSEE: Senate Passes Bill Allowing The Teaching Of Creationism

[WillParkinson]

TENNESSEE: Senate Passes Bill Allowing The Teaching Of Creationism

The Tennessee Senate has approved a bill that will allow teachers to advocate for creationism and against climate change. The bill's wording is couched in terms of "protecting the right to open discussion."

Senators voted 24-8 to pass a bill that says schoolteachers cannot be punished for "helping students to understand, analyze, critique and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories" taught in public schools. The measure has drawn strong opposition from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Center for Science Education and the American Civil Liberties Union, which said it is cover for teachers who want to teach creationism or intelligent design. Supporters said the measure would give teachers more guidance to answer students' questions about science topics. "The idea behind this bill is that students should be encouraged to challenge current scientific thought and theory," said state Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson.

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2012/03/tennessee-senate-passes-bill-allowing.html

The more you think we've come forward, the more behind you find we are.

[Turbineguy]

1. Up next:

A High School Course in Ignorance. This country needs more ignorance! Our kids will have a brighter future!

[ck4829]

2. Whole lot of new ground here

Maybe germs don't disease, maybe it's caused by an imbalance in the four humours. I guess we should teach that.

Some people think the Earth is flat. We're clearly not being open minded when we refuse to teach that.

Earthquakes are caused by releases of energy in the Earth's crust? I always thought it was Satan trying to escape, better teach that too.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. watch it, buster.

We flat earthers can find out where you live on this great, flat, 6,019 year old earth of ours.

Hey, have you ever driven through central Illinois? And you people STILL claim the earth is round? Hah! FOOLS!

[smirkymonkey]

30. No silly, earthquakes (and other natural disasters) are caused by homosexuality, abortion,

atheists, liberals and the ACLU.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

32. and gay marriage!

And tsunamis are caused by a lack of prayer.

[spanone]

3. my state is taking us back to neanderthal times

[lastlib]

5. your legislators evolved from the monkeys that came down from the trees head-first

[Old and In the Way]

4. Well, I hope the teachers of Tennessee use this as a teachable opportunity.

They can give the science of creationism the seriousness it deserves. They can end up making the students there even more knowledgeable about the "pros and cons" about both views. Sadly, I suspect this opens the door to move in more Sunday school science teachers and the children of Tennessee will fall further behind their peers on the subject of science.

[lastlib]

12. I hope it will be challenged in court.

These knuckle-draggers need to learn that their 14th-century "science" is a joke that is no longer funny.

[Fawke Em]

18. It already was.

It's called the Scopes-Monkey Trial.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_Trial

[democrat_patriot]

7. So let's say I'm an out of state college. Do I throw out TN applications?

The students can no longer be considered a qualified student.

[d_r]

8. that quoted text cuts both ways

i hope teachers use the opportunity to encourage children to think critically and pont out how stupid id is
i hope they push and push and cause a big stink with fundy parents tben hide behind this.
i dont think haslam will sign though.

[Swede Atlanta]

9. Remember the Scopes trial...

took place in Tennessee.

Evolution and other scientific matters are always characterized as "theories" but theories that have survived peer scrutiny and based on observable, empirical evidence. There are aspects of some of Einstein's theories that have been disproved or are being challenged. But at least they are based on something empirical.

Creationism has zero basis in empirical fact. As a Christian I believe in a God-initiated creation PROCESS but that is completely consistent with the theory of evolution. The Bible describes this as a seven-day process which doesn't mean they were the same days as we have today or that that characterization wasn't simplified to be understandable at the time.

But creationism has no place in the classroom. It belongs at home bible study, churches, synagogues, mosques, etc. It is a RELIGIOUS theory, not a secular theory.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

33. yet the State Legislature refused to remove that statute until 40+ years later.

[COLGATE4]

10. Tennessee - proudly ignorant about Science

since the days of the Scopes trial. "I''m more interested in the Rock of Ages than in the age of rocks".

[brooklynite]

11. When will they be coming after Math?

After all, isn't a THEOREM really just a fancypants way of saying THEORY?

[lastlib]

13. They want us to do math with the biblical value of pi.....

...it doesn't work in trigonometry.

[JBoy]

16. It's close enough

[Initech]

14. And every other country in the world produces far more scientists - I wonder why?

[JBoy]

15. Try teaching kids what science actually IS before

encouraging them to "challenge" it.

Science is based on evidence, where theories are tested using observation and experimentation. "It's in my magic book" is not science.

[Fawke Em]

17. Tennessee: No teacher will teach this and, if they do,

I'll be yanking my 95th percentile (nationwide), straight-A, honors student out of your class!

Good luck!

[cbdo2007]

19. Good, I don't have a problem with this.

The best way to teach them between right and wrong, truth and fiction is through direct example. A side-by-side comparison will make creationism look like an even bigger joke than it already is.

[fascisthunter]

26. yeah, but we know that's not the intent

sorry... I stand firm on the Separation of Church and State... no proselytizing christianity or any other religious crap through government funded education... that's what this is really about.

[LeftinOH]

20. School schedule: Creationism at 8:00am; Introduction to Phlebotomy at 9:15am;

at 10:25am, a lecture in the main auditorium on 'How identify Witches in the 21st Century';

lunch at 11:45am;

Gym at 12:30pm;

at 1:40pm, Abstinence class (today's film: "Mental illness: The Tragic Legacy of Self Abuse", narrated by Kirk Cameron;

2:45pm - 3:15pm, Bible reading.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

22. nothing on the evils of astrology? transmutation of elements? the power of prayer

to heal illnesses, win football games, and win lotteries?

[Shadowflash]

21. So, When they graduate

and cannot attend college because they cannot pass an entrance exam, I hope they are good at saying 'Do you want fries with that?'.

[fascisthunter]

23. theocracy a live and well down in the bible belt

great... more states being destroyed by right wing nutcases. I'll remember to stay away from their states.

[Bandit]

24. Well neither Creationism nor Intelligent Design are existing "scientific theories"....

"helping students to understand, analyze, critique and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories"

I find nothing wrong with this as it is written.....I see absolutely no need for it, but see nothing wrong with it... A layman's theory is quite different from a "scientific theory" and Creationism is a belief and in no way a "scientific theory" It isn't even a hypothesis in any scientific community let alone a "theory"...

[Johonny]

29. I agree

At least at one time creationism was the dominate theory. So I wouldn't say it's not a "theory". When people teach say atomic structure it is not unusual to start with the Bohr theory of the atom. It's not the best description of the atom but it's a simple starting point. There was a time when creationism made sense. Many preDarwin naturalist accept creationism and fit science observations into that perspective. You could talk students through something like climate change or creationism the same way you talk students from geocentric to the heliocentric model of the solar system or Newtonian mechanics to relativity. Is that what these people want? To talk about these things as historic theories? No, of course not.

The law is stupid because the writers are so blind to think most people think like them or can be forced to. When scientists add creationism and intelligent design to their text books it won't be a positive thing. They will get to show all the negative evidence against those theories. The teachers that teach out of those books will of course get punished by these law makers. Because in these peoples world science isn't a process of thinking, they know what to think already they just want theories that fit their preconceived ideas. That isn't science and doesn't have a place in a class called science.

[ladjf]

25. Lunatics! nt

[cthulu2016]

27. I agree wholeheartedly with that law

As written, who could disagree?

I am all for "helping students to understand, analyze, critique and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories taught in public schools."

Would anyone have supported disciplining a teacher who, in 1900, pointed out (correctly) that Newtonian physics as it was being taught could not fully account for the orbit of Mercury? That would be part of a good science education.

The problem here is that we are talking about creationists who have no regard whatsoever for the scientific mothed, reason, evidence or even objectivity as a category.

But if there was any hope of this law being properly applied, as written, using legitimate non-political standards of objective analysis and critique, it would be a fine law in and of itself.

I would have no interest in fighting this. Not worth the trouble. I would save my powder for adjudicating the application of it.

Since no creationist has ever offered an "objective critique" of anything, and since no objective critique supports their views, no teacher acting in support of creationism (or dismissal or broad disparagement of evolution) could find any safe harbor in the application of this law, as written.

(To anyone who doesn't know, from my other posts, I am as staunch an evolutionist and atheist as one will find.)

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

28. Will it have an adjunct course in advanced Tobacco Chewing and Snake Handling?

As taught by the noted scientist the Reverend Clem Ray Bobble?

[asjr]

31. I really should not be surprised at what goes

on in the "intellectual" minds of fellow Tennesseans but this, at least to me, is out and out thumbing a big nose at separation of church and state. These rednecks who think they are so smart need a big foot placed upon their asses. But 24 cracker, snake handling, holier-than-thou hayseed substitute preachers want to puff out their gravy-laden chests and feel they are something the cats covered up. Anyone who runs for election in this state should have to take a 10-page test so we can see if we have to send them back to kindergarten.