Can students question explanations based on evolution in public schools? Does this imply that public schools would be teaching creationism or intelligent design alongside evolution? Back when the Louisiana Academic Freedom Act,” was filed on March 21, 2008, and then modified into the “Louisiana Science Education Act” which included all areas of science. A storm of protests from special interests like the NCSE, and militant atheists alike in their blogs were all claiming the bill would teach creationism to the students!
Almost five years later, we are observing some of the same attacks with the latest Academic Freedom Bills! Some of which are more bizarre this time around along with lying about its contents…
Consider this example coming from the guardian…
“Four US states are considering new legislation about teaching science in schools, allowing pupils to be taught religious versions of how life on earth developed in what critics say would establish a backdoor way of questioning the theory of evolution.”
“A watchdog group, the National Center for Science Education, said that the proposed laws were framed around the concept of “academic freedom”. It argues that religious motives are disguised by the language of encouraging more open debate in school classrooms. However, the areas of the curriculum highlighted in the bills tend to focus on the teaching of evolution or other areas of science that clash with traditionally religious interpretations of the world.”
Exactly what “religious versions” are they talking about? They didn’t specify on how they came to such a bizarre conclusion! They have excellent first hand information now as other states have passed bills similar to this one and it’s been a few years or so since passage, like Texas which is another example to the “Louisiana Science Education Act”, perhaps the best example so far!
Texas science standards have been a pleasant surprise to say the least because its standards changed for the better, with stronger language than ever before! It was a huge victory for empirical science and a stunning loss for the opposition who almost had a heart attack! lol So again I ask, where are those religious versions being taught in those schools as mentioned by the guardian? They know fully well that it’s against the law to teach creationism in the public schools.
In Texas, their legislation says this…
“In all fields of science, analyze, evaluate and critique scientific explanations by using empirical evidence, logical reasoning, and experimental and observational testing including examining all sides of scientific evidence of those scientific explanations so as to encourage critical thinking by the student.”
“Analyze and evaluate the evidence regarding formation of simple organic molecules and their organization into long complex molecules having information such as the DNA molecule for self-replicating life…analyze and evaluate scientific explanations concerning the complexity of the cell.”
What does this new legislation say? Let’s take a look!
“Public school authorities and administrators must permit teachers to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in a given course.“
We know that militant Darwinists have elevated evolution to a cult rather than science. Why? They want to formulate the students opinions which favor evolution, the last thing they want is students doubting evolution while learning about it.
Live Science, Larry O’Hanlon called the new legislation anti-science! He writes…
“Anti-science bills are popping up like daisies after a spring shower. Five bills in four states have been introduced with the opening of state legislatures across the United States. All of the bills are aimed at undermining the teaching of biology and physical science — specifically, evolution and climate change — in public schools.”
Where in the bill does it target specifically, evolution and global warming? Any fair-minded reader can acknowledge when reading the wording in the new legislation that it contains nothing about the Bible, evolution, creation, or “climate change.”
Like the guardian, Larry O’Hanlon lies and then turns into a conspiracy…
“It is almost identical language in all of the bills,” said Rosenau. “It’s a package of bills that we’ve been tracking since the 2004 ‘Academic Freedom’ bill.” That bill, which was passed into law, was based on language generated by the Discovery Institute, which has long pushed for the inclusion of biblical creationism and pseudo-scientific “intelligent design” into science classes in public schools.”
The Discovery Institute? They didn’t write the bills! They endorse the bills no question about that, and they also give legal advice to lawmakers (when asked) in order to avoid legal challenges. The Discovery Institute doesn’t endorse using the Bible in public schools either. The modern intelligent movement is more like theistic evolution than creationism but does have valid scientific arguments against evolution. Also, The Discovery Institute doesn’t even endorse intelligent design being taught in the public schools!
Larry O’Hanlon and others who concoct a conspiracy story by using fallacies is because creationism cannot be taught legally in public schools so therefore they lie about objective critical thinking legislation, creationism, and intelligent design teaching concepts from the Bible.
What about this whole concept of having students having the option of objectively questioning all theories which includes evolution? Paleoanthropology like cosmology is riddled with an enormous amount of speculation. Take Neandertal man, evolutionists painted a picture of this ancient tribe as being sub-human, communicated with grunts, spent most of his time sitting in a cave with not much talent to speak of but showcased him as being “so-dimwitted.”. Creationists for years challenged that idea. It lacked scientific evidence while mainly relying on speculation for its facts.
But new discoveries have put Paleoanthropology to shame and confirmed creationists arguments!
A) Research has shown that stone tool technologies invented by modern humans from the past were no more efficient than the ones produced by Neanderthal man.
B) Broad use of land resources with scheduling resource use by the seasons.
C) Neandertal’s genome showed modern humans and Neanderthals have very little differences. “…new research published online May 6 (2010) in the journalScience reveals that we differ hardly at all.”
D) Europeans and Asians share about 1% to 4% of their nuclear DNA with Neanderthals, indicating that there was substantial interbreeding that went on between modern man and Neanderthals. This is very important evidence which blows away the story used within evolution because when species can interbreed then they are the same species!
E) A research team back in 2008, had examined shells that were used as containers to mix and store pigments. Black sticks of the pigment manganese, which may have been used as body paint by Neanderthals, have previously been discovered in Africa. The discovery lead researchers to think that Neanderthal man is not “so-dimwitted” as previously suggested.
Even gravity is questioned because of dark matter! One scientist told me, of course, questioning is allowed. However, just by looking at the fight that is going on with these various bills over the years, any fair-minded reader would know, questioning explanations based on evolution is not allowed but rather discouraged.
Scientists are not infallible, planetary scientists predict a whole bunch of things in our solar system but when directly observed from a space craft, their predictions are way off! Is it good for science to hold on to theories without questioning like a cult? No! Science progresses, evolution digresses which taints the practice of the scientific method!