My hackles are duly raised. The Louisiana House passed the underhanded “academic freedom” bill SB 733 yesterday. Not only that, but they passed it 94-3.
So much for my optimistic tone yesterday. Apparenty Barbara Forrest’s analysis had no effect at all, as this Fox News article claims that there was no vocal opposition. The article also carries this quote from the head of the bullshit factory known as the Discovery Institute:
“This bill promotes good science education by protecting the academic freedom of science teachers,” said Dr. John West, Vice President for Public Policy and Legal Affairs at Discovery Institute. “Critics who claim the bill promotes religion instead of science either haven’t read the bill or are putting up a smokescreen to divert attention from the censorship that has been going on.”
Actually, I have read the bill, and I agree with Barbara Forrest’s assessment: if the bill was truly about science, it would not need a passage claiming that it was not intended to promote religion.
The bill still has to go before the Louisiana Senate, because the language was changed by a House comittee. But seeing as the Senate passed the original bill 35-0, that’s probably not going to be a problem. And seeing as the governor is apparently a right-wing nutcase, a veto is probably out of the question.
Looks like another time-consuming, tax-dollar-wasting court case is in the future. The liars at the Discovery Institute must be as happy as pigs in filth.
Tags: church and state separation, Creationism, discovery institute, Evolution, Intelligent Design, john west, louisiana coalition on science, louisiana science education act, SB 733, Science
Allusions of Grandeur 
June 12, 2008 at 12:48 pm |
😦
June 12, 2008 at 2:46 pm |
That emoticon could handily fill in for my entire post.
A dark day for science.
June 14, 2008 at 5:45 pm |
A good day for truth. A bad day for atheistic [i.e. — false] science.
;]
Democracy rules!
–Sirius Knott
June 15, 2008 at 11:50 am |
Science is about theory, not truth. You should head to a philosophy class.
There’s no such thing as atheistic science. There is only science, which by the way can have nothing to say about whether gods exist or not, their being unfalsifiable by definition.
I hope that means the above was sarcastic.
Attempting to decide science in the legislature does not. Science is decided by experiment and peer review, not by bills and court cases.
Your kind are abusing the democratic system when they try to sneak religion into science classes.
June 20, 2008 at 4:12 pm |
1. Gov. Jindal is emphatically not a right wing nutcase. All such use a limited repertoire of catchphrases and propaganada slogans. Witness Tony Perkins campaign, and Vitter’s drool. Jindal is Catholic, and as such is a declared enemy of the Christian Wrong’s Lockstep Goosestep Frogmarch. This of course, won’t stop the fundies from using them, and sucking up to achieve their theocracy.
2. Concerned Women for America is a Moonie front organization, as are Free Teen USA and Christian Heritage Foundation. Mumsey and Daddy Moon-Moon have a large monetary and philosophical interest in IDiocy. Jonathan Wells of the Discovery INstitute is one of their zombies.
3. Discovery Institute has no interest at all but to push Creationism, and to lie just as much as possible in the process. IDiocy has a much larger itinerary, which will lead to theocracy.
4. The Louisiana Legislature has behaved like a Soviet politburo in this case. “These are proposals put to this august body. Everyone vote!” All hands shoot up. “Is unanimous, comrades!” Of course, there is legal precedent. The ‘Balanced Treatment Act’, blatant YEC, was passed the same way in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
Ray
June 20, 2008 at 4:48 pm |
Well spotted. I should have thought a bit before branding him with that particular, well, brand. I should have just dropped the “right-wing” bit. It’s hard for me to think of someone who earnestly performs exorcisms in this day and age as anything but a nut-case.
The rest of your comment is spot-on as well, of course.
August 17, 2008 at 1:39 am |
What can be done to challenge this lastest outrage? It would appear that the opposition to this wave of religious lunkheadery needs to be organised better . Jehovah in a biology class? C`mon people , this is the 21st Century