Republican Control Of State Legislatures Brings Record Number of Creationism Bills

So much for focusing on the economy:

The National Center for Science Education has tracked a record-setting number of nine anti-evolution bills introduced in state legislatures since Jan. 1.

The latest is Texas’ HB 2454, which would prohibit an institution of higher learning from “discrimination related to research related into intelligent design.”

“PROHIBITION OF DISCRIMINATION BASED ON RESEARCH RELATED TO INTELLIGENT DESIGN. An institution of higher education may not discriminate against or penalize in any manner, especially with regard to employment or academic support, a faculty member or student based on the faculty member’s or student’s conduct of research relating to the theory of intelligent design or other alternate theories of the origination and development of organisms.”

What makes this bill such a precious gem is that it relies on creationists’ persecution complex and oft-repeated talking point that the science community discriminates against ID research.  But as we all know, there is no such thing as ID research, which has not yet produced one single legitimate peer reviewed paper.

(….)

In addition to Texas, another anti-evolution bill was also introduced this month in Florida. HB 1854 would require “a critical analysis” of the teaching of evolution in public schools. The bill is little different from legislation currently in committee in Tennessee, which says that educators may not be prohibited from “helping students understand, analyze, critique and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught.”

All three states have legislatures under the complete control of the GOP.

 

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. tom p says:

    “PROHIBITION OF DISCRIMINATION BASED ON RESEARCH RELATED TO INTELLIGENT DESIGN.

    I had no idea there was a ban of any kind in this country.. I mean, don’t they still have Sunday school?

  2. EddieInCA says:

    (emphasis mine) Rep Ed Markey (D): “Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to a bill that overturns the scientific finding that pollution is harming our people and our planet.

    However, I won’t physically rise, because I’m worried that Republicans will overturn the law of gravity, sending us floating about the room.

    I won’t call for the sunlight of additional hearings, for fear that Republicans might excommunicate the finding that the Earth revolves around the sun.

    Instead, I’ll embody Newton’s third law of motion and be an equal and opposing force against this attack on science and on laws that will reduce America’s importation of foreign oil.

    This bill will live in the House while simultaneously being dead in the Senate. It will be a legislative Schrodinger’s cat killed by the quantum mechanics of the legislative process!

    Arbitrary rejection of scientific fact will not cause us to rise from our seats today. But with this bill, pollution levels will rise. Oil imports will rise. Temperatures will rise.

    And with that, I yield back the balance of my time. That is, unless a rejection of Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity is somewhere in the chair’s amendment pile.

    So much win.

  3. velouria says:

    These Teahadist are hell bent on driving us back to the 19th, no 18th, no 17th century. U.S.A! U.S.A! It’s all downhill from here. When we should be innovating to maintain a competitive edge THIS is what today’s GOP focuses upon – anti-science, anti-choice, anti-contraception, anti-union, anti-middleclass, anti-GLBT but pro-Christianist agenda. We’re doomed if America doesn’t wake up soon and kick these bozos out.

  4. stephen says:

    “Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind,” –Albert Einstein

    There’s just too much evidence pointing to a ‘designer’ as opposed to a random selection of events creating what we all know and understand representing ‘life’.

    Anthropic Constants such as: Oxygen levels, Atmospheric Transparency, Moon-Earth Gravitational Interaction, Carbon Dioxide Levels, and Gravity ALL clearly point to argument of what is call the Teleological Argument. Isaac Newton and William Paley all supported this theory.