Well – they did it. SB733 passes 94-3. Now it goes to the Louisiana state Senate to consider an amendment.
Backers contend that the proposal would give science teachers more freedom to hold freewheeling classroom discussions, including arguments that challenge Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Read the whole thing at the Baton Rouge Advocate. You do not need to register.
Or the article at the Washington Times. You might need to register.
To be fair the Advocate article has some flaws. For example,
Christian creationists believe that life began about 6,000 years ago in a process described in the Bible’s Book of Genesis.
Well hang on a second. Not all creationists are young earthers. Not all young earthers go with the six thousand figure. And not all Intelligent Design proponents are – strictly speaking – creationists. This is a simplistic over-generalization.
I can handle that there might be some controversy about the details of Darwinian Evolutionary Theory. Maybe the mutations were not gradual. Maybe the pressures generating said mutations were not precisely as Darwin described. There is Newtonian physics and then there is post-Newtonian physics. Okay.
But here is my big question. What exactly would the “other view” in these controversial subjects be? Are teachers going to introduce evidence that suggests – so they say – evolutionary change could not have happened by chance or natural pressures? If not that then what?
“Hi kids. You know, I have some stuff here that suggests that the energy metabolism process that occurs within mitochondria is just so amazingly complex and improbable it could not have evolved by chance”.
“So Mr Richard – if it did not evolve by chance then where did it come from?”
“Oh uh – we’re not allowed to talk about that. But go home and think about it”. *cough* God *cough*
To my knowledge no supporter of this bill has yet to address this basic question that I asked in my letter to the editor. “What other explanations could there possibly be that are non-religious?”
