I May Have Spoken Too Soon . . .

Just last week I said in a post:

"Rep Butler [R-AL] is using teachers as a kind of scapegoat to justify his actions.  Let's not forget that this same politician tried a similar bill (which failed) and did manage to get a Student Religious Freedom bill passed just last year.  God forbid a politician be honest in his motivations." (An Alabama State Representative Shows His Ignorance)

Rather than hide in the shadows, this State representative (Mary Bentley, R - AR) is sponsoring a bill that states very clearly:

"HB2050 - TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS CODE TO ALLOW PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS TO TEACH CREATIONISM AND INTELLIGENT DESIGN AS THEORIES ALONGSIDE THE TEACHING OF THE ORIGINS OF THE EARTH AND THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION."

With the failure of so many so-called 'academic freedom' bills, you know the bills that have absolutely nothing to do with academic freedom, I guess one politician got tired of trying to sneak their religion into the classroom through the backdoor.  While I disagree with her, I have to respect her honesty!  

Normally, I would say her bill doesn't stand a prayer [pun intended], but then I didn't think America was foolish enough to elect a hamster-haired misogynistic liar for President.  But isn't Arkansas the same state where their law to make teaching of evolution illegal was overturned in the 1960's (Epperson v. Arkansas) and also their effort to teach  a 'Balanced Treatment', that is teaching Creationism (renamed Creation Science at the time) and Evolution side-by-side and on equal terms -- got dumped as well in the 1980's (McLean v. Arkansas)?  

So, again while I do applaud her honesty, I have to question why she wants her religion to be taught in the classroom as if it were science.  Does she also want Numerology in math class or Astrology in Astronomy?  If not, why not?  I also have to ask the people in Arkansas why they keep electing politicians who seem to spend more time focusing on preaching religion than dealing with other issues facing the State.  Let's see, how does Arkansas rank in a few areas?

• Education - Arkansas ranks 43rd lowest out of the 50 states in HS graduation rate, 48th in Bachelor degrees and 49th in Advanced degrees. (Wikipedia: source)
• Violent Crime - 9th highest rank in violent crimes (World Atlas: source)
• Teen Pregnancy - 4th highest rate of teen pregnancy (LiveScience: source)
• Unemployment - Actually not bad, 13th lowest (BLS: source)

Well, it looks like to me Rep Bentley needs to ask herself a few questions.  the first is simple: "Why does she insist on inflicting her religious beliefs on the rest of the State in violation of the US Constitution?" and second is "Doesn't she have any real problems to deal with?"  I guess a third question, and maybe the only one that matters might be "Why does she think teaching religion in science class is going to help any of the real problems facing Arkansas?"Does she actually believe dumbing down science will improve education?  And of course everyone knows theists never commit violent crimes (please add a sarcastic snort after that sentence).  And theists never get pregnant at a young age, seriously?  Check this out:

"With data aggregated at the state level, conservative religious beliefs strongly predict U.S. teen birth rates, in a relationship that does not appear to be the result of confounding by income or abortion rates. One possible explanation for this relationship is that teens in more religious communities may be less likely to use contraception." (BioMed Central: source)

Similar things have been reported in many sources including Live Science, the New York Times, and the Christian Science Monitor.  Not only are they less likely to use contraception, but their sex education is generally lacking.

I doubt she will ever answer any of these questions, after all she is more than likely just 'pandering' for votes.  Oh, I am sure she's a church-goer and holds a set of religious beliefs, but being elected does not give her the right to force those beliefs onto other people!  But sponsoring such bills will probably have the affect of gaining her some votes.  Sorta like a certain hamster-haired politician holding up the Bible, a book I doubt he has ever opened up . . . of course that is strictly my opinion, but has anyone ever seen him actually use it for most than a speech prop?

OK, one last time, I do respect her honesty, but I certainly do not support her efforts.  Intelligent Design and Creationism are religious concepts that do not belong in science class.  No matter how you dress them up, there are standards within science and neither of those ideas meet any of them.  The nearest they come to actual science is being  defined as:

" . . . claims, beliefs, or practices presented as being plausible scientifically, but which are not justifiable by the scientific method"  (Wikipedia: pseudo-science)

The Ark Park and the Kentucky Governor

Someone questioned a comment I made in a recent post and I wanted to clear that up. I said:

"Little kennie ham, with the help of a newly elected Republican Kentucky Governor, have once again made fools of the people of Kentucky and is opening an exhibit to showcase his narrow theological views and potentially leaving the people of Kentucky to pay for it . . . especially if his highly suspect attendance projections come in more like the reality of his other abortion, the Creation 'Museum'. " (This blog: Kennie's Ark Park about to Open, Sorry Kentucky! I feel your pain!)

The question was the involvement of the Kentucky Governor. Well just this morning I was thinking about how to address it when I read a perfect response from the Sensuous Curmudgeon. He was quoting little kennie is his whine over the reporting by Cincinnati.com. I mentioned his whine in my own post, but I didn't pull any quotes from it. Well SC's post (Ken Ham Rants About “Biased” Ark News) pulled this quote from kennie:

"Yes, the Ark Encounter has the opportunity through Kentucky’s tourism incentive program to receive a future rebate of sales taxes that it generates at our theme park up to $18.25 million over a 10-year period after it opens. (And as the writer did correctly state, the right of the Ark Encounter to participate in this program was upheld in federal court.)"

When I originally read this from kennie, I knew he was overstating the case.  SC wrote the perfect response and I just have to quote it here:

"Ah yes — the legendary court victory. But as we keep reminding you, it didn’t happen that way. Early in the case, long before the trial began, the judge issued a temporary injunction preventing the state from denying the tax goodies. That is sometimes done to preserve the status quo in order to prevent damage being done until the case can be decided. At that point, the Governor stepped in and caused the state to withdraw from the case. It wasn’t a court victory on the merits of Hambo’s case; it was an embarrassing incident of lexus interruptus. "

Little kennie's case never went to trial  Other than political posturing, and kennie lying about upholding anti-discrimination laws, there was actually little done other than the temporary injunction, which it pretty typical in these type of cases.  The judge doesn't want any changes made until they go through all the legal hoops.  But after the election of a new Republican Governor, the State pulled out.  Little kennie did not win his case, nothing was upheld.  The Governor simply rolled over, in what I think was nothing but typical political pandering.  Just like he did when he kowtowed to Kim Davis on her refusal to do her job and issue legal marriage licenses.

Surprise . . . Surprise . . . Surprise . . . Politicos who pander for Votes . . . Wow!

One of my Google Alerts pointed me to "Lawmakers might introduce ‘anti-evolution’ legislation to appease religious constituents, researchers theorize".  I've spoken about politicians who support pseudo-science pandering for years.  Nice that someone is actually studying it . . . although was it really necessary?  

I recall a study from a long time ago about the military applications of the Frisbee.  It was given up when it was determined that a Frisbee doesn't go where you wanted it to go.  I recall another one that determined mothers prefer children's clothing that don't require ironing. . . so I think there are some things that maybe don't need to be studied to death.

As for the pandering politicians, I agree that politicians are supposed to support their constituents, but does that mean helping them over a cliff?  When a politicians sponsors a bill -- one they know will not pass -- for the express purpose of appeasing part of their constituency . . . aren't they wasting time and resources that could be put to productive use?  How many man-hours went into the 110 anti-evolution bills from 2001 - 2012?  What an absolute waste!  I mean some folks get up in arms when a state spends hours debating the State Bird, or the State Reptile.  Shouldn't folks realize how wasteful this is as well?

Some might point to Tennessee and Louisiana, the only two states to pass anti-evolution bills, as successes . . . but you do realize neither state has put those bills into much practice.  They fear, and rightly so, the legal cost once they do.  Louisianan tried to add some built-in measures to make it hard to challenge in court , , , but those haven't been tested yet either.  It cost one school system in Dover PA over a million dollars . . . what might it cost those two states?  All for a few politicos gain a few more votes . . . and become laughingstocks at the same time!  

I know it's not going to stop.  Most politicians aren't the brightest bulbs in the pack.  Why focus on actually educating their constituents when pandering is so easy.  If the majority of their voting constituents wanted to act like lemmings, I am sure a pandering politician will be more than glad to help . . . as long as they vote before jumping!  All too many politicians are so incredible short-sighted. Is there some partial-lobotomy before they get sworn into office?

Has Intelligent Design finally Evolved?

So do we have a candidate for the next little bit of fluff to replace the Intelligent Design in the vernacular? I've mentioned how 'Creationism' magically morphed into 'Creation Science' in response to getting whacked in court. After Creation Science took its tumble, 'Intelligent Design' took a turn in the woodshed and proceeded to perform just as well -- or just as poorly -- depending on your point of view. So one of the questions I am curious about is what's next? Hasn't Intelligent Design pretty well run its course?

Well -- we have a new term being bandied about by a Florida State Senator who is pushing Florida's first anti-science bill of 2011. In "More conservative Legislature considers evolution bill" Sen. Wise doesn't call out Creationism or Intelligent Design, the quote reads that we have to teach both 'evolution and nonevolution'. Nonevolution? Talk about an interesting term. So just what is the 'Theory of Nonevolution'? Who is working on this 'theory'? How does one falsify 'Nonevolution'? How does one test for it? Does the Discovery Institute know about this one? Most important is how in the world do you teach it? Seriously, how will it be presented in class, as some sort of 'nonevent' or is it just another bit of 'nonsense'.

Personally I vote for 'nonsense'. I think the Senator was just trying to look for a word that might not raise the hair on the back of the necks of the many people in Florida who accept and understand science. I think he blew it. But that's just me talking.

So the less-than-serious question is exactly what is 'Nonevolution'? All kidding aside, we know it's not a scientific theory. We also know there is no scientific theory about life that doesn't currently fall under the heading of 'Evolution'. So by extrapolation we are left with non-scientific ideas, like Creationism and Intelligent Design. Funny how it works that way. No matter what you care to call it, it always comes back to non-science, religiously-based, alternative ideas. Please remember that Sen. Wise failed in 2009 when he wrote a bill calling for a "thorough presentation and critical analysis of the scientific theory of evolution."

I do not believe Florida needs to deal with this law and they should let it die on the vine. I mean the current standards allow any scientific theory countering evolution to be presented. the key here being the word SCIENTIFIC. Since the current laws already allow it, this bill is a waste of time and resources. Sen. Wise can point to his sponsorship of this bill and garner his pandering points with conservative Christians in his constituency as he asks them to send money to his next campaign. My question to his constituency is simple, is Sen. Wise really representing you?

In the meantime we'll keep looking for the 'next big thing' to follow the evolution of Creationism to Creation Science and its evolution into Intelligent Design. . .. I don't think 'Nonevolution' is the right handle. But just in case should we start warning textbook publishers to be on the lookout for 'cdesnonevolutionentists'?