Doonesbury Lampoons Louisiana Science Classes

September 16, 2012 By 29 Comments

As we’ve mentioned before, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal wants to give $11,000,000 of taxpayer money to religious schools that may teach Creationism.

In today’s Doonesbury, Garry Trudeau takes us inside one of those classrooms…



Filed Under: Education, General, Humor, Politics, Science 29 Comments
About Hemant Mehta

Hemant Mehta is the chair of Foundation Beyond Belief and a high school math teacher in the suburbs of Chicago. He began writing the Friendly Atheist blog in 2006. His latest book is called The Young Atheist's Survival Guide.

  • newavocation

    Love it, I’m sure the students will appreciate science that can be taught in a single cartoon column. 

  • SuperciliousWeazen
  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001627228091 Alexander Ryan

    Ken Ham getting angry in 3… 2…

  • MargueriteF

    This is a Flashback, though I don’t recall when it first ran. It’s hilarious, though– a brilliant send-up of just how dumb “creation science” sounds when you strip away the fake science-y stuff and reduce it to the bare bones.

    • DoctorDJ

      A commenter at GoComics says “First ran on July 10, 2011.”
      Does change its truth or relevance, though.

  • http://v1car.wordpress.com/ The Vicar

    Is it just me, or does the girl in panel 2 have a freakishly large chin?

    • Deven Kale

       She has an underbite. I’ve know a few people that have one, and that’s a pretty standard profile for one with the condition.

      • http://v1car.wordpress.com/ The Vicar

        She doesn’t seem to have it in panel 1, though. (Not that this is exactly relevant.)

        • http://www.facebook.com/hebert.rob Rob Hebert

           It’s Trudeau’s style. Notice the guy in the panel has the same affliction. Probably not intentional, just the result of a sloppy bit of anatomy.

  • RobertoTheChi

    That is brilliant and too true.

  • Philo Vaihinger

    Is Jindal a creationist or just another irresponsible Republican willing to do anything to stay in office?

    • AdzyBoy

      He has a degree in biology, so it is hard to believe that he can actually be a creationist, but he still very well could be one.

      • TheBlackCat

         Lots of Creationists get degrees in biology just so they can destroy biology from the inside.  Others seem to be able to compartmentalize to a dumbfounding degree, doing a presentation that requires the world be billions of years old, but not actually believe a word of it.

    • http://itsmyworldcanthasnotyours.blogspot.com/ wmdkitty

      Those aren’t exactly mutually-exclusive options, so I’m going with: BOTH.

  • A3Kr0n

    OMG girls were descended from unicorns.  That’s why so many of them love ponies!

  • ORAXX

    Forcing the schools to teach creationism and/or intelligent design isn’t the same thing as actually haven proven your point.  It only means there are politicians who are just as stupid as the creationists.

  • Coupfornutt

    Why is giving money to religious schools any different than the giving of tax money to support idealogies that ‘creationists’ don’t believe in????

    But you would say that those same creationists didn’t deserve to say where that money went to, because it was a cause that you believed should be supported….

    The fact of the matter is that this cartoonist uses his strip to insult others in a fashion that is unbecoming anyone… I don’t care what side of the road you trod, slinging insults and being condescending gains you zero ground….

    • Deven Kale

       Would you be so quick and eager to support a Muslim school? How about a Hindu, Wiccan, or even Satanist school? Once the government starts supporting any religious school, they must support all of them. It’s right there in the Bill of Rights, “The government shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion,” which has always been interpreted to mean (among other things) that the government can’t support any one religion over another. Which means, basically, when it comes to supporting any religious schools it’s all or nothing. As far as I know, most people would rather it be nothing than everything.

      Right now, government money goes almost exclusively to secular schools which ignore all religions. These schools don’t teach any of the creation myths of any religion at all and instead teach only topics which have real evidenciary support, otherwise known as theories. It is the realm of the individual religions to teach their own creation myths whenever, wherever, and however they wish.

      • Justin Melancon

        I don’t know if Hemant covered this, but there is actually a Muslim school that could benefit from the voucher program.  Once one of the state legislators was informed of this, she immediately dropped her support for the program.

    • Chris

      With respect to your first two sentences:

      It isn’t a matter of belief…it’s a matter of fact. Evolution is a verifiable, testable, repeatable claim. It fits with an astounding amount of evidence and continues to provide explainatory power today (150 or so years after Darwin proposed it). That is amazing. The creationist side (god did it) provides no explanatory power, and cannot be verified, tested, or repeated. We cannot educate children with unverifiable claims. Contrary to many creationist claims, science has no agenda and is absolutely NOT an ideology. It welcomes criticism and scrutiny in the interest of further discovery. This is what makes it valid as an educational tool: it actually explains observable things and we can create new things predicated upon it.

      As far as your final point, jokes are what comic strips do. If you do not want to have your beliefs made into a joke, do not believe ludicrous things.

    • MargueriteF

      “Why is giving money to religious schools any different than the giving of tax money to support idealogies that ‘creationists’ don’t believe in????”

      Evolution isn’t an ideology; it’s science.

    • http://twitter.com/butterflyfish_ Heidi McClure

      Is there any part of it that isn’t true? If not, then it’s possibly that you are upset with reality, which is under no obligation to spare your feelings.

    • WoodyTanaka

      “Why is giving money to religious schools any different than the giving of tax money to support idealogies that ‘creationists’ don’t believe in????”Because there is no secular purpose to the first, and there is a clear secular purpose in the second.  (You seem to work from the presumption that if some teaches offends someone’s religion, that it is forbidden to teach it.  That is wrong.  If someone wants to defy reality as part of their religion (as creationsists do), the state need not respect that, as there is a clear secular purpose in teaching children what reality actually is.)

    • Guest.

       Doonesbury is not a miscellaneous cartoon.  It’s among the most widely read and disseminated political cartoons in the US.   Also, he may have stripped off some of the usual glossyness but he’s accurate on what creationism is.

    • http://twitter.com/Rickstersays Rickster Rickster

      you just engaged in specious disingenuous  argumentation to support the idiot creationists.  just how stupid are you?

    • Baby_Raptor

      Yay for pulling stuff out of your ass!

      You have no proof that anyone here supports funding for everything but Christian Creationism. You’re just whining because your side is getting “picked on.” 

  • Keulan

     Strips like this are why I like Doonesbury.

  • nakedanthropologist

    Oh, thank you  Doonesbury!  Mwah!

  • Justin Melancon

    Unfortunately, the situation with public schools in La is so bad that many parents are willing to look past the craziness in the science class if it means a better education in other subjects.  Note that I in no way share that opinion.