Tennessee Forgets Scopes, Passes ID Bill

At least one state legislature has managed to push through a law designed by proponents of intelligent design and creationism.

Tennessee, where the debate should have been settled almost a century ago, has passed a bill (so far only in their House of Representatives) to promote “critical thinking” about scientific theories that can “cause controversy.”  I’ve written about this before.

You hear this business about “critical thinking” more and more these days from the fundies.  They do not understand what it means in normative academic discourse.  They think it means that when something contradicts their biblically based belief system, we should encourage kids to criticize it.  Now it’s part of their strategy to sneak ID/creationism in through the backdoor.

You can find the full text of the bill here.  Its language has been designed to sound innocent and constitutional.  Its critics have pointed out that it is anything but.  The main lobbyist is David Fowler, president of the Family Action Council of Tennessee, who has stated that presenting intelligent design “theory” is, in fact, the main goal of the law:

…[It is] appropriate that students understand that intelligent design is a theory that many scientists are beginning to consider and hold because of the weaknesses in the scientific evidence supporting evolution. In fact, over 850 PhD.-level scientists from some of the finest universities around the world have subscribed to this statement:

We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.

I’m sure that Tennessee is flush with jobs and enjoying a budget surplus.  Now they can use all that spare cash to set about defending this needless and ridiculous legislation.