{"id":492,"date":"2011-04-10T22:17:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-10T22:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/04\/tennessee-forgets-scopes-passes-id-bill.html"},"modified":"2011-04-10T22:17:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-10T22:17:00","slug":"tennessee-forgets-scopes-passes-id-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/04\/tennessee-forgets-scopes-passes-id-bill.html","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee Forgets Scopes, Passes ID Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

At least one state legislature has managed to push through a law designed by proponents of intelligent design and creationism.<\/p>\n

Tennessee, where the debate should have been settled almost a century ago, has passed a bill<\/a> (so far only in their House of Representatives) to promote \u201ccritical thinking\u201d about scientific theories that can \u201ccause controversy.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019ve written about this before<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You hear this business about \u201ccritical thinking\u201d more and more these days from the fundies.\u00a0 They do not understand what it means in normative academic discourse.\u00a0 They think it means that when something contradicts their biblically based belief system, we should encourage kids to criticize it.\u00a0 Now it\u2019s part of their strategy to sneak ID\/creationism in through the backdoor.<\/p>\n

You can find the full text of the bill here<\/a>.\u00a0 Its language has been designed to sound innocent and constitutional.\u00a0 Its critics have pointed out that it is anything but.\u00a0 The main lobbyist is David Fowler, president of the Family Action Council of Tennessee, who has stated that presenting intelligent design \u201ctheory\u201d is, in fact, the main goal of the law<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2026[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:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m sure that Tennessee is flush with jobs and enjoying a budget surplus. \u00a0Now they can use all that spare cash to set about defending this needless and ridiculous legislation.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u201ccritical thinking\u201d about scientific theories that can \u201ccause controversy.\u201d\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[11,12,38],"class_list":["post-492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-evolution-and-creationism","tag-fundamentalist-christianity","tag-science-and-reason"],"yoast_head":"\nTennessee Forgets Scopes, Passes ID Bill<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At least one state legislature has managed to push through a law designed by proponents of intelligent design and creationism. 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