{"id":556,"date":"2011-02-02T23:21:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-02T23:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/there-is-no-controversy-to-teach.html"},"modified":"2011-02-02T23:21:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-02T23:21:00","slug":"there-is-no-controversy-to-teach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/there-is-no-controversy-to-teach.html","title":{"rendered":"There Is No Controversy To Teach!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It\u2019s Darwin\u2019s month, so I\u2019m just going to keep rolling with evolution-related posts for a while.<\/p>\n

Yesterday I had a little fun with a frivolous lawsuit filed by some barely literate \u201cformer science teacher\u201d challenging the teaching of evolution.\u00a0\u00a0While that was nothing to worry about,\u00a0this bill introduced into the New Mexico legislature certainly is<\/a>:<\/p>\n

House Bill 302<\/a>, introduced in the New Mexico House of Representatives on February 1, 2011\u2026is the fifth antievolution bill to be introduced in a state legislature in 2011. \u2026[T]he bill would require teachers to be allowed to inform students \u201cabout relevant scientific information regarding either the scientific strengths or scientific weaknesses\u201d pertaining to \u201ccontroversial\u201d scientific topics; The bill would protect teachers from \u201creassignment, termination, discipline or other discrimination for doing so.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In an effort to make sure that no one thinks this is about any kind of RELIGIOUS controversy, the bill also states:<\/p>\n

This section only protects the teaching of scientific information and specifically does not protect the promotion of any religion, religious doctrine or religious belief.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2026\u201dcontroversial scientific topic\u201d includes biological origins, biological evolution\u2026and other scientific topics that are often viewed by society as controversial\u2026.<\/p>\n

But as the Bard once wrote, \u201cThere\u2019s the rub.\u201d There is no \u201cscientific information\u201d that calls evolution into question that is not \u201creligious doctrine or religious belief\u201d in disguise.<\/p>\n

There simply do not exist any scientific controversies about the fundamentals of the theory of evolution that do not turn on a religious issue.\u00a0\u00a0There are plenty of scientific disagreements about the finer details of the theory, but there is not one single reputable scientist \u2013 NOT ONE \u2013 who rejects the framework theory of biological evolution.<\/p>\n

Groups like Answers in Genesis and the Discovery Institute would like us to think otherwise.\u00a0\u00a0They also claim that they can \u201cscientifically\u201d prove that Noah\u2019s flood really occurred or that modern humans co-existed with dinosaurs.\u00a0\u00a0But no rational person could mistake that for \u201cscientific information.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Darwin\u2019s month, so I\u2019m just going to keep rolling with evolution-related posts for a while. Yesterday I had a little fun with a frivolous lawsuit filed by some barely literate \u201cformer science teacher\u201d challenging the teaching of evolution.\u00a0\u00a0While that was nothing to worry about,\u00a0this bill introduced into the New Mexico legislature certainly is:<\/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":[11,38],"class_list":["post-556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-evolution-and-creationism","tag-science-and-reason"],"yoast_head":"\nThere Is No Controversy To Teach!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It's Darwin's month, so I'm just going to keep rolling with evolution-related posts for a while. Yesterday I had a little fun with a frivolous lawsuit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/there-is-no-controversy-to-teach.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"There Is No Controversy To Teach!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It's Darwin's month, so I'm just going to keep rolling with evolution-related posts for a while. Yesterday I had a little fun with a frivolous lawsuit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/there-is-no-controversy-to-teach.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-02T23:21:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. Falick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeffrey L. Falick\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/there-is-no-controversy-to-teach.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/there-is-no-controversy-to-teach.html\",\"name\":\"There Is No Controversy To Teach!\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-02-02T23:21:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-02-02T23:21:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/fc95554b64c99ed45146c32bf5cd2372\"},\"description\":\"It's Darwin's month, so I'm just going to keep rolling with evolution-related posts for a while. Yesterday I had a little fun with a frivolous lawsuit\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/there-is-no-controversy-to-teach.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/there-is-no-controversy-to-teach.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/there-is-no-controversy-to-teach.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"There Is No Controversy To Teach!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/\",\"name\":\"The Atheist Rabbi\",\"description\":\"The blog of Jeffrey L. Falick, Secular Humanistic Rabbi.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/fc95554b64c99ed45146c32bf5cd2372\",\"name\":\"Jeffrey L. Falick\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f4f93646f1bdd3c145883cb358ed21b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f4f93646f1bdd3c145883cb358ed21b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jeffrey L. Falick\"},\"description\":\"Jeffrey L. Falick is the Secular Humanistic Rabbi of The Birmingham Temple Congregation for Humanistic Judaism in Michigan. He is also certified as a Senior Humanist Celebrant by the American Humanist Association and is president and founder of Humanists of Southeast Michigan.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/author\/jfalick\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"There Is No Controversy To Teach!","description":"It's Darwin's month, so I'm just going to keep rolling with evolution-related posts for a while. Yesterday I had a little fun with a frivolous lawsuit","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/there-is-no-controversy-to-teach.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"There Is No Controversy To Teach!","og_description":"It's Darwin's month, so I'm just going to keep rolling with evolution-related posts for a while. Yesterday I had a little fun with a frivolous lawsuit","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/there-is-no-controversy-to-teach.html","og_site_name":"The Atheist Rabbi","article_published_time":"2011-02-02T23:21:00+00:00","author":"Jeffrey L. Falick","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeffrey L. Falick","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/there-is-no-controversy-to-teach.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/there-is-no-controversy-to-teach.html","name":"There Is No Controversy To Teach!","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-02-02T23:21:00+00:00","dateModified":"2011-02-02T23:21:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/fc95554b64c99ed45146c32bf5cd2372"},"description":"It's Darwin's month, so I'm just going to keep rolling with evolution-related posts for a while. Yesterday I had a little fun with a frivolous lawsuit","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/there-is-no-controversy-to-teach.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/there-is-no-controversy-to-teach.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/there-is-no-controversy-to-teach.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"There Is No Controversy To Teach!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/","name":"The Atheist Rabbi","description":"The blog of Jeffrey L. Falick, Secular Humanistic Rabbi.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/fc95554b64c99ed45146c32bf5cd2372","name":"Jeffrey L. Falick","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f4f93646f1bdd3c145883cb358ed21b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f4f93646f1bdd3c145883cb358ed21b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jeffrey L. Falick"},"description":"Jeffrey L. Falick is the Secular Humanistic Rabbi of The Birmingham Temple Congregation for Humanistic Judaism in Michigan. He is also certified as a Senior Humanist Celebrant by the American Humanist Association and is president and founder of Humanists of Southeast Michigan.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/author\/jfalick"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}