Creationism Bills Defeated!

[RainDog]

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/05/27/science-defeats-creationism-in-oklahoma-in-flawless-victory/

Three anti-science bills that would have severely set back the education of students in Oklahoma died quietly last week when the legislative session came to an end.

Among the bills that were killed includes:

SB 1742, which would have allowed teachers to challenge evolution using the Biblical theory known as creationism.

HB 1551 died previously in early April. That bill amounted to a full-fledged attack on climate change and evolution. Republican state Rep. Steve Russell attempted to amend an unrelated education bill, called HB 2341, to include the anti-science language of HB 1551 but that also failed.

With the end of the legislative session, all of these efforts to force creationism into science classrooms have been defeated meaning science has once again prevailed in another Republican dominated state. Earlier this month, science scored victories over creationism in Missouri and Alabama.

But there's good news and bad news...

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/02/23/creationists-suffer-defeat-in-oklahoma/

good news: that bill failed to pass the vote. The bad news? It only failed 7-9. Nearly half the people in the state’s Education Committee felt it would be OK (haha) for students to fail to learn actual science, and not be penalized for it.

And Kern, the bill’s sponsor, will no doubt not take this defeat lying down. She has a long, long history of blatant anti-reality leanings — she once compared being gay to having cancer — and I’m sure she’ll be proposing some new version of nonsense soon.

But there’s some hope. Fred Jordan, another member of the Education Committee, said,

"We’re opening the door for teachers to kind of say whatever they want to say, whether it’s religious issues, creation, evolution. I really feel like we’re opening the door to where any and everything can come in."

[ZombieHorde]

1. Nice to read some mostly good news. nt

[Warren DeMontague]

2. Good news.

Scary that it almost passed, but good news.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

3. The anti-science politicians will be back. There is a ready supply of stupid people to support them

[Paul Burnett]

4. Creationism is not a "theory"

SB 1742 mentions "the Biblical theory known as creationism."

Evolution is both a fact, and a theory to explain that fact. Creationism is neither a fact nor a theory.

Creationism is mythology based on the scientificic illiteracy of those who made it up thousands of years ago. The shameful fact that adults in the 21st century still believe in the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny and creationism is a shameful indictment of our educational system.

[RainDog]

5. It's an indictment of too many Americans

who are too brainwashed to care about the truth.

[Poiuyt]

8. +1

[longship]

6. Oklahomans for Excellence in Science

Oklahomans for Excellence in Science are doing a helluva job in OK.

[raccoon]

7. K&R. nt

[MineralMan]

9. Creationism is superstitious nonsense.

Most religions have a creation myth. They're all different, and yet all the same.

[Archae]

10. I knew I'd seen that name before, Sally Kern.

Far-right nincompoop.

"We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that’s tragic, but are they in prison just because they are black or because they don’t want to study as hard in school? I’ve taught school, and I saw a lot of people of color who didn’t study hard because they said the government would take care of them."

"Women usually don't want to work as hard as a man... women tend to think a little bit more about their family, wanting to be at home more time, wanting to have a little more leisure time."

[RainDog]

12. Kern sounds like a racist, sexist, religious idiot

it's SO not surprising to find these traits clustered in one uneducated person.

[GoneOffShore]

11. Huzzah for reality.

And a big raspberry to Sally "the idiot" Kern and her ID(iot) colleagues.