Indiana Republicans Push Creationism In Public Schools

Republicans continue to parade their disdain for science all over state houses nationwide. This time it’s Indiana and the topic is creationism after an Indiana Senate panel approved a bill that would allow creationism to be taught in Indiana’s public schools.

The Republican-controlled Senate Education Committee voted 8-2 on Wednesday to send the creationism in public schools bill to the full Senate for consideration. The bill allows schools to authorize “the teaching of various theories concerning the origin of life” and specifically mentions “creation science” as one such theory.

The bill advanced despite opposition from both the scientific and religious communities who pleaded with legislators to keep religion out of science classrooms. Purdue University professor of chemistry John Staver told the panel evolution is the only theory of life’s origins that relies on scientific investigations. He says creationism “is unquestionably a statement of a specific religion.”

If the religious community is split on whether or not teaching creationism the science curriculum in public schools is a good idea, don’t you think that’s a pretty good indication that it is not a good idea? And it’s not even as though critics are challenging the idea of creationism in schools in general. They are simply objecting to placing it in the science curriculum where students learn about the scientific process. If the theory to be taught can fit within this process then it deserves a place in the sciences. If it can’t then let the philosophy and humanities instructors deal with it.

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Photo from FlyingSinger via flickr.

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Joe R.

6:46PM PST on Feb 1, 2012

Every ancient religion has a creation myth. If you must, present them ALL as an interesting two-minute anecdote and then move on to teaching the science of evolution.

send a green star

Theo C.

1:47PM PST on Feb 1, 2012

There's a Haida story that says the first people emerged from a clam shell. Restate that in scientific-sounding language and you'll have another kind of "science" to join the curriculum. Right?

Chad A.

6:42AM PST on Feb 1, 2012

I say get good science teachers who can teach why it is not science and let the students take it apart!

Jarno L.

8:47AM PST on Jan 31, 2012

(the rest of my comment that got cut:)

...It would do either of two things: make you realize that you are rejecting something that you shouldn't be rejecting, OR make you better at rejecting that which you are now rejecting.

Imagine if I were to criticize your Christian faith by saying something like: "Oh, those Christians nail eachother to crosses every sunday and eat babies!"

What would you think? Would you find this a good argument against your faith? Of course not. You'd just think - and rightly so - that I was being an idiot, and hadn't bothered to do any research into what Christians actually believed.

Criticizing an idea that you know little or nothing about can only manage to make you look foolish, whether or not you are right or wrong.

I sincerely recommend that you look up potholer54 on YouTube, and watch his "made easy" series that explains, among other things, the basics of evolution. You can go on rejecting it after that, if you still think the theory is without merit, but at least you'll have a grasp of what it is that you are rejecting.

8:44AM PST on Jan 31, 2012

Heather, your questions only reveal that you do not know the basics of that which you reject. Any evolution 101 course, or even a good brief video explanation of what the theory of evolution says, on it's basic level, would give you the knowledge that would reveal to you why your questions miss the mark.

Evolution doesn't happen by magic, nor is it some sort of a progressive force that has a goal - evolution is the long-term result of short term adaption of populations to their current environments.

Thus humans are not in any sense "more evolved" than apes, nor is there any force that would mean that apes must evolve into humans.

The question also reveals a deep misunderstanding of what common descent means - we didn't evolve from any modern ape, but rather apes and us share a common ancestor.

Thus asking "if humans evolved from apes, why are there still apes?" is EXACTLY comprable to the nonsensical question "if your cousin turned into you, why does your cousin still exist?".

Just like you didn't come from your cousin, but you and your cousin share a common ancestor (a very recent one - your grandmother), apes and humans share a common ancestor too, although that common ancestor is much, much, much further down our family trees than the common ancestor you share with your cousin.

Seriously Heather, it really, really would only help you if you understood that which you reject. It would do either of two things: make you realize that you are rejecting som

Stephen G.

7:37AM PST on Jan 31, 2012

Heather M.

You don't understand science at all. Your initial question is like asking why, if mammals evolved from reptiles, why do reptiles still exist. That answer obviously being that only a certain lineage of reptiles adapted the traits that led to their existence as mammals; other reptiles did not need these traits to survive.

No one is saying the Universe "just happened". Matter, in it's simplest form, literally cannot be created or destroyed. The Universe has always existed in some form or another, and it always will exist.

Using your analogy, didn't two parents have to make the person who made the dress. The "watchmaker analogy" fails because it assumes everything needs a creator, except the creator. By creating an exception, your proving that your own theory could never be a "law" because exceptions obviously can be made.

That moon, for example, was not created like a dress or a watch. A large asteroid hit the Earth, and massive amounts of the asteroid and the Earth were flung into space. Gravity eventually brought all of the matter together into one body, the moon. That's a very simple way to describe how the moon was created, but it all occurred without any "moon-maker".

Heather M.

4:41AM PST on Jan 31, 2012

If we came from apes how come there are still so many apes around that haven't evolved into human beings? Creationism is saying that an intelligent being made the Universe and everything in it. It didn't just happen. Just like you can look at a motor car and not think it just happened but realise that an intelligent human being planned it and then made it.Imagine asking a friend where they bought there dress and they say, 'Oh it just happened, I was wishing I had a nice new dress and it just appeared." Ye right! We are so incredibly made and the more scientists examine us and other species and everything around us, they realise just that.I believe that science is actually a study of what actually is Some scientists would. see what God has made and realising that it couldn't just happen. Re those who say it all just happened by accident - Well an accident creates chaos but the Universe has been created with so much order and it is so wonderous to behold.

Myron S.

9:05PM PST on Jan 30, 2012

"May the Baby Jesus close their mouths and open their eyes."
- Some hippie back in the day

Thanks for reminding me, Joe

Rebecca S.

5:28PM PST on Jan 30, 2012

@Patrick, Evolutionary Biology is a pure science and the whole point of it is adaptations that occur over millions of years. These changes aren't meant to be sudden, but never the less are understood. Now there is a difference between macro and micro evolution. As for completely new DNA, that would never occur in evolution as DNA would be a new specie, not simply and adapted one. Plus we share DNA with so many animals from our relative the ape to another one we share a lot of genetics with are pigs. Evolution is a proper theory. A theory in science meaning something tested and observed time and time again and proven, a hypothesis being simply an intelligent estimate but has not or cannot be tested.

joe M.

5:23PM PST on Jan 30, 2012

Evelyn: Sorry Tn, can not be left alone. As a united nation we are bond together for better for worst. And unless your state for one advances into 21st Century teachings will drag our educational system and our nation will continue to be left behind on modern science. Surely you appear to be an intelligent individual and I respect you fending your state, unfortunately religious teaching are not in sync with the modern world of today. It is a scientific world dealing in reality not in make believe creationism, wishing for miracles from an unknown heaven.