Tennessee Senate Bill 893, which, if enacted, would encourage teachers to present the “scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses” of “controversial” topics such as “biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning.”
There are no scientific controversies about biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming or human cloning. The only controversies exist if you add political expediency, religious faith and corporations who want to pollute without restrictions.
Unfortunately for the science side of the equation, the Tennessee House passed the bill in April 2011, so after a conference between both houses to resolve small differences in language (the Senate amended the bill), it will be sent to the Governor of Tennessee, Bill Haslam, for final approval. Haslam is a Republican, but has stated in the past that the State Board of Education and not the legislature who should be responsible for educational standards. Nevertheless, even if he signs it, the state will be sued soon thereafter for violating the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution, costing the Tennessee school system millions of dollars. Undoubtedly, the legislature did not fund the bill to help school districts fight the inevitable lawsuits.
Again, it’s nice to live in an area of the United States that lacks this overt religious dominance over the body politic.
via “Monkey bill” passes Tennessee Senate | NCSE.
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