MO HB911 -- thinly veiled attempt to teach creationism

[Gore1FL]

The Missouri House has a resolution HB911 which is nothing more than a RWN insistance that creationism be taugh in public schools:

http://www.house.state.mo.us/bills041/biltxt/intro/HB0911I.HTM

If you read the text, you will be completely disgusted. Among other disgraces, this bill provides penalties for teachers who refuse to adopt the new pro-creationism curriculum in their classrooms and requires that the law be visibly posted in all science classrooms.

This is a link to an articlwe in the KC Star:

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/living/education/7665979.htm

If you are from Missouri, I strongly suggest you send a letter to your Rep and Senator. You can find out who they are at this address:

http://www.senate.state.mo.us/zipcode/leg_lookup.htm


Here is what I sent my Rep and Senator:

I am writing to urge you to take any and all action necessary to stop HB911.

Upon reading the text of the Bill http://www.house.state.mo.us/bills041/biltxt/intro/HB0911I.HTM The irony of the title is almost as illuminating as the text itself.

The Date of 9/11 is etched into the hearts of Every American of the terrible result of religious fanaticism. It is quite clear that this Bill has similar elements of religious fanaticism, albeit a different religion. Although HB911 will not bring down skyscrapers, it does attack the very foundation of religious freedom in this country. Considering that Jesus only spoke in parables in the New Testament(see also (Matthew 13:10, 11, 13; 16:17; 1 John 2:27)) It is obviously a serious logical error to teach the Old Testament as Science -- But that is really beside the point.

We don't need thinly veiled laws mandating false science in our public schools. Science is Science for everyone. If someone wants to believe differently, that is their choice. It is not the place of the Public schools to teach scientifically debunked Old Testament Parables and pass them off as Science.

I send my son to Public school to understand the world around him as it is. Granted the world is full of Right Wing Religious Nuts who have co-opted God for political reasons. This however seems a more appropriate lesson for Social Studies Classes rather than Biology, Physics, Chemistry, etc.

Taking a nonsense resolution a step further, I can only imagine my son with mathematical word problem where a man has two fish and five loaves of bread and ends up with 5000 meals. while this story may have spiritual meaning to many, I would certainly hate any student in such a math class working on a manned flight to Mars.

I urge you to keep Church and State separate, and keep legitimate science as the sole education experience in science class. I don't go to church to learn Physical education. I don't want my son, or any one else's, going to a public school to learn the conflicting biblical creation stories alongside of the 'Ideal Gas' law and acceleration due to gravity.

Thank you

[lazarus]

1. Oh, sheesh

And check out the "justification." “Our objective is to improve science instruction and make textbooks more accurate,” said Cooper, whose bill was co-sponsored by six other Republican representatives. “We want to create academic freedom to allow this discussion.” Sure, that's all they want. Accuracy.

Make textbooks more accurate by putting bullshit fairy tales in them. It's just beyond belief that there are still people in this world who actually believe this stuff. But then, lots of people believe lots of other crap, too. Why not this?

Good thing we don't waste any time in schools teaching logic or critical thinking, isn't it?

FYI, I'd work on that letter. They've wised up to the religious argument, and are now calling it "intelligent design." They don't say what the intelligence that did the designing is, precisely. Everyone knows it's god. But since they don't state it outright, they think they're being scientific instead of religious.

It's all nonsense anyway. Hopefully you'll be able to win this fight.

[Gore1FL]

2. My state rep and senator are Democrats

So I am not worried about the letter so much -- though I only spent about 5 minutes on it.

I imagine with a little polish it could be transformed into a much more powerful argument -- but I figured I was preaching to the choir (not pun intended)

[ima_sinnic]

5. if it is more polished, perhaps it will be shared

--when writing to Congress people think outside the box. I believe they often use quotes and ideas from letters in preparing their own speeches for or against particular bills.

[jmowreader]

9. Why does "intelligent design"...

sound like the slogan on a box of building materials?

[R Hickey]

3. The human civilization is in a never ending struggle against superstition

Pretty, heart-warming, fictional stories are usually more entertaining than scientific realities.

I think it is futile to try to explain to a species of talking, lie-telling monkeys that their myths are nonsense. If you try to speak the truth, the monkeys all jump up and down and throw banannas and fecal matter at you.

Missouri has never been known as a bastion of intellectual thought, any more than Tennesee was during the 1920's Scopes-monkey-trial.

Let the 'Show-Me-State' believe their silly stories. If the real world is too complex for these ignorant apes to comprehend, then let them delude themselves and their offspring.

The Missourians have already raised their share of mental cripples. The best example of Missouri's results so far, is Bush's Attorney General, John Ashcroft.

[earthman dave]

4. Home schooling, anyone?

This is really disturbing. I have nothing but contempt for people who would deliberately try and degrade kids' education. I mean, they're *kids* ffs! Gotta get 'em propagandized while they're young, otherwise they might see through it. And not only that, but they're using the law to do it. Gah, this makes me sicker the more i think about it.
</rant>

[Gore1FL]

6. I have a scary home schooling program

A friend of mine ex is raising their daughter and educating her through home schooling --- this woman thought Quebec was next to New Zealand --- in EUROPE....

God help us all.

[DarkSim]

7. Creationism is....

not something i would bother with in school.

When i lived in Finland in school we had a completely separate subject in for religion. I'm sure other countries have the same. If you were not Christian you did not need to attend this class. No one was shunned because they were not christian.

Mixing creationism into science is the biggest pile of elephand crap i've ever heard.

[petrock2004]

10. i wish i lived in finland :-)

not to belittle anyone who has ever not liked finland or had to leave finland or been totally dissatisfied with finland, but man. i wish that i'd grown up not being "shunned" because i wasn't christian.

teaching "intelligent design" is simply another form of bigotry, and perhaps another attempt to destabilize the public school system.

i'll just keep my bags packed for canada... :eyes:

[DarkSim]

8. Nothing has ever.....

Induced this violent of a gag reflex in me. :puke:

[depakid]

11. An anatomy professor in a Midwest college recounts

that every year, in his first class session, he points to two skeletons, a male and a female, in the front of the classroom. He then asks whether any of the students can describe the differences in the two skeletons. Almost invariably, a hand or two shoots up with the answer that the male skeleton has less ribs (i.e., in Genesis, Eve was created from Adam's rib). Depending on how certain the student is of this, the professor counts the ribs- and sure enough, there are twelve pairs on each skeleton. This demonstration isn't always convicing- some students believe the model skeletons are purposefully inaccurate and on occasion some have been known to complain to the administration about unfair and bias instruction!

[never cry wolf]

12. This is SICK!!!!

Not only are they rewriting science, they are presuming the intents and processes of the "intelligence" behind the design.

(i) The lack of significant transitional forms between diverse species existing today and in the fossil record implies all original species were completed at inception rather than by a step-by-step development from other species. A lack of transitional forms is illustrated by the appearance of large complex life forms in the Cambrian fossil record without any significant previous fossils;

(j) Common designs and features evident in different species imply the intelligent reuse of proven designs analogous to the reuse of proven designs by human designers;

[hatrack]

13. You know the really funny part about this?

The big economic development effort now under way in MO (as in many other states) is all about bioscience, genetics and biotechnology.

Yeah, I'll bet the world's biotech and bioscience giants will be falling all over themselves to locate facilities in a state whose government now proposes to tell the world that it doesn't believe in the biological sciences.

[SanchoPanza]

14. Thinly Veiled?

There's nothing thinly veiled about intelligent design, as proponent groups of ID are completely funded by the religious-right. It's a cottage industry, actually, that isn't so much a scientific field but an anti-scientific field: poking through scientific journals looking for any supposed flaw in modern evolutionary biology. The supposed flaws outlined in the bill are nothing new on the theocracy front, they've all been debunked for years. The "there are no transitional fossils" is particularly old.

However ID is an important movement in one regard; the religious-right is absolutely certain that Biblical creationism, certainly Young Earth Creationism, will never be taught as science in an American public school. ID is their attempt at a work-around victory. It remains, though, as about as unscientific as OT creationism.

[jbm]

15. guess I'll be busy writing letters tonight..

Stuff like this shouldn't even surprise me anymore,but I swear I am sitting here absolutely stunned. I had no idea they were trying to teach creationsim here. Who the hell are these people and what are they thinking?????