Evolution bills die in Legislature as session ends
But it’s like the evil dead. We all know it’s going to crawl back from the grave, so keep those shotguns and chainsaws ready. :)
It’s funny though. John West of the Discovery Institute actually thinks there’s some massive conspiracy and the House intentionally voted on the version with “critical analysis” so that it would be rejected by the Senate. He even called “critical analysis” a “poison pill“. Now hold on a minute. “Critical analysis” is one of Discovery Institute’s favorite terms that they gladly trumpet when it suits their purpose, such as when gloating about which states now require it in their classes when teaching evolution. In other words, he’s advocating lying to Congress about the true motives of the Intelligent Design movement just so he can sneak some bills in.
But as we have learned from the people arguing for the bill during the proceedings, none of the people there truly believe in “academic freedom”. Otherwise they should be all too happy to extend “academic freedom” to sex education so that alternatives to abstinence are taught. It’s also telling that they only talk about “academic freedom” and “critical analysis” in the context of evolution. What about the rest of science? Don’t we deserve the “academic freedom” to teach alchemy in chemistry classes, astrology in astronomy classes, phrenology in neurology classes, and Intelligent Falling in physics class? Shouldn’t we be “critically analyzing” all these fields as well?
Nah. That’s because all these politically loaded terms, including “Intelligent Design”, are nothing more than a trojan horse for Creationism, which the Supreme Court ruled was unconstitutional in 1987.