The effort to move Louisiana's education system into the 21st century has recently taken a big step forward -- and it has generated some very impressive support.
On 15 April, State Senator Karen Carter Peterson introduced SB 70. Her bill is as simple as it is critically important. If enacted, SB 70 would repeal the embarrassingly misnamed Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA), a piece of legislation that was enthusiastically endorsed by creationists and that has opened the doors of Louisiana's classrooms to pseudoscience.
Senator Peterson's efforts to repeal LSEA have just received a huge boost: 42 Nobel Laureates from across the various fields of science have sent a letter to the Louisiana legislature urging them to vote to repeal LSEA. They state their case clearly right from the opening paragraph:
As Nobel Laureates in various scientific fields, we urge you to repeal the misnamed and misguided Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA) of 2008. This law creates a pathway for creationism and other forms of non-scientific instruction to be taught in public school science classrooms.
Their letter continues by noting that attempts to bring creationism into Louisiana schools are not new, and that opposition by Nobel Laureates is also not new. Indeed, an equally impressive array of Nobel prize winners signed an amicus brief in the Edwards v. Aguillard U.S. Supreme Court case. In that case, the Supreme Court sided with the Laureates and ruled Louisiana's "Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science in Public School Instruction" act unconstitutional.
It is amazing that now, 24 years later, with the evidence supporting evolutionary theory having grown exponentially with major advances having occurred in genetics, molecular biology, developmental biology and paleontology, to name just a few fields, the attacks on science education from non-specialists remain unabated.
The current letter by the Nobel Laureates ends as persuasively as it began:
Scientific knowledge is crucial to twenty-first-century life. Biological evolution is foundational in many fields, including biomedical research and agriculture. It aids us in understanding, for example, how to fight diseases like HIV and how to grow plants that will survive in different environments. Because science plays such a large role in today's world and because our country's economic future is dependent upon the United States' retaining its competitiveness in science, it is vital that students have a sound education about major scientific concepts and their applications.We strongly urge that the Louisiana Legislature repeal this misguided law. Louisiana students deserve an education that will allow them to compete with their peers across the country and the globe.
The Nobel Laureates are not alone in calling for repeal of LSEA. With SB 70 not even a week old as of this writing, it has already been endorsed by the Louisiana Association of Biology Educators as well as their "parent" organization, the National Association of Biology Teachers. Additionally, The Clergy Letter Project, an international organization of more than 14,000 clergy and scientists, has also thrown its support behind the repeal effort. More scientific and religious organizations are likely to follow suit.
With some of the world's best scientists, leading clergy members and talented educators opposed to LSEA, you might think that repeal would be easy. But, if you thought that, you'd be wrong. When LSEA was originally enacted, its loudest supporter was Louisiana Family Forum, a group "affiliated with Focus on the Family" and whose mission "is to persuasively present biblical principles in the centers of influence on issues affecting the family through research." Louisiana Family Forum is a major player in Louisiana politics and many state politicians find it difficult to go against its extremist agenda.
As I pointed out in a recent Huffington Post essay, one Louisiana citizen who is comfortable standing up for Louisiana students and who thinks the Supreme Court's decision in Edwards v. Aguillard to uphold the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was a good one is Zack Kopplin, a high school senior from Baton Rouge (LA) Magnet High School. He has worked tirelessly to help move Louisiana forward. With Senator Peterson's bill now before the Senate Education Committee and with 41 Nobel Laureates on board as well as a growing number of organizational endorsements, progress is clearly being made.
Not surprisingly, Zack is very pleased by what's been accomplished so far. "It's only been three years since the Louisiana Science Education Act was passed unanimously by the Senate. Now there's a repeal, with a groundswell of support, that will be heard in that same chamber. This is a remarkable victory for science." He went on to tell me, "It's rare for a single Nobel Laureate to endorse a specific piece of legislation; it's virtually unheard of for 41 of them to do that. The Louisiana legislature should listen to these 41 Nobel Laureate scientists urging them to repeal this law."
I fully agree and think Zack should be incredibly proud of what he's been able to do. Now it's up to the rest of us to help.
You can support this effort by joining the repeal movement on Facebook, by following progress on the repeal movement's web page, and by urging Louisiana legislators to back SB 70. Wouldn't it be wonderfully refreshing if Louisiana were to make this change in a year that has already seen at least nine anti-evolution bills introduced into state legislatures across the United States?
Creationism legislation in all of its forms attempts to return students to the mid 19th century. Don't our students deserve something better?
Follow Michael Zimmerman, Ph.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mzclergyletter
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If i wanted Aries, Horus or Freyja taught alongside their jesus, I would get jeered at. Yet its ok for these iconoclastic pups to do what they do.
Hinduism, Paganism both disagree with christianity, and are much old than the religion of the false god that died on a cross for sins that dont exist. (hey you call Aries a demon and a false god, so fair is fair)
Clarification, the big bang cosmological model describes how the universe expanded to this current state where Evolution deals with life after the first self replicating organisms were formed.
Most christians would pitch a fit if their "Intelligent Designer" was taught as Anubis, Freyja, Eris or Shiva, yet they have the gall to try to imply that Jesus created the universe.
How can you care about something imagined that has no evidence?
There has to be a Creation of selections before there can be any selections.
Highly ordered life forms do not order themselves and they don't design their own working atomic and subatomic parts that they need to function either.
Yes. If that is what youre saying then youre correct. Evolution DOES NOT describe how life started. That is the field of Abiogenesis, Evolution deals with what happened after life started.
"Highly ordered life forms do not order themselves and they don't design their own working atomic and subatomic parts that they need to function either."
Not sure where you get your information from, but your assumption on how evolution works is so flawed its not even wrong. Its a non-statement.
Function always requires a maker whether it is atomic function or not.
When they decided women belonged in the kitchen makin babies.
When they decided that gays are lesser people than straights.
When they lost to the Monkey Scopes trials.
They will continue to be wrong, and one day all the christians will be looked at as ignorant and old fashioned.
Speculation is not a science. Abiogenesis is not proven and the constants require Creation.
Evolution requires Creation.
Creation does not require evolution.
"Present Law: ""Louisiana Science Education Act," requires BESE, upon request of a local school board, to allow and assist teachers, principals, and other school administrators to create and foster an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that promotes critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories being studied including evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning."
"Requires that assistance include support and guidance for teachers regarding effective ways to help students understand, analyze, critique, and objectively review such scientific theories being studied."
"Requires that a teacher teach material presented in the standard textbook supplied by the school system and thereafter may use textbooks and other instructional materials to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review scientific theories in an objective manner, as permitted by the local school board unless otherwise prohibited by BESE."
"Specifies that the Louisiana Science Education Act shall not be construed to promote any religious doctrine, promote discrimination for or against a particular set of religious beliefs, or promote discrimination for or against religion or nonreligion."
Fact: No complaints have been filed, or legal actions instigated for any Constitutional violations, due to any religious abridgements by faculties, teachers or students under the new law.
In fact, fact be known, there is no valid reason to repeal the Bill.
ive pointed out verses about jesus wanting to kill the non believers, and matt 10:34 where he comes not for peace but a sword, yet more christians have declared I must be"taking it out of context" or its meant to be symbolic. Either way, its a hateful, warmongering insinuation. Science and religion are natural enemies, and people that think otherwise, are just piggybacking on science to give their religion a bit more life left.
How about verse 21 where the non-believing brother would turn against his brother and deliver him to DEATH? You overlook that do you? Done by non-believers, a-theists? How about verse 28? Fear not them which kill the body. Those aren't believers doing that, they are what we would call today a-theists. So, verse 34 is simply explaining that the Messiah did not come to stop that activity of the non-believers against the believers, but instead would send a SWORD. What sword? A-theists can never understand the book. They cannot connect the the dots, just find select verses. That SWORD was, and still is a TWO-EDGED sword. You don't mention verse 36. Why would a man's foes come from his own household? Because the a-theist non-believer doesn't like his brother following the Messiah. A mild example might be Peter and Christopher.
"For the word of G-d is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a DISCERNER of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
Yep, there's your two-edged sword He brought. And, it does it's job so well a-theists can't stand how it cuts to the core of their thoughts and intents. Others realize the intent and try to correct their lives and spiritual standing.
The verse you quote is not a verse saying to use a metal sword on people to kill them at all.
Since we appear to be at a stalemate, and I know what the Christian agenda amounts to, let's scream think of the children while we keep them stupid, poor, and hungry, because thats what Good Christians are all about.
'Heaven Can Wait'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-schweitzer/heaven-can-wait_1_b_851963.html?ir=Politics