Tennessee passes a law that enables teachers to decide for themselves whether to teach the scientific or the religious right versions of human origins and global warming. Luck of the draw will determine whether children will be taught about evolution and the greenhouse effect, or about talking snakes and magic hair spray.
Rep. Bill Dunn, R-Knoxville, said the bill’s intent is to promote “critical thinking” in science classrooms.More here and here.
Critics contend it’s a shield to allow the teaching of evolution alternatives such as intelligent design and creationism.
Bill supporter Rep. Richard Floyd, R-Chattanooga, said that “since the late ‘50s, early ‘60s when we let the intellectual bullies hijack our education system, we’ve been on a slippery slope.”
“This is a common-sense bill,” Floyd said. “Thank you for bringing this bill to protect our teachers from the other intellectual bullies.”
Rep. Sheila Butt, R-Columbia, said when she was in high school, “we gave up Aqua Net hair spray” because of fears “it was causing global warming.”
“Since then scientists have said that maybe we shouldn’t have given up that aerosol can because that aerosol can was actually absorbing the Earth’s rays and keeping us from global warming.”
from Little Green Footballs - GOP Creationists Pass Anti-Evolution Bill in Tennessee
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