Tennessee legislature gives legal protection to teachers who want to teach antiscience
By Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent, www.guardian.co.uk
21 March 2012 The state legislature of Tennessee has given legal cover to public school teachers to challenge the science of evolution and climate change, in a move that looks set to deepen a debate about politicisation of the classroom. The bill passed in the Tennessee Senate this week provides legal protection to teachers who personally do not believe in evolution or the human causes of climate change, and instead want to teach the “scientific strengths and weaknesses of existing scientific theories”. It comes at a time when science associations are increasingly concerned by moves to inject religious or ideological beliefs into science teaching ahead of the release next month of a new set of education standards which give a central place to climate change. The new standards, based on recommendations from the National Research Council, are not mandatory for all states. But they have already provoked a backlash from states, such as Utah, which have officially ruled climate change is not settled science. An unauthorised release of documents from the rightwing Heartland Institute last month revealed an ambitious plan in 2012 to discredit existing teaching on climate change. The Tennessee measure, which passed by 24-8 votes, was strongly criticised by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Centre for Science Education, who called it a step backward. The house approved a similar version of the measure last year. Bloggers called the move a throwback to the Scopes monkey trial of the 1920s, when a Tennessee public school teacher was convicted and fined for teaching evolution. […] The National Association of Biology Teachers said the measure, would encourage non-scientific thinking – not critical thought. “Concepts like evolution and climate change should not be misrepresented as controversial or needing of special evaluation. Instead, they should be presented as scientific explanations for events and processes that are supported by experimentation, logical analysis, and evidence-based revision based on detectable and measurable data,” the organisation said. […]
Tennessee bill protects teachers who challenge evolution and climate change
And what of the politicization of science, where a UN organization promotes a global tax … payable to the UN … on the basis of soothsaying – and calls it science ! The IPCC is government and heir to the ills of manipulation of which we are getting a bellyful.
And you can stop conflating disbelief in fortunetelling a rollercoaster of inputs on the basis of computer modeling of incomplete data and mis or even not understood and identified processes with basic biology.
Or we could stop conflating belief in a mysterious all-knowing being on the basis of no real data and manipulated to justify centuries of oppression and wars with real knowledge.
opit What is it about climate science don't you get? The science has been settled for 50 years. The trends are unmistakable. The naysayers are the same group that attempted to confuse people about cigarette smoking. Millions died as a result. But that's alright Phillip Morris made a lot of money. This time the stakes are much higher and so is the stupidity.
Opit needs an education. A good science primer would do him good, as would the peer-review process.
No wonder tornadoes are devastating Tennessee. God is trying to get the message across that climate change is very real. But clearly, the legislature and people like Opit aren't tuned in to the Almighty.