States are trying to bring science denial to the classroom

[Jimbo101]

Grist.org

Fusion.net

The debate surrounding science education in America is at least as old as the 1925 Scopes “monkey trial,” in which a high school science teacher was criminally charged for teaching evolution in violation of Tennessee law. But bills percolating through state legislatures across the U.S. are giving the education fight a new flavor, by encompassing climate change denial and serving it up as academic freedom.

One prominent example, South Dakota’s Senate Bill 55, was voted down Wednesday, but others are on the docket in three states, with possibly more on the way. Advocates say the bills are designed to give teachers additional latitude to explain scientific theories. Opponents say they empower science denial, removing accountability from science education and eroding the foundation of public schools.

In bills making their way through statehouses in Indiana, Oklahoma, and Texas, and a potential measure in Iowa, making common cause with climate change denial is a way for advocates to encourage skepticism of evolution, said Glenn Branch, deputy director for the National Center for Science Education, an advocacy group.

“The rhetoric falls into predictable patterns, and the patterns are very similar for those two groups of science deniers,” he said.

Science defenders like the NCSE say science denial has three pillars: that the science is uncertain; that its acceptance would have bad moral and social consequences; and that it’s only fair to present all sides. All three are at work in the latest efforts to attack state and federal education standards on science education, Branch said.

[longship]

1. Cheers for the NCSE!

If you do not know about the National Center for Science Education, you should!!

Click through to learn more:
NCSE

And here's some things from their long-time (now retired) executive director, Eugenie Scott:

These are just a few short clips. Google "Eugenie Scott" for many, many more.

And, the full creationism debate from William F. Buckley's Firing Line (1997), where Buckley strangely took the creationist side, apparently not knowing anything about it. Needless to say, the science side, tore the creationists apart.

Eugenie Scott was one of the debaters.