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Louisiana
Governor, Bobby Jindal, Signs
Law Allowing
Intelligent Design
in Public Schools
 Louisiana public school
teachers can now educate their students about the theory of intelligent
design and scientific criticisms of Darwinian evolutionary theory
thanks to a new law signed this week by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
The Louisiana Science Education Act now allows teachers to supplement
the state's curricula with additional scientific materials, but groups
opposed to any debate over the "origin of the species" have warned that
the new law will become the origin of the lawsuits if they believe it
facilitates religion.
Lawmakers, however,
were enthusiastically in favor of the Act signed by Jindal. The state
Senate had passed the bill (SB733) with a unanimous vote, and the state
House had approved it by a vote of 93-4.
The new law requires teachers to follow the standard curriculum, but
allows a school district to permit a teacher to supplement his course
with additional scientific evidence, analysis, and critiques regarding
the scientific topics taught to his students.
One major goal of the law is to support an "open and objective
discussion of scientific theories being studied including, but not
limited to, evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human
cloning" in public elementary and secondary schools.
The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) will be
required, at the request of local school boards, to "include support
and guidance for teachers regarding effective ways to help students
understand, analyze, critique, and objectively review scientific
theories being studied."
Supporters of the law have hailed it as a great step forward for
academic freedom in the face of dogmatic proponents of evolution and
man-made global warming, who have mischaracterized
scientific/philosophical alternatives as "religion."
Jindal, a Catholic with a biology degree, indicated his own affirmation
of the bill in a statement saying: "I will continue to consistently
support the ability of school boards and BESE to make the best
decisions to ensure a quality education for our children."
Critics of the law have countered it opens a backdoor for putting
religious views that they claim would sacrifice science into the
classroom.
The Louisiana Coalition for Science called SB 733 "a thinly disguised
attempt to advance the 'Wedge Strategy' of the Discovery Institute
(DI), a creationist think tank that is collaborating with the LA Family
Forum to get intelligent design (ID) creationism into LA public school
science classes."
Americans United for Separation of Church and State warned that a
lawsuit would come if they believed the bill was introducing religion
into the schoolroom. Louisiana ACLU Executive Director Marjorie Esman,
on the other hand, admitted that as long as teachers follow the law as
written, and did not introduce religion, it should be fine.
Section 1D clearly states that the law "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."
Intelligent Design advocates say ID has no direct bearing on religion
and is neither a religious proposition nor "creationist," because it is
in fact a rational philosophic position older than Christianity.
Ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle taught from
observation that matter - which tends toward chaos - was ordered into
distinguishable forms, and that everything in a chain of causes must
have a first cause, or "prime mover."
Only later did Christianity introduce Western science to the doctrine
of "creationism" or "creation ex-nihilo" - the idea that the universe
was created out of nothing and is constantly kept in existence by God's
power. Before this contribution, many philosophers and scientists did
not consider the universe had a beginning in time.
Source: Life Site News
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