Attacks on evolution again -- some things never get old

By R.K. Barry 

Think Progress had a piece yesterday on pending legislation in Tennessee that would open the door to curtailing the teaching of evolution by prohibiting administrators, according to the bill's summary, from:

prohibiting any teacher in a public school system of this state from helping students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught, such as evolution and global warming.

It will also apparently allow teaching religious and pseudo-scientific ideas -- such as creationism or intelligent design -- as legitimate scientific theories comparable to evolution.

In essence, this means that teachers are to be allowed to help students question the scientific validity of evolution while presenting creationism as a legitimate alternative theory.

Of course, there is no question among scientists that evolution is one of the most widely accepted principles of modern science. But this is the approach of the pro-creationist types who like to suggest that one theory is as good as the next, and what is science anyway? Just a bunch of people addicted to facts.

As for myself, the matter was settled years ago by Spencer Tracy in Inherit the Wind, the famous movie about the Scopes Trial. You can access a wonderful clip from the movie here.

Spencer Tracy said it; I believe it; and that settles it (for me). 

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)

Craziest Republican of the Day: Jack Kingston

By Michael J.W. Stickings

The Republican Party is indeed the anti-science party, and Steve Benen today offers yet more evidence of that:

"Real Time" host Bill Maher asked Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) a fairly straightforward question: "Do you believe in evolution?" Kingston not only said rejects the foundation of modern biology, he explained it this way: "I believe I came from God, not from a monkey." He added, "If it happened over millions and millions of years, there should be lots of fossil evidence."

Seriously, that's what he said.

Let's pause to appreciate the fact that it's the 21st century -- and Jack Kingston is a 10-term congressman who helps oversee federal funding on the Food and Drug Administration.

*****

In the larger context, there's a renewed push underway for the United States to value and appreciate science in the 21st century -- our future depends on it. And while this push is underway, Republican leaders are more comfortable walking a bridge to the 18th century.

What an embarrassment.

It's an embarrassment, yes, but Steve is actually being too kind. They're not walking a bridge to the 18th century, a century of Enlightenment, but so, oh, say, the 14th, before even the Renaissance got underway.

Of course, when it comes to evolution, and the denial thereof, we've heard all this before (including from Christine O'Donnell last year). But that's only because such views are commonplace among conservatives and widespread within the GOP, where creationism is almost as big as voodoo economics.

And, again, what's concerning is not so much that these views exist but that they are very much a part of the Republican mainstream. It would be one thing if such willful ignorance, rooted in Christian fundamentalism, were merely to be found on the distant far-right fringe. It's another thing entirely that such crazy extremism dominates the majority party in the House.

Here's the clip: