Another Creationist Bill in Mississippi
Science | Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 5:32:09 pm PST
Possibly emboldened by the success of the stealth creationist bill signed into law in Louisiana by Gov. Bobby Jindal, Republican Rep. Gary Chism has introduced a bill to require an anti-evolution disclaimer in Mississippi textbooks: Mississippi’s Proposed Evolution Disclaimer.
The proposal, if enacted, would require the State Board of Education to include the 200-word disclaimer on the inside front cover of textbooks that include evolution topics.
“The word ‘theory’ has many meanings, including: systematically organized knowledge; abstract reasoning; a speculative idea or plan; or a systematic statement of principles,” the opening paragraph of the bill states. “Scientific theories are based on both observations of the natural world and assumptions about the natural world. They are always subject to change in view of new and confirmed observations.”
“This textbook discusses evolution, a controversial theory some scientists present as a scientific explanation for the origin of living things. No one was present when life first appeared on earth. Therefore, any statement about life’s origins should be considered a theory,” the proposal continues.
“Evolution refers to the unproven belief that random, undirected forces produced living things. There are many topics with unanswered questions about the origin of life which are not mentioned in your textbook, including: the sudden appearance of the major groups of animals in the fossil record (known as the Cambrian Explosion); the lack of new major groups of other living things appearing in the fossil record; the lack of transitional forms of major groups of plants and animals in the fossil record; and the complete and complex set of instructions for building a living body possessed by all living things.”
The textbook disclaimer would end with the following advice: “Study hard and keep an open mind.”
Notice how many creationist tropes appear in Chism’s disclaimer:
* random, undirected forces
* the “Cambrian Explosion”
* the “lack of transitional forms”
* a garbled version of “irreducible complexity”
It’s a potpourri of creationist craziness.
But perhaps worst of all, again we see the egregious misuse of the word “theory” by creationists, who don’t understand (and/or deliberately distort) its scientific definition and use it as a synonym for “wild guess.” Here’s an interesting little site devoted entirely to debunking this hoary old dodge: Evolution is Not Just a Theory.
