As we’ve noted previously, New Mexico is one of several states in which Republican politicians have introduced bills intended to sneak the teaching of creationism into science classes, under the deceptive mantle of “academic freedom.” This multi-state effort is based on a Discovery Institute “model bill,” and many of the bills simply copy and paste the language from the Discovery Institute version.

Dave Thomas at Panda’s Thumb reports that the New Mexico bill has now died without ever being heard by committee, an ignominious end to a dishonest piece of creationist legislation: Another Discovery Institute Bill Fails…

Thomas also points out the promotional website used by New Mexico anti-evolutionists: Origins Education.

The site features a picture of an orangutan holding a sign (get it?), and one of those deceptive, out-of-context quotes that creationists dearly love, attempting to make it seem as if Charles Darwin himself doubted the truth of evolution in The Origin of Species:

For I am well aware that scarcely a single point is discussed in this volume on which facts cannot be adduced, often apparently leading to conclusions directly opposite to those at which I have arrived. A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question; and this is here impossible.

The complete quote, in context, shows that Darwin’s real point was that he couldn’t list all the facts that support the theory of evolution, in an abstract of what was intended to be a much larger work.

This Abstract, which I now publish, must necessarily be imperfect. I cannot here give references and authorities for my several statements; and I must trust to the reader reposing some confidence in my accuracy. No doubt errors will have crept in, though I hope I have always been cautious in trusting to good authorities alone. I can here give only the general conclusions at which I have arrived, with a few facts in illustration, but which, I hope, in most cases will suffice. No one can feel more sensible than I do of the necessity of hereafter publishing in detail all the facts, with references, on which my conclusions have been grounded; and I hope in a future work to do this. For I am well aware that scarcely a single point is discussed in this volume on which facts cannot be adduced, often apparently leading to conclusions directly opposite to those at which I have arrived. A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question; and this is here impossible.

Once again, we see that creationists are completely shameless about lying to promote their pseudo-scientific hooey.