Teaching Evolution in Tennessee

The state of Tennessee is about to have a new law that impacts the teaching of science in their public schools. Here's how the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) describes the law.

Nicknamed the "monkey bill," HB 368 would, if enacted, encourage teachers to present the "scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses" of topics that arouse "debate and disputation" such as "biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning."

It doesn't take a mental giant to see where the Tennessee legislators are coming from. They want to support teachers who challenge evolution in the classroom. Most of those teachers will, of course, be creationists of one form or another.

But here's the problem. Those ignorant legislators have been very clever to avoid mentioning religion or creationism. On the surface, the new law looks perfectly reasonable.After all, who wouldn't want students to learn both the scientific strengths and weaknesses of current theories of biological evolution?

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