Birther Lawmaker’s Bill: Kids Must Learn Evolution And Climate Change Are ‘Controversies’

Two Arizona Republicans are pushing a new bill that would require schools to teach that settled science issues like evolution and climate change are actually controversies with two equal sides worthy of debate. SB 1213 sounds perfectly reasonable, until you get to the fine print.

Brian Tashman at Right Wing Watch sums up the issue:

The National Center for Science Education called the legislation another “instance of the ‘academic freedom’ strategy for undermining the teaching of evolution and climate change.”

The proposed “teach the controversy” bill is a stealthy attack on evolution as it tries to make science classes give equal weight to nonscientific beliefs and theologies. It’s the equivalent of including claims made by the Flat Earth Society in a geology class, all for the sake of “balance.”

And here’s the fine print:

The teaching of some scientific subjects, including biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming and human cloning, can cause controversy.

This is the same argument that anti-gay people use, claiming that gay marriage should be illegal because children will be confused. In other words, adults are abdicating responsibility to teach. Evolution and climate change are only “controversial” in the United States because religious, ignorant, radicals deny science.

Even Pope Benedict XVI has declared evolution fully compatible with biblical teachings, and has urged world nations to respond to climate change.

The bill’s primary sponsors are Judy Burges (image, top) and Chester Crandell.

Burges was recently appointed to the Senate to fill the seat of a Senator who resigned in disgrace. As a House Representative, Burges “introduced House Bill 2441, which would require a presidential candidate to prove his or her citizenship before being included on the ballot in Arizona.” Yes, Senator Burges is an anti-Obama birther.

Crandell is a “Tenther” — someone who supports secession and total state sovereignty, and a supporter of an unconstitutional Arizona bill that would require high school students to recite an oath to God and country, more stringent than the oath the President of the United States is required to make, as a pre-requisite to graduating.

Crandell is also a hypocrite. Under the heading of “Education,” his campaign website states, “the state should stay out of the way. Let education practioners [sic] do what they do best, ‘Educate Kids’.”