Missouri lawmaker proposes legislation that would allow parents of public school students to opt out of classes teaching Evolution. Because you know, who needs science?

Courtesy TPM:  

A Missouri lawmaker has proposed what ranks among the most anti-evolution legislation in recent years, which would require schools to notify parents if "the theory of evolution by natural selection" was being taught at their child's school and give them the opportunity to opt out of the class. 

The bill had its first public hearing Thursday after being introduced in late January. 

State Rep. Rick Brattin (R), who sponsored the bill, told a local TV station last week that teaching only evolution in school was "indoctrination." 

"Our schools basically mandate that we teach one side," he told KCTV. "It is an indoctrination because it is not objective approach."

And as troubling as this is for Missouri schoolchildren, it is even more troubling that similar laws are being introduced all along the Bible Belt.

The bill is one of several anti-evolution proposals that have already appeared in statehouses across the country; the Daily Beast counted four states (Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Virginia) where legislation had been introduced. The proposals would allow for a range of approaches to evolution, from presenting a "debate" over evolution versus creationism to requiring that local school boards allow intelligent design to be included in biology courses.

However Missouri is still in the forefront of sabotaging their children's education.

But Brattin's bill appears to be the only one, and perhaps the first, that would mandate parental notification that their children were being taught evolution in school, the curriculum that most mainstream science teacher groups endorse. 

“It’s an absolute infringement on people’s beliefs,” Brattin told the Kansas City Star of requiring schools to teach evolution. “What’s being taught is just as much faith and, you know, just as much pulled out of the air as, say, any religion."

As scientific investigation provides more and more answers about our origins, and the origins of out planet and universe, we are seeing what can only be defined as a panicked response to somehow preserve the teachings of religion by protecting children from the influence of critical thinking.

In year passed, as many of you here have pointed out, there was NOT this great movement to attack science and it was felt that religion and science could live together in harmony.

However today with the climate change debate, the rise in non-theism, and new discoveries being made, seemingly on a daily basis, that disprove much of what is written in the Bible, there has arisen an orchestrated attack on Evolution specifically, and science in general, that threatens to undermine the very future of our country.

You know what sometimes is not made clear in discussions about Evolution is that human being benefited greatly from its discovery in way that many simply do not understand.

It provided a framework and model that has been used in zoology, botany, biology, medicine, and many other scientific disciplines with great success.

Without Darwin that flu shot we all rush to get every year may not be nearly as effective, we may never have mapped the human genome (Which by the way shows evidence of the continued evolution of humans.), or today it is even giving us new insights into dealing with Alzheimer's.

It is NOT important that every public school pupil have a degree in Evolutionary Biology, but it IS important that they recognize its importance and do not disregard it out of hand simply because it does not comport with their religious beliefs, whatever form those might take.

It may be important to note that there are scientists working in the field of Evolution who come from a background in Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholism, Islamism, Protestantism, and virtually every other religious discipline.

But when they put on their lab coats, they are scientists. And scientists deal with facts.

And so should American school children.