Sneaky Florida again with creationism stupidity in school

While the Texas State Board of Education is getting all the press these days for their noted debating on how to teach Evolution in Texan schools (it was a near miss, though they're still chipping at science bit by bit as Dr. Myers explains), helmed by the ignoramus Don McLeroy, other creationist states have been left out lately. Apparently, Florida resented that, as Senator Steve Wise, a Jacksonville Republican (need I even point out his political affiliations if he's a creationist?), has just sneakily introduced a bill that pretty much mandates the exact thing that we were hoping to avoid from the Texas Education Board: an introduction of the fallacious 'Strengths & Weaknesses' rule targeting Evolution in favor of Creationism.

And though it has yet to have its first hearing, the bill has the science community is up in arms.

You may remember this hot-button issue from 2008, when Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, and Rep. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, pushed similar legislation after the state Board of Education explicitly mandated the teaching of the scientific theories of biological and chemical evolution.

This language in this year's bill from Wise is pretty similar to the version pushed last year by Hays – not banning the teaching of evolution, but allowing teachers to question it in science class. Storms had focused her version more on job protections for teachers who criticized the theory.

Here's what Wise's bill would require: "A thorough presentation and critical analysis of the scientific theory of evolution."

The Florida Academy of Science says the bill "leaves the door open for the introduction in the public school curriculum of nonscientific and covertly religious doctrines."

Talk about sidestepping a pothole just to fall down a manhole. Not only was this done, but it was done silently – the defining measure used by creationists (when not honking madly about the evils of atheism and Evolution) to try and introduce their stupid theological beliefs in scientific classrooms. Cowards.