COMMENTARY | Those wacky creationists are at it again. It's barely February and there are already several anti-evolution bills in the works across America, including New Hampshire, Missouri and Oklahoma. These bills have one goal in mind: Undermining the teaching of evolution in schools and adding religion to the curriculum.
According to the New Hampshire government website, bill HB1148 requires teaching evolution "as a theory" and wants to force teachers to brand people who agree with it as atheists. Bill HB1457 suggests "don't believe a theory no matter how well supported by facts."
HB1148 was sponsored by Republican Rep. Jerry Bergevin, the oddball conspiracy theorist who sponsored New Hampshire bill HB1264. That would have let businesses deny service to homosexuals (and anyone else) on religious grounds. Bergevin must really dislike gay people. He also told the Concord Monitor that teaching evolution led to the Columbine massacre and Nazi Germany.
The Missouri state website says HB1227 demands "equal treatment of science instruction regarding evolution and intelligent design." That's preposterous because "intelligent design" is religion not science. I'll take the sponsor, Rep. Rick Brattin, more seriously when he amends the bill to require churches to give equal time to evolution.
The Oklahoma state website says SB1742 is not about teaching creationism but claims it is modeled on a Louisiana law that is about teaching creationism. The bill's language encourages teachers to use "supplemental text" to evaluate and critique evolution. Gee, I wonder what supplemental text is being suggested? Could it be, hmm, the Bible?
Sponsors of such bills are trying to create an American Christian theocracy. Governing a nation by religion never works because, by definition, it requires the suspension of rational thought. The chief commandment of all religions is "Thou Shalt Not Question." It's hard to imagine a more unconstitutional statement. If these politicians want a theocracy so badly I suggest they move someplace that welcomes such rule to learn firsthand how bad an idea it is.
