Tópico: The lamest creationist tactic I've seen so far

[Buckaroo Banzai]

http://johnmckay.blogspot.com/2005/08/my-favorite-creationist-argument-there.html

With the "warning label" bills, Hochstatter was simply recycling the tactics tested and perfected by other and their lawyers. I believe SB 6500 was an argument original to Hochstatter. He based it on a little used law in Washington that bans teaching anything that contradicts the principles of the Declaration and Constitution. I can no longer find the full text of SB 6500, but the official summary read:

SB 6500 Finds that the teaching of the theory of evolution in the common schools of the state of Washington is repugnant to the principles of the Declaration of Independence and thereby unconstitutional and unlawful. Provides that all textbooks and curriculum that teach the theory of evolution shall be removed from the public schools forthwith and replaced with textbooks and curriculum that teach the self-evident truth of creation.

Hochstatter's killer argument, as he saw it, ran something like this: 1) the state constitution prohibits the teaching of anything that is against the Declaration of Independence, 2) the Declaration says "all men are created equal," 3) therefore the Declaration supports creationism, 4) evolution denies the existence of a creator or a special creation, 5) therefore evolution contradicts the Declaration, and 6) should be against the law. Oh yeah, 7) the teaching of creationism should be required in all Washington schools. Although SB 6500 was well co-sponsored by other Senate Republicans and a companion House bill was introduced, it never made it out of committee and died a well-deserved death at the end of the session.

And it's also a quite dumb (not unexpected). "All men are created equal" is obviously meant in the sense of born equal; otherwise it would mean that god is creating each man individually! And that's not what creationism is all about at all!

And is totally not empirical, by the way.


And a second excerpt of an early part of the same text:  

Hochstatter entered politics as an anti-abortion activist, and though he made the predictable attempts to get around Roe and abolish abortion in Washington, some of his most memorable legislative moments dealt with education, or perhaps I should say "education." He wanted Bible teaching and prayer to return to the schools, he thought teachers should be allowed to carry handguns in the classroom, and he thought evolution should be driven out of the schools.

What the hell??

[Galileo]

That really is lame! And this guy was a successful politician... :passa-mal:

[Poindexter]

About the handguns, I see no problem 'cause I support the 2nd Ammendment.

[Galileo]

You see no problem with teachers packing handguns in the classroom??
 

[OldSkull]

Guns and Classroom dosen't mach very well, mainly in the USA...

[Buckaroo Banzai]

But thinking a little bit further, I think that if I was a teacher in the USA I'd feel a lot safer with a handgun... and... er.... one of those bullet-proof things you wear... in order to be bullet proof.......

Or at least the teachers could be in different actual rooms, other than the students, separated by a bullet-proof glass, more or less like with bank attendants....  

[Rodion]

one of those bullet-proof things you wear... in order to be bullet proof.......

yeah, kevlar suit.