Louisiana Coalition for Science

By Barbara Forrest

Today, December 20, 2008, marks the third anniversary of the landmark decision in the first intelligent design (ID) creationism legal case, Kitzmiller et al. vs. Dover Area School District (2005). Ever since that ruling, the plaintiffs and those of us who served on their legal team in the now-famous “Dover trial” observe the anniversary by wishing each other an affectionate “Merry Kitzmas!” On December 20, 2005, in a Memorandum Opinion that a former Ohio judge described as “judicial poetry,” Judge John E. Jones III ruled that the 2004 ID creationist policy statement adopted by the Dover, PA, school board “violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and . . . the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”

As an expert witness for the plaintiffs, I would like to thank Judge Jones for helping to preserve both the integrity of public school science education and the constitutional separation of church and state through his decision. I was honored to serve in his courtroom and in this case. But this year, the anniversary of the plaintiffs’ success in the Kitzmiller case has been turned bittersweet by my state’s refusal to learn the lessons of Dover and of our own history. Despite Louisiana’s passage of a 1981 creationist law and the subsequent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Edwards v. Aguillard (1987), which outlawed the teaching of creationism, the Louisiana legislature and Gov. Bobby Jindal, by respectively passing and signing the LA Science Education Act (LSEA), ensured that our state will remain tethered to the bottom of every national quality-of-life survey. Continue Reading »

By Barbara Forrest

The kind of publicity that Gov. Bobby Jindal brought to Louisiana by signing the 2008 Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA), a stealth creationism bill, is the kind that the state could well do without. The December 2008 issue of Scientific American, the country’s most respected science magazine for the educated public, calls the attention of the entire country to the fact that Jindal ignored his Brown University biology professor, Dr. Arthur Landy, who publicly requested that he not sign the bill. (Prof. Landy’s appeal was only one of many. See here and here.) In “The Latest Face of Creationism in the Classroom,” Glenn Branch and Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education use Louisiana as the prime example of the creationist strategy of disguising their agenda in legislation such as the LSEA: “Creationists who want religious ideas taught as scientific fact in public schools continue to adapt to courtroom defeats by hiding their true aims under ever changing guises.” Why did they use Louisiana as the prime example? Because we are the prime example—thanks to the Louisiana Family Forum, the Discovery Institute (the LFF’s partner in this sorry episode), the Louisiana legislature, and Gov. Jindal. Continue Reading »

• See Barbara Forrest, “Why Texans Shouldn’t Let Creationists Mess with Texas Science Education,” Southern Methodist University, November 11, 2008  — Video —  MP3

By Barbara Forrest

November 27, 2008

Texas science education is currently in the crosshairs of the Discovery Institute (DI), the conservative Seattle think tank that serves as the headquarters of the intelligent design (ID) creationist movement. DI’s supporters in the Lone Star state are using the same code-language strategy that its Louisiana supporters used earlier this year, in spring 2008, when DI targeted the science education of Louisiana children. Working through the Louisiana Family Forum, an affiliate of Focus on the Family, DI helped to promote the “academic freedom” bill that the legislature passed and Gov. Bobby Jindal signed into law on June 25 as the “Louisiana Science Education Act” (LSEA). Long-time DI fellow David K. DeWolf admitted helping to shape the legislation, which is designed to permit the use of creationist supplementary materials such as DI’s intelligent design textbook, the deceptively titled Explore Evolution, in public school science classes. When Gov. Jindal signed the LSEA into law on June 25, the Discovery Institute declared victory. Now, in fall 2008, DI has targeted Texas. Continue Reading »

By Barbara Forrest

One of the clearest indications that the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA) is intended to advance the religious agenda of the Discovery Institute (DI) and the Louisiana Family Forum (LFF), the organizations that jointly promoted this legislation, is the law’s inclusion of a religion disclaimer that comes directly from DI’s doublespeak-titled “Model Academic Freedom Statute on Evolution.” Continue Reading »

By Barbara Forrest

September 27, 2008

Scientist and writer John Timmer has reviewed the Discovery Institute’s stealth creationist textbook, Explore Evolution, in Ars Technica. Three of EE‘s authors are well-known intelligent design (ID) creationists. Stephen C. Meyer is the director of the Discovery Institute’s ID creationist wing, the Center for Science and Culture (CSC). Two of his co-authors are his CSC associates Paul Nelson (a young-earth creationist) and Scott Minnich (a witness for the defense in Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District). The other two, Jonathan Moneymaker and Ralph Seelke, are lesser-known ID supporters. Continue Reading »

Anyone who missed Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial, which aired on PBS’s NOVA in November 2007, can view the entire program on Google video (112 minutes). This Peabody Award-winning documentary of the first legal case involving intelligent design (ID) creationism, Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District (2005) is the story of the “Dover trial,” which ended in a decisive victory for the plaintiffs when federal Judge John E. Jones III, Middle District of Pennsylvania, declared teaching ID to be unconstitutional. Viewers will learn (1) how two school board members who claimed to be Christian lied in order to advance their creationist agenda, a fact that Judge Jones noted in the trial; (2) how eleven Dover parents who wanted their children properly educated and who value the separation of church and state stood up for what is right; (3) how good science and careful scholarship served the cause of justice and the Constitution in this case; and (4) how the Dover School Board’s attempt to promote ID wasted one million taxpayer dollars and ripped the small town of Dover in half, turning friends and neighbors against each other. Continue Reading »

SB 733, the “LA Science Education Act,” is now law in Louisiana. Prior to being passed in its current form, this bill was first introduced as SB 561, the “LA Academic Freedom Act.” It was one of six such bills, the introduction of which the Discovery Institute (DI), a creationist think tank in Seattle, coordinated in legislatures around the country. (Louisiana is the only state in which any of these bills has passed thus far.) During the LA Family Forum’s promotion of the bill, which was introduced on their behalf by Sen. Ben Nevers, the LFF’s partnership with the Discovery Institute became increasingly evident. This alliance emerged fully into public view with Casey Luskin’s presence at the May 21, 2008, meeting of the Louisiana House Education Committee. Luskin is DI’s program officer for public policy and legal affairs.

During the advancement of the bill in the legislature, DI, the LFF, and Sen. Nevers strenuously objected to any suggestion that the bill would allow the teaching of intelligent design (ID) creationism. In numerous publications and in federal court, ID has been shown, using Discovery Institute ID proponents’s own words (pdf), to be creationism, thus making it a religious belief. DI, the LFF, and Nevers repeatedly denied that the bill has anything to do with promoting religion; it will, they insisted, enhance the “critical thinking” skills of Louisiana students. No one was ever fooled by such denials, however, and no one is fooled now. Everyone knew then, as everyone knows now, that SB 733 has one and only one purpose: to give Louisiana school boards and teachers cover for teaching ID creationism. Continue Reading »

In its weekly e-newsletter, the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) has chronicled Gov. Bobby Jindal’s signing of SB 733, the stealth creationism bill known as the “LA Science Education Act.”

NCSE is a national clearinghouse that provides assistance to citizens who seek to protect the teaching of science in their public schools:

• “The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) is a not-for-profit, membership organization providing information and resources for schools, parents and concerned citizens working to keep evolution in public school science education. We educate the press and public about the scientific, educational, and legal aspects of the creation and evolution controversy, and supply needed information and advice to defend good science education at local, state, and national levels.”

To subscribe free of charge to NCSE’s weekly e-newsletter, go here. The newsletter currently goes out to approximately 1,400 subscribers. Citizens who wish to support NCSE’s work through an annual membership can join online.

Below is an excerpt from the July 4, 2008, NCSE e-newsletter concerning Jindal’s signing of SB 733. Thanks to NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch and Public Information Project Director Josh Rosenau for this piece.
Continue Reading »

Gov. Jindal’s signing of SB 733 has attracted quite a bit of attention in the blogosphere. Here are excerpts from several nationally known blogs.

• Daily Kos, June 29, 2008: “They Can Never Take Away Our FREEDOM!!!”

The Louisiana legislature should be more wary than most of the Dover trap: It was there, way back in 1987, that the Supreme Court decided an earlier version of creationism was indeed a sham. But that didn’t keep Governor Bobby Jindal from signing SB 733, the mis-named Louisiana Science Education Act, last week. While the bill purports to encourage critical thinking and open discussion of various scientific topics, it perpetuates the same sham by singling out evolution (along with global warming and cloning) as topics deserving special criticism.This, in and of itself, undermines the claim to secular purpose. Evolution is no more scientifically controversial than gravity, and Governor Jindal surely knows that — he graduated from Brown University with honors in biology. . . . [Read more.]

• Bad Astronomy, June 27, 2008, “Louisiana, Well that’s it then.”

. . . many other states are at risk (Texas, Oklahoma, Michigan, and on and on). Never flag, never tire, and never assume you’re safe. Keep fighting, people. Because I guarantee this victory for the bad guys in Louisiana will embolden them. Keep fighting. [Read more.]

• Pharyngula, June 27, 2008, “The Bill from Bogalusa”

One bizarre item in that story is that the reporter contacted the Discovery Institute, who quickly disavowed any association with the bill, saying that they did not “directly” support it and that they certainly wouldn’t support any attempt to insert religion into the schools. Like everything that comes out of the DI, they are lying reflexively. Barbara Forrest has an excellent overview of the context and history of the bill — the bill has the DI’s frantic, fervid paws all over it. [Read more.]

• Huffington Post, June 27, 2008, “Joining GOP’s Bold March Backwards, Bobby Jindal and Louisiana Democrats Pass ‘Stealth Creationism’ Education Bill”

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has just given a green light for a new, national “Stealth Creationism” initiative by signing into Louisiana state law a “stealth” Creationism bill, SB 733. [Read more.]

To all of our friends across the country who answered our call to write to the Louisiana legislature and to Gov. Jindal in opposition to SB 733, the “LA Science Education Act”:

In keeping with our southern tradition of good manners, we would like to thank all of the organizations and individuals who helped the LA Coalition for Science in its effort to protect the teaching of science in Louisiana public schools. We appreciate the time you all took to write e-mails, send faxes, and make phone calls. We wish that the Louisiana legislature and the governor had appreciated the sincere concern you showed for Louisiana children. In fact, we wish that the legislature and the governor shared your concern. Continue Reading »