Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
A Florida state legislator wants ID taught in public schools:
State Sen. Stephen Wise, a Jacksonville Republican, said he plans to introduce a bill to require teachers who teach evolution to also discuss the idea of intelligent design...Wise, the chief sponsor of the bill, expects the Senate to take it up when it meets in March. He said its intent is simple: "If you're going to teach evolution, then you have to teach the other side so you can have critical thinking."
Right. And if you don't teach geocentrism along with heliocentrism, you don't have "critical thinking." Or Christian Science beliefs along with the germ theory of disease. Or the Hindu cosmology along with the big bang theory.
Wise said that if the Legislature passes the bill, he wouldn't be surprised if there's a legal challenge."You just never know. They use the courts all the time. I guess if they have enough money they can get it in the courts," he said. "Someplace along the line you've got to be able to make a value judgment of what it is you think is the appropriate thing."
It doesn't have anything to do with having enough money. The state of Florida has far more money to defend their policies in court than the ACLU or Americans United could ever have to challenge it. Go ahead, pass the policy. And you'll lose in court again. As you should.
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Here we go again.
One must admit, though, that it is touching to see such dedication on the part of ID enthusiasts. Against obvious and daunting odds they soldier forth, buoyed by their unshakable faith. Rather inspiring in an insipid sort of way.
Bless their pointy little heads. Then let them be blown out of the water. Again.
Posted by: Crudely Wrott | February 11, 2009 9:29 AM
I think I'm in the wrong career in terms of job security.
It seems school curriculum legal cases present a never ending wellspring of career opportunity, as a determined minority is continually dead set against learning anything from precedent about how to stay out of court.
Posted by: Mr Lynne | February 11, 2009 9:40 AM
I DEMAND all maths classes teach the idea that 2+2=5!!! If you teach that 2+2=4, you've got to teach the other side in order to have critical thinking!!!!!
Posted by: Stephen not-so-Wise | February 11, 2009 9:44 AM
Having more money doesn't always equal winning the legal battles in court. If I remember correctly, most (if not all) of the plaintiffs' expert witnesses in the Dover ID trial volunteered their time while the fine folks from Discovery only were willing to offer their services as expert witnesses if they were paid well for their time. I thought I read somewhere that Demski demanded somewhere in the neighborhood of $200/hour.
We all know where all this paid-for expertise got the Dover School Board and the Thomas More Law Center.
Posted by: Engr Tony | February 11, 2009 9:44 AM
The disconnect between reality and belief system is absolutely amazing to me. Nova re-ran "Day of Judgment" about the Dover Trial last night, and the same disconnect was evidenced by Prove Liar Bill Buckingham's refusal to accept reality.
IMO people like Wise and Buckingham are mentally ill and should be given therapy, not a platform for their fantasies.
In the BIG picture there should be an automatic recall for any elected or appointed official that puts their school districts and/or children at risk through pushing religion and trying to break the Constitution.
If we were at war, couldn't this behavior be viewed as treason? Oh, guess what...
Posted by: J-Dog | February 11, 2009 10:10 AM
Mr Lynne: a determined minority is continually dead set against learning anything from precedent about how to stay out of court
"God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board." - Mark Twain
From poking at the SDA (for various mixes of BIBLE, WORDSUM, and SCITEST4 as row/column/control) perhaps it's not so much determination as sheer inability that obstructs learning.
There may be additional effect involving the reliability of information transmission on any graph edge, the connectivity graph for information transmission in human society, and the path taken from source to destination. (Or in English... some of them may not be hearing anything but what they want to.)
Posted by: abb3w | February 11, 2009 10:12 AM
There's exactly one sure solution for this ongoing problem:
"Nuke 'em from space, it's the only way to be sure." ;) -DJ
Posted by: DingoJack | February 11, 2009 10:28 AM
I notice it's always Republicans doing this.
Should we teach 'all sides' of Holocaust Denial? That's been in the news (and hey, it's 'controversial' too).
Posted by: Bachalon | February 11, 2009 10:39 AM
Why is it that only when it comes to evolution that the wingnuts want to teach "critical thinking" but with everything else they just want everyone to fall in line and follow The Man?
Posted by: yoshi | February 11, 2009 10:41 AM
Times like this I would, if I were a believer, thank God that I live in a relatively civilized state. Otherwise, I might be stuck defending the inevitable, and inevitably losing, lawsuits over this nonsense.
Posted by: CJColucci | February 11, 2009 10:54 AM
In all fairness I remember in elementary school learning about geocentrism, and heliocentrism together. It was along the lines of, “here’s what people used to think before observations and experiments showed this other idea to be better.” In fact the teacher even went on to explain that heliocentrism isn’t strictly correct either, as the sun is only the center of the solar system, not the universe. Even then it’s only the central mass around which the planets orbit, not the positional center due to elliptical orbits. Finally, we were taught how the heliocentric model explained retrograde motion of planets and, as Venus was in retrograde at the time, how to observe it for ourselves.
Similarly, we learned how germ theory replaced the superstitions that preceded it. We learned how spherical Earth replaced flat Earth, differing electro-magnetic potential replaced primitive myths as the source of lightning, and so on and so on. We replicated experiments whenever feasible. When it wasn’t, like with germ theory, learned about the experiments of others. (I’m so glad I my elementary school gave me a good foundation.)
Teaching children about special creation (a.k.a. ID) the way I learned about geocentrism and other primitive ideas is something good schools should be doing. Teaching children to think critically, to see what Creationist are claiming and the observations that led to it being discarded can help children to see the value and elegance of the scientific theory that replaced that archaic superstition.
Wait a sec, State Sen. Stephen Wise wants ID taught as if it’s still a relevant idea, as if it actually a valid scientific theory? Hahahahahahaha! [snort] Hahahahaha...
Posted by: Abby Normal | February 11, 2009 10:59 AM
A-holes like this should be forced to pay for the legal challenges instead of me as a tax payer in Florida. The moralizers in this state are killing the state budget with acts like this and turning down the casino money from the Seminoles.
I really don't understand how a lawmaker can make the state libel for a law that they have to know is going to be fought in court and their side lose. This is not a first crack at the law but what the 10th high profile attempt in this decade alone. And all the previous attempts lost badly.
With out looking it up I guarantee he voted against taking the Seminole money too. For those that are unfamiliar with this the Seminoles run the two largest Indian casinos in Florida and recently put in table games. They have been trying to get table games for the last few years and finally got word that the feds would rule in their favor. So they offered the state hundreds of millions in up front tax revenues to stop a legal battle that they would win. Yet our brilliant legislator turns down the money because table games are for the devil. Christ signs it anyways and that gets overturned by our SC.
Posted by: Jim | February 11, 2009 11:20 AM
I'm reaching the point where every time I see a sentence like "If you're going to teach evolution, then you have to teach the other side so you can have critical thinking" uttered in all seriousness, I find myself looking for a large stick to hit someone with.
It's becoming rather Pavlovian, in fact. Ring a bell and I want to hit an ID supporter.
Posted by: Mara | February 11, 2009 1:28 PM
Wise isn't.
Posted by: Don | February 11, 2009 1:39 PM
Not again?
These fools will NEVER give up.
Maybe what we need to do is to say "Ya know, your right. We need to teach the controversy everywhere, especially in places that get government support or have tax exempt status. So lets start requiring Baptist ministers to present Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and even Atheism as "alternatives" to Baptist doctrine. After all we want our children to choose the belief that best fits them not the one their parents made them follow."
I'd LOVE to see it.
Posted by: Greg | February 11, 2009 2:30 PM
What a sad waste of money. The DI IDiots ought to share in the cost of this travesty too. Pay up Luskin. The lawsuits are coming for sure if this passes.
Posted by: MikeMa | February 11, 2009 3:23 PM
I don't understand why these folks worry about what their kids are being taught in school. I mean, it's not like they ever seem to learn any lessons.
Posted by: Scott Hanley | February 11, 2009 3:57 PM
I say go for it, Florida!
Yeah, MANDATORY teaching of "intelligent design."
Books and all. Let me recommend a grand book, Explore Evolution, published by the Dishonesty Institute. Mandatory reading, I say. Also, teachers should be required to instruct students that evolutionists are godless atheists and that intelligent design proponents are blessed.
If you're going to have a court case, you might as well make it easy, short and sweet. Seriously, why should Louisiana and Arkansas have all the fame?
Posted by: Doc Bill | February 11, 2009 5:58 PM
Quoth J-Dog:
I'm with Jim, above. Such acts should be held as "ultra vires" and those individuals and organizations responsible held liable for the legal and other expenses.Bankrupt a few of these idiots (and their advocacy organizations, like fundie churches, if they were involved in campaigning for the board members responsible) instead of letting them push the costs onto the district, and this stuff would stop in a big hurry.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | February 11, 2009 9:26 PM
"Ummm, science class, close your books, I am now going to fufill my legal obligation to teach you the 'other side' so as to imbue you with critical thinking. ID is religion pretending to be science. Now please open your books to page 158, Darwin's amazing insights into sexual selection..."
Posted by: kamaka | February 11, 2009 11:14 PM
I set this to ffrf.org:
Hi, I'm not actually an american, but I watch american politics.
There have been moves afoot to give "Equal Time" to Intelligent Design in science classrooms.
Perhaps the Freedom from Religion Foundation could prepare a text or some classroom notes for science teachers so they can "teach the controversy". They should be seriously and genuinely usable - a teacher should be able to use them and legitimately state at their local House Committie for Unamerican activities "I taught ID, I teated it fairly and accurately, from these resources". You'll need real input from teachers and education professionals. It's a pretty urgent issue in some parts (mainly, parts that don't like coloured presidents, but that's a whole 'nother affair).
Personally, I'd love to see a science teacher teach - deadpan - about Intelligent Design, while showing on the classrrom monitor a cartoon of God with a leather apron and micrometer, his workshop walls covered with engineering/biological diagrams, brow furrowed in concentration as he ponders how to stop a spiders spinnarets clogging. And another cartoon showing groups of angels/engineers divided into teams, one team working on the Cheetah, the other on the antelope. ID is at heart a *medaeval* idea - God as Leonardo Da Vinci.
Anyway. If the FFRF can't do it (or organise the getting of it done), someone has to - otherwise the loonies get to write the texts by default.
Cheers!
Posted by: Paul Murray | February 12, 2009 6:48 AM
Greg was right, these people never do give up, and the debacle in Dover didn't teach them a damn thing! It's almost funny that Wise (who clearly doesn't live up to his name) thinks I.D. should be taught in classrooms so you can have "critical thinking". He's proven quite clearly by his actions that that's something he's incapable of.
Posted by: Raymond Minton | February 12, 2009 5:10 PM
Raymond Minton - I would bet that the vast majority of politicos pushing creationism are not cognizant of the Dover Trial results and its implications. My bet would include state legislators; these people are aggressively and virulently ignorant.
The reporter who wrote the book even described the people in the courtroom who were creationists in a manner where I doubt they had any idea of what transpired when pro-science witnesses testified.
Posted by: Michael Heath | February 12, 2009 5:18 PM
Surely by now they see the pattern that these just end up lost in committee.
If they are pushing their private interests, as they are, then it would seem to make sense for them to cover their own costs.
Paul Murray: they could just take up some of the existing ones, there are plenty of books that cover this ground already (although admittedly probably not so many aimed at school pupils).
Posted by: Heraclides | February 13, 2009 5:35 AM
I've been saying for years that the last thing the flat-earthers want is for me to discuss ID in science class. As it is, I can teach the curriculum without the kids thinking I'm making fun of their religion. But if I have to discuss ID, I'll shred it.
90% of their problem is that they haven't considered the idea that they might be wrong.
Posted by: BaldApe | February 14, 2009 10:47 AM
You can shred ID, but the fundie parents will then try to shred you. Meanwhile, in all the fundie-dominated districts, fundie teachers will teach ID as fact and there will be even less likelihood that anyone will take action to stop it.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | February 16, 2009 1:10 AM