Science/Tech

Pro-creationism Laws in Evolution Education Tracked by US Study

By Kanika Gupta | Update Date: Dec 22, 2015 04:32 PM EST

The scientific theory comes yet again in the crosshairs of forces that are opposed to teaching evolution in U.S. public schools. A researcher used the very principles of science to to show that the laws that were rooted for science education were enhanced to make classrooms pro-creationist. Several bills were analyzed in the state legislatures across the country that reveals how small Louisiana parish innovation was combined with 32 other bills through the process called "descent with modification". As a result, two out of 32 bills became law and impacted the science education not only in Louisiana but also Tennessee.

"The creationist origins of modern antievolution strategies are clear," according to the study by Nicholas Matzke, who recently became a research fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra. The study findings were published in Journal Science on Thursday.

Matzke is aware of the struggle about teaching evolution in public schools. While working in Dover, Pennsylvania at National Center for Science Education, he helped the public school student's parents who filed a lawsuit against the school to remove intelligent design from their curriculum. The case was won by the parents on the grounds that inserting creationist theories into public classrooms was unlawful, reported LA Times.  

There have been efforts to keep the evolution studies out of American schools for almost a century. "Societal debate over evolution education has the potential to leak into other societal debates where high-quality science education is inconvenient to certain established interests," he wrote. "Science educators have substantial work to do to ensure that science classes teach the best science available, rather than false critiques and controversies promoted by creationists," as reported by Bend Bulletin

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