Teh interesting (non-PHL-related) news stub thread

[Twin-Skies]

Who say you have to travel to the Middle East to stare in the face of stupidity in the name of religion?

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/...family.php

Here's something even worse than the self-destruction of her own family: Kerns is the sponsor of Oklahoma House Bill 2211, the "Religious Viewpoints Antidiscrimination Act". You can tell from the title what it is: a bill that would privilege religious opinions over scientific information in public school classrooms. The story is all over the Oklahomans for Excellence in Science Education page, as you might guess. The bad news is that the HB 2211 has passed in the House and is on its way to the Oklahoma senate, where we'd better hope it gets shot down. Here's what it does:

The bill requires public schools to guarantee students the right to express their religious viewpoints in a public forum, in class, in homework and in other ways without being penalized. If a student's religious beliefs were in conflict with scientific theory, and the student chose to express those beliefs rather than explain the theory in response to an exam question, the student's incorrect response would be deemed satisfactory, according to this bill.

The school would be required to reward the student with a good grade, or be considered in violation of the law. Even simple, factual information such as the age of the earth (4.65 billion years) would be subject to the student's belief, and if the student answered 6,000 years based on his or her religious belief, the school would have to credit it as correct. Science education becomes absurd under such a situation.

Oklahomans, call or write your state senators NOW

This appears to the same state that makes it mandatory for its schools to teach creationism alongside evolution.

What can I say? God does have a sense of humor...in the Shadenfreude sense at least