Creationist bill, road kill
A month ago we wrote Alabama’s 2015 Creationism Bill, about House Bill 592 (PDF), introduced in the Alabama House of Representatives on April 30, 2015, and referred to the House Committee on Education Policy.
It was modeled after the creationism law in Tennessee, which was based on the Discovery Institute’s model bill — see Academic Freedom bills. The Alabama bill’s sponsor was Mack Butler, a Republican. He’s an electrical contractor who once attended Gadsden State Community College, but apparently he never graduated.
As we were informed at that time by the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), the Alabama legislature would be in session for only eleven more days before adjourning, so it didn’t appear that Butler’s bill had a realistic chance of becoming law.
Today we learn at the NCSE website: Antiscience bill dies in Alabama. They say:
Alabama’s House Bill 592 (PDF) died in committee in the Alabama House of Representatives on June 4, 2015, when the legislative session ended.
Not much of a shock. As we look over our earlier posts about such bills in other states for this year, we see that they’ve all failed to pass. How very disappointing that must be for the Discoveroids. All they have to show for their expensive, multi-year campaign to promote such legislation are two successes — in Louisiana and Tennessee. Everywhere else, their silly bills have all failed to pass. Even their successes are in doubt, because they have to fight a repeal effort each year in Louisiana, and when those laws are challenged in court — as they surely will be — they’re likely to be invalidated.
And of course, the Discoveroids haven’t made any inroads in academia either. All the goals in their sinister Wedge strategy — which “seeks nothing less than the overthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies” and establishing “a broadly theistic understanding of nature” — have thus far failed. For a description of their dream of overthrowing the Enlightenment and restoring the Dark Ages, see What is the “Wedge Document”?
That’s probably the end of this year’s creationist legislative activity. A few states still have some oddball bible bills pending, but they’re not really part of The Controversy between evolution and creationism. And of course, there are some unfortunate states whose legislatures are in session all year, so it’s not over. It never is. But so far it’s been a good year. May it always be so.
Copyright © 2015. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.
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The Sensuous Curmudgeon 
Our Curmudgeon notes
Or, to use the vernacular, the end of this year’s round of Whack-a-Mole.
But as The Creatinator always proclaims, “I’ll be back…”
Oh, how I enjoy seeing that double yellow line story header!