Creationist bill, road kill
There’s good news today, dear reader. Two more crazy creationist bills have gone down in defeat. The news comes from our friends at the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), written by Glenn Branch, their Deputy Director. Let’s take them one at a time.
When the first bill was proposed a month ago, we wrote about it in New Minnesota Bill — Creationist, or Just Crazy? The thing was proposed by Glenn H. Gruenhagen, an insurance agent. His bill required teachers to explain “how sickness, disease, pain, suffering, and death are a consequence imposed by the Creator of complex living organisms.”
Impressive, huh? But according to NCSE: Minnesota’s bill requiring instruction about “the Creator” dies. Here are some excerpts, with bold font added by us for emphasis, and occasional Curmudgeonly interjections that look [like this]:
Minnesota’s Senate File 517 — which would, if enacted, have require school districts in the state to “provide instruction to students in grades 9 to 12 exploring the contrast between the scientific facts on how sickness, disease, pain, suffering, and death relate to the existence of complex living organisms, and how sickness, disease, pain, suffering, and death are a consequence imposed by the Creator of complex living organisms” — died in committee on March 10, 2023, when a deadline for bills to pass committee in their house of origin passed.
BWAHAHAHAHAHA! The stupid thing didn’t even make it out of committee, so the Senate never had a chance to vote on it.
Okay, let’s move on to the next one. The last time we wrote about it was West Virginia Senate Passes Creationism Bill. That piece of junk was Senate Bill 619, which would allow teachers in public schools to teach intelligent design, described in the bill as “a theory of how the universe and/or humanity came to exist.”
The crazy thing had passed the Senate with a 27 to 6 vote, and it looked like it might go all the way — but it didn’t. NCSE just posted West Virginia’s “intelligent design” bill dies. Here are some excerpts:
West Virginia’s Senate Bill 619 — which would, if enacted, have allowed “[t]eachers in public schools, including public charter schools, that include any one or more of grades Kindergarten through 12, [to] teach intelligent design as a theory of how the universe and/or humanity came to exist” — died when the legislature adjourned sine die at midnight, March 10, 2023.
BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Glenn Branch, tells us:
“The failure of this misguided bill is a victory for the integrity of science education in West Virginia, and I congratulate all the Mountaineers who worked to ensure that it failed,” commented NCSE’s Executive Director Ann Reid. “But the bill progressed too far and too fast for us to be complacent that there won’t be future attacks on evolution education.”
That’s pretty much the whole story — so far — for state legislation this year. But there are legislatures still in session, and there’s no shortage of idiotic legislators. One never knows what might happen tomorrow, so stay tuned to this blog!
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The Sensuous Curmudgeon 
Thanks, dude
“how sickness, disease, pain, suffering, and death are a consequence imposed by the Creator of complex living organisms.” Which demonstrates why your gawd is a psychotic ahole to be hated for such evil. And the human body demonstrates the design incompetence of this psychotic gawd. Wonder how long that teacher keeps a job???
State Sen Glenn Greenhagen, who introduced the Minnesota bill, would appear to have trouble understanding the words of the Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a religion”, or be aware that the Constitution also binds State legislatures. The bill he introduced was even more a direct breach of that provision than some of the more subtle “strengths and weaknesses” or “equal treatment” or “controversial positions” foofaraw we’ve seen.
I assume that even the great State of Minnesota has an attorney-general, and that person is trained in the law. There surely could be no doubt whatsoever in the mind of an actual lawyer that any bill that required schools to teach that suffering is “a consequence imposed by the Creator” is in flagrant breach