Arkansas State House Republicans Pass Bill Allowing Creationism in Science Class

The Arkansas State House yesterday voted 72-21 in favor of letting public school science teachers “teach creationism as a theory of how the earth came to exist.” As if we needed another indication of how little respect Arkansas lawmakers have for students…

It was a party line vote, with every Democrat against it and every Republican for it. (One Democrat and six Republicans didn’t vote at all.)

This is the work of State Rep. Mary Bentley, a Republican, who filed HB 1701 last month.

The short bill defies (or completely ignores) the Supreme Court’s ruling against the teaching of Creationism since everyone knows it’s all about advancing religion instead of teaching credible science. As we know, the Earth doesn’t exist because God poofed it into being a few thousand years ago. The Bible may say that, but the Bible is lying to you.

Bentley tried doing this in 2017, too, but got nowhere with it. That bill died in the House. The current version just passed the House. (Bentley is a graduate of Harding College, a Church of Christ-affiliated school, so science education isn’t in her wheelhouse.)

It’s possible the new bill will breeze through the Republican-dominated State Senate because it purposely avoids mentioning Intelligent Design or evolution — and says teaching Creationism is optional. But giving teachers that choice doesn’t make it okay. It shouldn’t be acceptable for a public school teacher to brainwash your kids with utter bullshit during class.

Not that Bentley cared. She posted this on Facebook last night:

Creationism is Christian fiction. It sure as hell isn’t science. The only thing this bill would accomplish is inspiring a raft of successful lawsuits against it.

(Screenshot via YouTube. Large portions of this article were published earlier)