The Senate added an amendment offered by Sen. Simpson to SB 89 which is the bill that permitted teaching creationism as science.
As amended, the bill says, “The governing body of a school corporation may offer instruction on various theories of the origin of life. The curriculum for the course must include theories from multiple religions, which may include, but is not limited to, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Scientology.”
So, this bill essentially does nothing. Schools are already permitted to teach about these things.
I like one of the other introduced amendments by Sen. Simpson which stated:
(b) The department shall establish curriculum guidelines for the teaching of creation science that must include the following standards:
(1) The information presented must be guided by natural law.
(2) The information and conclusions presented must be explained by natural law.
(3) The information and conclusions presented must be able to be tested empirically.
(4) The conclusions presented are tentative.
(5) The information and conclusions presented must be capable of being proven as true or false by observation or the outcome of a physical experiment.”.
Just a guess but think Simpson’s amendment is intended to take the sting out of the bill. As a minority Democrat she knows it stands a good chance of passing since the Republicans have evidently accepted the concept so has given an out for schools over having to be a course in the science course offerrings. With some pressure who knows this may be the opening for the fringe and other “religions”.
I think the amendment’s significance is not just that it requires that many religions be included, but that it removes the word “science.” Doug is right, it just says schools can teach comparative religions. Maybe in the social studies curriculum, or maybe as literature. They can already do that, and it’s probably a pretty good addition to the curriculum.
I’ve got an idea. Since he’s suddenly so interested in education, why doesn’t Senator Kruse focus on legislation that helps educates automobile auctioneers. I even have a couple of ideas for community college courses:
Auctioneering 101: Why you shouldn’t defraud your customers.
Economics 101: How to pay your bills without defrauding your customers
The syllabi are rather short.
Craig maes a good point. The automobile auctioneer curriculum also could include the arts: “The Auctioneering Yodel. proper incflection, cadence, and insertion of meaningless syllables.” (I infer from Craig’s comment that Senator Kruse is in some area of auto sales and ge the point Craig makes, but had to comment about the auctioneer element.)