NCSE Evolution Education Update for 2011/12/23

(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)

Dear Friends of NCSE,

Two antievolution bills surface in the Granite State. And a new issue
of RNCSE for your reading pleasure.

ANTIEVOLUTION LEGISLATION IN NEW HAMPSHIRE

The two antievolution bills on the horizon in New Hampshire have now
been prefiled in the state House of Representatives. House Bill 1148,
introduced by Jerry Bergevin (R-District 17), would charge the state
board of education to "[r]equire evolution to be taught in the public
schools of this state as a theory, including the theorists' political
and ideological viewpoints and their position on the concept of
atheism." House Bill 1457, introduced by Gary Hopper (R-District 7)
and John Burt (R-District 7), would charge the state board of
education to "[r]equire science teachers to instruct pupils that
proper scientific inquire [sic] results from not committing to any one
theory or hypothesis, no matter how firmly it appears to be
established, and that scientific and technological innovations based
on new evidence can challenge accepted scientific theories or modes."
Although HB 1457 as drafted is silent about "intelligent design,"
Hopper's initial request was to have a bill drafted that would require
"instruction in intelligent design in the public schools." Both bills
were referred to the House Education Committee; HB 1148 is scheduled
for a hearing on February 9, 2012, and HB 1457 is scheduled for a
hearing on February 14, 2012. A columnist for the Nashua Telegraph
(July 3, 2011) who interviewed Bergevin and Hopper about their bills
commented, "My taxpayer dollars pay science teachers to teach science,
not philosophy. Let's hope lawmakers don't try to get in the way."

For the text of HB 1148 and HB 1457, visit:
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2012/HB1148.html 
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2012/HB1457.html 

For the column in the Nashua Telegraph, visit:
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/newsstatenewengland/924904-227/lawmakers-pushing-creationism-in-schools-is-a.html 

And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in New Hampshire, visit:
http://ncse.com/news/new-hampshire 

RNCSE 31:6 NOW ON-LINE

NCSE is pleased to announce the sixth issue of Reports of the National
Center for Science Education in its new on-line format. The issue --
volume 31, number 6 -- features George Allan Alderman III's account of
his visit to Kent Hovind's creationist theme park, Dinosaur Adventure
Land, and Ian C. Binns's review of the battle over science in
Louisiana since the passage of the so-called Louisiana Science
Education Act in 2008. For his regular People and Places column, Randy
Moore discusses the controversial career of the nineteenth-century
preacher and enthusiast for evolution Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887).

Plus a host of reviews of books relating to the creationism/evolution
controversy: Marc-André Lachance reviews David Herbert's Charles
Darwin's Religious Views: From Creationist to Evolutionist; John M.
Lynch reviews Benjamin Wiker and Jonathan Witt's A Meaningful World;
Arthur McCalla reviews Lenn E. Goodman's Creation and Evolution;
Arcady Mushegian and Eric Kessler review John C. Avise's Inside the
Human Genome; Juli Peretó reviews Fazale Rana's Creating Life in the
Lab; and Jeffrey Shallit reviews James Le Fanu's Why Us? How Science
Rediscovered the Mystery of Ourselves.

All of these articles, features, and reviews are freely available in
PDF form from http://reports.ncse.com. Members of NCSE will shortly be 
receiving in the mail the print supplement to Reports 31:6, which, in
addition to summaries of the on-line material, contains news from the
membership, a regular column in which NCSE staffers offer personal
reports on what they've been doing to defend the teaching of
evolution, a new regular column interviewing NCSE's favorite people --
members of NCSE's board of directors, NCSE's Supporters, recipients of
NCSE's Friend of Darwin award, and so on -- and more besides. (Not a
member? Join today!)

For the table of contents for RNCSE 31:6, visit:
http://reports.ncse.com/index.php/rncse/issue/current/showToc 

For information about joining NCSE, visit:
http://ncse.com/join 

Thanks for reading. And don't forget to visit NCSE's website --
http://ncse.com -- where you can always find the latest news on 
evolution education and threats to it.

--
With best wishes for the holiday season,

Glenn Branch
Deputy Director
National Center for Science Education, Inc.
420 40th Street, Suite 2
Oakland, CA 94609-2509
510-601-7203 x305
fax: 510-601-7204
800-290-6006
branch@ncse.com 
http://ncse.com 

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http://reports.ncse.com 

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