Congressional Republicans may have been willing to sell social conservatives down the river, but not so the Republican party of Tennessee. Creationism Gains Ground in Tennessee:
Tennessee House Bill 368, the creationist friendly legislation that we have previously covered on FrumForum, has passed through of the Tennessee House on a vote of 70-23. The Senate is expected to take up the bill for a vote on April 20th.
As many observers had feared, the bill passed successfully on a near-party line vote. 8 Democrats joined with 62.
That being said, I tend to be of the opinion that a human nature and evolution friendly Zeitgeist can reinforce and add vigor to some of the truths of social conservatism. Alas.
Perhaps not much has changed in Tennessee since the Scopes trial. At least now they’re trying to inject a little religion back into the schools rather than legislating against teaching evolution at all. It’s a meaningful shift of frame.
I’m of two minds on this topic.
On the one hand I absolutely hate seeing superstition and ignorance prevail over reason, the scientific method and evidence.
On the other hand I don’t see the point in fighting for reason and evidence if you’re not prepared to use the reason and evidence in your life and the policies you advocate for in the public realm.
Fighting to remove creationism and teach evolution and then ignoring all the real world implications of evolution seems kind of pointless.
What exactly are the defenders of evolution fighting for? Teach science but once the science is learned then ignore all that’s been learned.
Theoretically you’re right, but in actual practice I’m not familiar with any sizeable groups of non-superstitious people in the western world who have been socially conservative along a multi-generaltional time frame. Based on nothing but the meager data points we have to date, it would appear that belief in transcendant religious truths is far more effective at effectuating social conservativism than is the unbiased study of history, biology and (the purer parts of) sociology.
I think saying the GOP sold social cons “down the river” is a bit strong. They only have the House. Given this position, they recognized that they simply cannot advance in that direction for the moment, so they moved where they could, on the fiscal front–not that that was much of a move in absolute terms.
Theoretically you’re right, but in actual practice I’m not familiar with any sizeable groups of non-superstitious people in the western world who have been socially conservative along a multi-generaltional time frame.
That’s because we’re only now beginning to hit the “multi-generational” point on the time frame. We’ve been seeing the results of illegitimacy, for example, which has necessitated a trade-off between high rates of imprisonment or high rates of crime. We’re choosing the former right now. We’re also now beginning to realize–Are you sitting down?–that women and men are rather different. That will start impacting social policy as well.
“What exactly are the defenders of evolution fighting for? Teach science but once the science is learned then ignore all that’s been learned.”
This is what the left wants to do. For them, evolution is just a stick they like to use to beat the social right. But then tell the same leftists that since we know evolution happened, let’s discuss the ways in which evolution effects human behavior. You’ll hear silence at best and moral indignation at worst.
Fighting to remove creationism and teach evolution and then ignoring all the real world implications of evolution seems kind of pointless.
first, some people are actually interested in science for science sake. second, can you leave other agendas out of a basic educational issue for a second at all? i guess not.
Funny, when you set the tone of the converstaion by writing: “I tend to be of the opinion that a human nature and evolution friendly Zeitgeist can reinforce and add vigor to some of the truths of social conservatism.”
That sure doesn’t look like “science for science sake” to me.
“This is what the left wants to do. For them, evolution is just a stick they like to use to beat the social right. But then tell the same leftists that since we know evolution happened, let’s discuss the ways in which evolution effects human behavior. You’ll hear silence at best and moral indignation at worst.”
Genuine liberals cannot sacrifice their ideals for anything.