Patti Garner of the Louisiana chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State brings up an interesting point about the Louisiana Science Education Act. Now that the restriction prohibiting the inclusion of religious beliefs (specifically that a supernatural being created humankind) has been removed by BESE in a vote of 10-0, aren't all creationism beliefs and stories now fair game for presenting in science class? Can teachers now advance Muslin, Sumerian, Babylonian, Aztec, and Mayan creation stories in the science classroom to balance the theory of evolution? Garner says, "They can conceivably teach their point of view about the start of life, and that would prove that this is a creationism bill because people would be in an uproar about that." Can any creation story (and there are plenty) now be taught as science?
Garner believes the laws will eventually be struck down anyway. "This is not an educational move, it's a political one," she says in a press release. "But what is even worse than a creationism bill - and we all know that's what this is - is that the first time this law is challenged, there will be a lawsuit. And when that happens, the law will be declared unconstitutional. Why are we wasting the court's time, and taxpayer money, on a law that we know will be thrown out in the end?"