The State of Louisiana

The state of Louisiana is trying to do two things, both of which may end up getting them a few lawsuits, first thing they are trying to do is make the Bible the official state book. The bill has passed in one house and is being sent to the other. These politicians have nothing else to do with their time is there not other important things they could be debating on.

According to the Slate blog, alot of other politicians are complaining that other versions of the bible should be considered. Also according to the slate blog the complaining politicians feel like this:

It] brought immediate objection from Rep. Stephen Ortego, D-Carencro, who said his Catholic Bible contains some books that aren’t in the King James version. “A lot of people believe in a Bible that has things different than what’s in there, not just Catholics. It’s also Orthodox,” Ortego said. “Why not put all versions of the Bible? If there’s one, what are we saying about the rest of the people?” added Rep. Robert Billiot, D-Westwego.

Thank goodness for separation of church and state right? Wrong according to the Slate blog:

And so it was. But, what of that pesky church and state not comingling issue? Not a problem. Carmody points out, the Advocate reports, “the state can have more than one state book, just as it has more than one official jelly.” "This is not about establishing an official religion," Carmody told the Times-Picayune.

Well thank goodness for the ACLU:

The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana is predictably unimpressed. The organization says the bill "represents the use of religion to discriminate against Louisianians of minority faiths or who do not adhere to that particular book as part of their belief system. The bill will create more problems than it will solve by telling some Louisianians that their belief system is not full equal."

Hopefully the bill will not pass or Louisiana is going to be getting sued from all directions. Citizens of Louisiana do you think they could be using your tax money a little differently. Does Louisiana really need a state book?

*Credit for this portion of this post goes to the Slate blog site:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/04/14/louisiana_state_house_advances_bill_designating_the_bible_as_the_state_book.html *

Also the bill that was passed in 2008 called the Louisiana Science Education Act is being challenged because it overall allows teachers to promote creationism over Darwin's Theory of Evolution.

The Louisiana Science Education Act is an "academic freedom law" based on the Discovery Institute's academic freedom model statute. The LSEA allows teachers in public schools to use supplemental materials in the science classroom that are critical of established scientific theories "including, but not limited to, evolution, the origins of life, global warming and human cloning." Senator Nevers, sponsor of the bill, states that he introduced the bill at the behest of the Louisiana Family Forum to allow creationism to be taught in public schools. Gene Mills, president of the Louisiana Family Forum, states that the bill is necessary to allow teachers to "critically present" evidence and "quit choosing sides when it comes to teaching students this controversial subject matter."

Critics of the bill suggest that it is intended as an end-run around the federal ban on the teaching of creationism in public schools, and say that the sole purpose of the law is to provide legal cover to educators who want to introduce things other than science to the teaching of evolution in contravention of court rulings in cases such as Edwards v. Aguillard (1987) and Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District (2005), something opposed by the scientific community.

On June 3, 2008, The American Institute of Biological Sciences sent a letter to House Speaker Jim Tucker opposing SB 733. On June 20, 2008, AIBS and seven other societies sent a letter to Governor Bobby Jindal requesting that he veto SB733. The requesting societies included the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the American Ornithologists Union, the American Society of Mammalogists, the Botanical Society of America, the Natural Science Collections Alliance, the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, the Society of Systematic Biologists, and the Society for the Study of Evolution.

Overall this bill should not of passed back in 2008. Kids in school no matter what state they live in need to be taught Darwin's Theory of Evolution and the Big Bang Theory. I feel like these kids these days are getting brainwashed more and more. Keep truth and logic in schools and keep the Biblical stories where they belong in church and in the privacy at home.

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