Meanwhile, A Bit North of Oklahoma...

Brian Morelli of the Iowa City Press-Citizen notes that a bill has apparently been introduced into the Iowa State Legislature that has all of the signs of being a DI-sponsored bill. It has gotten attention. He writes:

Professors across Iowa are rallying against a piece of state legislation that supports alternative teaching of evolution as a scientific view, such as creationism.

More than 220 people, including 56 University of Iowa professors, have signed an Iowa faculty petition against House File 183 -- The Evolution Academic Freedom Act, which was introduced this session by State Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll.

The bill maintains that alternate theories on evolution fall under academic freedom, which should be protected for teachers and students that want to present such theories as scientific views in the classroom.

Roberts thinks people misunderstand the intent of the bill, he said.

"It's more about the freedom that an instructor and students can engage in without fear of criticism, censure or fear of losing one's job."

Once again, the language is the same: the freedom to talk about "alternatives" to evolution without the fear of recrimination of any kind. They are, perhaps, a bit bolder in their language, actually calling it the "Evolution Academic Freedom Act."

I am going to propose a bill to the Tennessee state legislature that we teach alternatives to Newtonian/Einsteinian gravitation. I think we should also teach Aristotelian and Nordstromian gravitational thought. So what if these theoretical constructs have been shown to be wrong. We need to keep an open mind about these things.