An Uphill Battle on Science and Religion

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In the summer of 2008, the state of Louisiana passed a controversial bill, dubbed “LouisianaScience Education Act”. High school student Zack Kopplin was a sophomore who eventually launched a campaign to repeal the law. (Allman) The bill in question allows supplementary textbook to be used in the school as well as “help students understand, analyze, critique, and review scientific theories in an objective manner...” (ncse) of course this only applies to controversial topics like the theory of evolution, Abiogenesis, global warming, and cloning (ncse). Why only limit to those topics? Why not include gravitation, germ theory of disease, heliocentricism or atomic theory? Why did the Louisiana Family Forum proposed this bill in the first place? Senator Ben Nevers explained that the Louisiana Family Forum “believe that scientific data related to creationism should be discussed when dealing with Darwin's theory. This would allow the discussion of scientific facts. I feel the students should know there are weaknesses and strengths in both scientific arguments.” (Schon)
Kopplin initially assumed the Louisiana State Governor Bobby Jindal would not sign the bill because he majored in biology at Brown University. It turned out that the Louisiana State Governor was in favor of the bill, much to the dismay of Kopplin. Kopplin did not take any action for two years because he did not know how to address the issue through the proper legal channel. During his senior year in High School, he wrote an email to Dr. Barbara Forrest. Dr. Forrest is a philosophy professor at Southeastern Louisiana University; she was an expert witness for the plaintiff during the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School District in 2005 (McGuinness). Joining Zack Kopplin in ...

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...4. Web. 8 Apr. 2014. .
"Pennsylvania Constitution - Article 1." Pennsylvania Constitution - Article 1. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2014. .
Schon , Sylvia. "Bill allows teaching creationism as science." Hammond Star. N.p., 6 Apr. 2008. Web. 7 Apr. 2014. .
"Theistic evolution." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 4 May 2014. Web. 8 Apr. 2014. .
"The Scientific Method - Science Bob." The Scientific Method - Science Bob. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Apr. 2014. .
"Young Earth creationism." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Aug. 2014. Web. 8 Apr. 2014.

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