Far from being “disproven over and over again”, evolution is perhaps the BEST VERIFIED SCIENTIFIC THEORY EVER, right up there with quantum mechanics and general relativity. I could spend pages dissecting your preposterous claims in detail, but I don’t think you’d read it. If you’re even slightly curious (and even slightly intellectually honest) go read the FAQ at talkorigins.org: http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/faqs-qa.html

http://www.trueauthority.com/cvse/monkeybusiness.htm
anyways in closing, if they are teaching a theory that has been disproven over and over again in every study done on it except a few which where inconclusive i think they should teach other theories as well that have just as much credibility…so yeah get your heads out of the sand and look at the scientific facts staring you i the face, evolution is fundementaly wrong…hope u enjoy my little note, as i know those of you with real scientific minds will, thankyou for taking your time to read it, ttyl:)

The heart of HB1012 is the following:
“The board of directors of every public elementary and secondary school in this Commonwealth may permit administrators and teachers in each public school to prominently display the motto “In God We Trust,” which is declared in 36 U.S.C. ß 302 (relating to national motto) to be the national motto of the United States, in each classroom, school cafeteria and school auditorium.”

HB1012 is being sponsored by 16 people, of which the following are also sponsors of HB1007: Creighton (R, District 37), Armstrong (R, 100), Bastian (R, 69), Benninghoff (R, 171), Ellis (R, 11), Hershey (R, 13), Leh (R, 130), Petrarca (D, 55), Rohrer (R, 128), and Stern (R, 80).

The others sponsoring HB1012 are Daley (D, 49), Forcier (R, 6), Geist (R, 79), Philips (R, 108), Readshaw (D, 36) and R. Stevenson (R, 8).

Of the 16 sponsors, there are 3 Democrats (Petrarca, Daley, and Readshaw), and 13 Republicans.

I’ve heard back from Tony Norman at the P-G, and he is definitely interested in following up today’s column on HB1012 with one on HB1007.

I mean, I guess I should be glad they’ll be paying me money every time someone clicks on them, but it’s still sort of odd.

I haven’t had a chance to search out the bill, so all the info is from Mr. Norman’s columns. I’m going to send him e-mail about HB 1007, since it would make a great follow-on column.

I used to work in the PA legislature on the House Democratic Education Committee so I’d like to share a few insights into the process and some of the people behind this bill.

The first thing to know is that many of the sponsors of this legislation are on the extreme in the PA House of Reps. That probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise, but their positions make them, in many ways, outcasts within the House. Legislation they sponsor rarely gets a hearing in the Education Committee let alone a vote in that Committee.

I think it’s a very good idea to write letters to members of the House Education Committee (copy your own House member on this letter) so they are aware that there is opposition out there.

That being said, there are over 3,000 bills that get introduced in the PA House and Senate each year and the vast majority of them sit without any action taken on them at all.

House Bill 1007 was referred to the House Education Committee when it was introduced, but that’s a step that happens with every bill introduced (no matter how loony it might be). Each bill is referred to the committee that deals with the issues in the bill. But just because a bill is referred to a committee doesn’t mean anything will happen to it in that committee. In other words, referral to the Education Committee is a formality, not an indication that any action will happen with this bill.

The Chairman of the House Education Committee is Rep. Jess Stairs (R) and he controls what bills the Committee will consider (vote on) and what they won’t ever touch. Rep. James Roebuck (D) is the Democratic Chair and while he doesn’t have the power that Rep. Stairs has because he’s in the minority party, he still has some influence over what the Committee will work on.

So in addition to letters to all of the Education Committee members, I would encourage you all to make phone calls to Rep. Stairs’ office in Harrisburg to ask about House Bill 1007 and whether Rep. Stairs intends for the Committee to take any action on this bill. Rep. Stairs’ Harrisburg office phone number is (717) 783-9311.

I would encourage anyone who is going to call Representative Stairs’ office to be straightforward and polite about the reasons for calling and to just ask whether or not the Committee is planning on taking any action on House Bill 1007.

When you call, ask for the staff person on the Education Committee who deals with Basic Education issues and tell them the bill number that you have questions about. If that staffer isn’t available, leave your name and number so they can get back to you. Or just call back again. Legislators and their staff do take notice when they start receiving a lot of phone calls on a particular bill or issue.

Being polite may seem like a no-brainer, but I’ve been on the receiving end of well-meaning, but very impolite (and sometimes very belligerent) phone calls from people who want information about a particular bill and it’s counterproductive to go off on the person answering your questions. Committee staff have
no control over the legislation that is introduced, but members of the public routinely blast staff over the phone for some of the idiotic legislation that members introduce. In short, be civil.

I’ll check back in here again so if there are any questions about any of what I wrote I’ll try to answer them.

Also, feel free to report what I wrote on other blogs that may be commenting on this proposed legislation.

It stands to reason that it’s not appropriate to teach a non-scientific idea like ID in science classrooms, because it is not science. It is no more science than popstrology is science, and you wouldn’t want them to teach that to your kids in science…

Section (b) of the bill further states that “no teacher in a public school may stress any particular denominational, sectarian or religious
belief”, which makes the bill, well, incoherent.

This bill is being sponsored by 12 people. Of the 12 sponsors, 4 of them are on the Education committee (Creighton, Bastian, Clymer, and Rohrer), and Samuel Rohrer is the Republican chair of the Subcommittee on Basic Education. I doubt that writing the committee members who are sponsoring the bill will have any effect other than getting your views on record, but I agree that writing the entire committee is a good idea.

Of the 12 sponsors, all are Republicans, with one exception: Democrat Joseph Petrarca (District 55, Armstrong and Westmoreland Counties). I really wasn’t surprised that this was a Republican effort, but I was disappointed to find that a Democrat had lent his support. I think he deserves a letter as well.

Just for completeness, the other sponsors are: Creighton (District 37), Armstrong (100), Bastian (69), Benninghoff (171), Boyd (43), Clymer (145), Ellis (11), Hershey (13), Leh (130), Rohrer (128), and Stern (80).

Since I hadn’t seen anything about this in the newspaper, I did a search for “intelligent design” on the Post-Gazette‘s web site. All hits were editorial-page content, mostly about the Dover incident. I found nothing about HB1007. I also think they deserve to hear from us.

I also checked the National Center for Science Education (http://www.ncseweb.org), and they had posted some information about this on 1 April 2005.

The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) also maintains “Creation Watch site (http://www.csicop.org/creationwatch). I didn’t find anything there except information about Dover, so I’ve contacted them about HB1007 as well. I’ve also contacted the related Center For Inquiry’s Pittsburgh chapter.

Then again, according to my neighbors here in Virginia, I’m some hippie-assed liberal who can’t seem to understand how much more important this is than, say, reading.

Good luck.