I never met a Christian who wasn't a stupid fucking asshole.

Arkansas House Passes Bills To Let Teachers Teach Creationism.

Robyn Pennacchia

April 10, 2021

This week, the Arkansas House passed two bills seemingly designed to make it incredibly unpleasant for kids who are not Bible-banging bigots to attend school. Why? Well, because they're assholes. There's not really a better or deeper answer than that.

On Wednesday, the House passed a bill allowing teachers to teach creationism. Yes, we're actually doing this again. Apparently now that Trump is gone, conservatives feel much more free to go back to their more theocratic tendencies. Despite the claims of many "prophets" that Trump was practically the Second Coming, the actual practice of supporting a crass, twice-divorced casino owner who was obviously only feigning to be super into Jesus seemed to make many Christians chill on the whole "the earth is 6,000 years old!" thing. Quite frankly, I think they didn't want to run the risk of anyone actually asking him about it.

Via KATV:

Rep. Mary Bentley sponsored HB 1704 which would allow for teachers to use the creation theory in science along with the evolution theory.

"I've had teachers in my district ask me if we could please make it available for them to be able to discuss some scientists that truly believe that the theory of creation should be taught in school," Bentley said, adding that it could be taught along with the theory of evolution, not in place of it.

Bentley said this bill would allow teachers the option to use creation theory but it does not force them.

Now, this is obviously illegal. The Supreme Court determined in 1987's Edwards v. Aguillard that teaching creationism in science classes is unconstitutional because creationism is a Christian religious belief and a public school cannot teach a Christian religious belief as science, no matter how desperately some Christians may want to believe that their belief is scientific.

Bentley, however, appears to be betting on the fact that a very conservative Supreme Court may change that.

It is understandable — or at least it has been made clear — that many Christians don't just think of their beliefs as things that they believe because it is part of their religion, but because they are factually true. So it probably does really hurt their feelings to be told "That's not science and you can't teach it as science." But the fact is, it is their religion. Teachers who wish to teach creationism are free, in their off-hours, to teach Sunday School or to stand outside on a sidewalk, handing out Jack Chick flyers and evangelizing to their heart's content — but they are not free to try to convert their students, because that is illegal. It is also not what they are being paid, by taxpayers, to do.

Not everyone gets to do what they love for a living. I do, but I'm lucky. If these people want to teach creationism for a living, then they will have to find another job and someone who is willing to pay them to do that. It's not that hard! Or it shouldn't be. Unless what they really want is an opportunity to preach to non-Christian children in a captive setting. Then they might have a problem.