Evolution “Just Guessing”? Science Takes a Hit in NH

January 13, 2012  |  permalink

Two anti-evolution bills are currently making their way through the New Hampshire legislature. Though House Bills 1148 and 1457 do not mandate the teaching of “intelligent design” or creationism, they do insist that the state board of education “[r]equire evolution to be taught…as a theory, including the theorists’ political and ideological viewpoints and their position on the concept of atheism.”

In an interview with the Concord Monitor, Jerry Bergevin, the New Hampshire legislator responsible for the first bill, said: “I want the full portrait of evolution and the people who came up with the ideas to be presented. It’s a worldview and it’s godless…Atheism has been tried in various societies, and they’ve been pretty criminal domestically and internationally. The Soviet Union, Cuba, the Nazis, China today: they don’t respect human rights…Columbine, remember that? They were believers in evolution. That’s evidence right there.”

According to the Concord Monitor, these are the first anti-evolution bills introduced in the state since the late 1990s, and hearings are scheduled for early February.