On May 27 I wrote about a lawsuit filed by one Kenneth Smith of West Virginia, a suit alleging that evolution was a “faith.” Of course, Smith had to claim damages, so the suit further argued that his daughter’s future education and prospects for veterinary school were being damaged by requiring her to learn evolutionary “faith”.
Here are some excerpt from that suit. (The full pdf is here. Note, as in the extract below, how poorly written it is: the plaintiff apparently brought the suit on his own). First, see how many people Smith was suing, including Francis Collins, NIH director, and Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education!
Then, his contention:
Well, of course, evolution is no more a “faith” than atheism is a religion, and case law from the Supreme Court already stipulates that it’s perfectly constitutional to teach evolution in public schools. Now, according to an piece in Ars Technica, the suit was ignominiously dismissed on August 25. You can see the judge’s ruling here, but I’ll give a few screenshots:
First, Smith was determined to lack standing, i.e., a credible claim that he would be injured by teaching evolution. (I guess this is despite his argument that his daughter’s education would be injured. Absence of “standing” by the way, is the reason why many First Amendment suits brought by organizations like the Freedom from Religion Foundation don’t ever get adjudicated. For instance, for the University of South Carolina’s football team “chaplain” to be declared unconstitutional, there would have to be a complaint by a football player that he was injured by the unwanted imposition of faith on him. And that ain’t gonna happen, for any player who complained would be an instant pariah. Without standing—without an injured party to complain—these suits cannot go forward.
The judge’s ruling on “standing”:
And the judge’s ruling that banning the teaching of evolution is not Constitutional, i.e., the Constitutions forbids “the prohibition of theory which is deemed antagonistic to a particular dogma”:
. . .
The National Center for Science Education has the whole set of filings and rulings on its website.
h/t: Jim E.
He wanted to sue Francis Collins??? Why didn’t he sue all those Steves as well?
Based on the language in the ruling it sounds to me like Smith is interpreting the school’s refusal to teach his “mathematical system” as “teaching evolution”. I’d be very surprised if much evolution is actually taught, especially in that location. Primary and secondary schools across the country are notorious for avoiding the subject.
I’m just thankful I had good teachers. My biology teacher, Dan Adams wasn’t afraid of that kind of stuff at all. He also had the guts to come out to the student body and faculty in 1994, and this was in Florida. I don’t recall him skirting the issue at all. In the 10t grade, we learned about Darwin, natural selection, we discussed the fact that we had common ancestors with primates.
Public schools in Florida can be dicey, that’s what happens when your legislature throws rocks at public education for four straight decades, I’m just flat-out lucky my bio teacher was that good.
Woah. That is great. Here in Minnesota, a blue state (!), my high-school biology consisted entirely of taxonomy and physiology. Darwin was never mentioned.
That stinks.
IMO, a biology class that doesn’t mention Darwin is as incomplete as a physics class that doesn’t mention Newton.
Hear, hear!
…and, he’s written a book too! Not just any book, but a, like, totally revolutionary book!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1475989660/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1475989660&linkCode=as2&tag=wwwfriendlyat-20&linkId=P7MNQVGP754WVVLR
I had a lot of fun reading the reviews for that book – I thoroughly recommend taking the time.
Apparently this guy’s contention is that Adam and Eve were white-skinned, white-haired, and blue-eyed, just like God. After murdering Abel, Cain went roaming around Africa where he mated with a silver back gorilla. That’s apparently how we got black people, and his book proves it mathematically! So add white supremacist to the charges against his character.
From the blurb written on the Amazon page, it’s clear the guy can’t even string a coherent sentence together. I can’t imagine how he keeps going for a whole book.
I feel sorry for his daughter.
If only all the opposition were as patently loony as this guy…
cr
Yeah – he’s easy to dismiss. It’s a bit tougher when the clever ones end up in the opposition too. 🙂
By the way, re that gorilla – I thought one of the identifying marks of a species was the ability to interbreed. So if Cain (human) could mate with a gorilla, that proves that we and gorillas are the same species, no?
oook
Good call! 🙂
Den why Я dere still monkeys, smartass!!!1!
This guy sure uses math in a weird way. He should be charged with math abuse.
You sure wouldn’t want to have a maths debate with him!
(See – that joke works in NZ but not so much in America. I bet that’s the real reason they say math instead of maths – the religious right took control of the language!)
😀 Works in the UK as well!
What’s with this US obsession with evolution? In so may ways it leads the world, yet when it comes to religion, or rather superstition, there seems to be a deliberate desire to be ignorant.
Until American lawmakers start leading the way, ensuring minimum educational requirements are met, substantially reining in homeschooling (preferably banning it), preventing religious belief being used as an excuse not to do ones job, then the US will continue to be a paradox. Oh wait…American lawmakers are politicians…how many atheist politicians are there? Can anybody think of a solution?
removing christian holidays from the secular nations as paid holidays
no giving a preference anymore
and the worst is the media
they need to stop sayin scientists are “mystified” or “baffled” when they are only filling in more of the puzzle
the recent hominin find doesn;t change anything, it just fleshes out the story of we are risen and kinky primates
Geez we need more holidays, not less. Granted I’m not going to use the old ‘we work harder than the rest of the world’ trope, because that’s factually incorrect. But still, if Christmas bothers you I think “extend the holiday to 25th-31st” would be a much better response than “eliminate the holiday on the 25th.”
I have worked for several American companies, and I have plenty of experience of how my American colleagues work. In general, they do not work hard: they merely put in long hours. They find ways in which to coast in order to fill those hours. Meetings are the worst thing, with long, meandering discussions with poor advance preparation and inconclusive outcomes, which creates scope for more useless followup meetings. This is not a criticism of my colleagues, but rather of the inadequate management skills of their managers.
I have also worked with German colleagues, who, unless there is an emergency, strongly resist working much more than nominal hours. I have heard that the German view is that if you cannot do your job in the allocated hours, you are incompetent.
Interesting POV and I will bring it to the attention of my American manager/wife. She works very long hours and corporate policy is cutting her skilled American workers, someofwhom frankly didn’t/don’t share her work ethic.
But you make do with what you have even if your product or services decline in quality. Screw it, I’m retired.
American culture is very superficial. Putting in long hours must mean you’re getting more done because that’s what it looks like at a glance and appearances are everything.
You missed a chance of including the secular holiday of the season, New Year’s!
Return to work on the Jan 2nd.
no. I mean all of them. easter too. no religion gets their magic days acknowledged by the secular government.
I expect the Rethuglicans would love to do away with a large number of paid holidays.
I’d suggest leaving the holidays alone. They’re more commercial events than religious now, and everybody knows (except a few Xtians) that they derive from old pagan festivals anyway.
I’m sure there are better ways to counter religion than scoring an own-goal by taking peoples’ holidays away.
cr
there is no better way to drive home the point of separation and church than actually separating them. It is time for religion to be deemed a mental illness. & I am Canadian, we’re ahead of the USA on the rights front
Grassroots movements, vigilance, organizations like the NCSE, CFI, etc. A hard task, but one that I think has to be done.
this is why religious post secondary schools are being not allowed to teach “law”
religion is about to be very sad to learn that religion is a belief
and reality is science
Music to my eyes!
I wish I wasn’t raised by religious parents, but after reading this, I can count my bl*ssings. At least they weren’t as radical as this dad.
The plaintiff had to bring this suit pro se; any member of the bar who signed off on this would have been subject to Rule 11 sanctions for filing a frivolous pleading.
Ironic that that this solecism-riddled screed complains of the diminished educational opportunities the plaintiff’s daughter is suffering. Guess we can take small comfort that it was filed in West Va. rather than the civilized world.
Dear Professor, I would like to ask if you can give your expert opinion on this attached video. Regards , Dela Yao Anippah.