“…Goodness, I could spend several weeks teaching about intelligent design creationism – it would be great fun and I’m sure the kids would enjoy it.”

Previously:

HB 291: keping misooree stoopit (January 24, 2013)

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. “ (February 8, 2013)

From RationalWiki:

cdesign proponentsists

The term “cdesign proponentsists” came into being following the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial in Pennsylvania over the legitimacy of teaching intelligent design as science.

A crucial piece of the defense (pro-intelligent design) was a book called Of Pandas and People which was marketed as a science textbook for middle and high school children. During the trial, previous copies of the book were subpoenaed for review. It was demonstrated that, whenever previous versions of the book had the terms “creationist” or “creationism” or some similar form, it had been replaced in almost all cases with the terms “design proponents” and “intelligent design” in later editions….

….Investigations subsequent to the case showed that, in one particular case, an editor had apparently copied and pasted “design proponents” over the word “creationists” but in doing so had pasted over only part of the latter, resulting in a weird neologism, “cdesign proponentsists”….

[emphasis added]

Game, set, match (from a commenter at Washington Monthly – Missouri’s Creationism Legislation Introduced by “Science Buff”):

Paul Burnett on Sat 9 Feb 2013 10:47 AM

That’s actually not a bad idea. Tell the students all about the Dover Trial, and how the judge ruled that creationists lie under oath. Discuss how the creationists’ star witness said under oath that for intelligent design creationism to be accepted as science, the definition of “science” would have to be so dumbed down that astrology could also be defined as “science.”

Explain that after the 1987 US Supreme Court ruling against “creation science,” a band of fundagelicals got together at several venues, including the Bible Institute Of Los Angeles (now hiding under the stealth name “BIOLA University) and invented the current form of intelligent design creationism.

Explain how the term “cdesign proponentsists” (Google the term if you’re not familiar with it – it’s a great story) came to happen and how the publisher of “Of Pandas and People” lied under oath that his company was not a religious publisher, only to be handed an IRS “religious exemption” form with his signature on it.

Show the kids the position papers from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academies of Science and all the other actual science organizations denouncing intelligent design creationism as a pseudoscience – look up the Wikipedia article “List of scientific societies explicitly rejecting intelligent design”.

Goodness, I could spend several weeks teaching about intelligent design creationism – it would be great fun and I’m sure the kids would enjoy it.

Heh. Unintended consequences.

Previously:

HB 291: keping misooree stoopit (January 24, 2013)

Well, yeah (February 7, 2013)

Others are starting to notice the crazy in the Missouri General Assembly:

Science & Technology

Rick Brattin, Who Wants Anti-Evolution Lessons In Missouri Schools: “I’m A Science Enthusiast”

By Sam Levin Thu., Feb. 7 2013 at 7:00 AM

Missouri Representative Rick Brattin, a Republican, has introduced a bill that would mandate schools across the state give “equal treatment” to the theory of evolution and so-called “intelligent design,” which is similar to creationism.

Why?

“I’m a science enthusiast,” he tells Daily RFT. “I’m a huge science buff….”

Enthusiast? Gee, if it wasn’t for that pesky scientific method we’d all be enthusiasts.

At Mother Jones:

Anti-Evolution Missouri Bill Requires College Students to Learn About Destiny

-By Dana Liebelson

| Fri Feb. 8, 2013 12:21 PM PST

Late last month, Rick Brattin, a Republican state representative in Missouri, introduced a bill that would require that intelligent design and “destiny” get the same educational treatment and textbook space in Missouri schools as the theory of evolution. Brattin insists that his bill has nothing to do with religion-it’s all in the name of science….

….Eric Meikle, education project director at the National Center for Science Education, disagrees. “This bill is very idiosyncratic and strange,” he tells Mother Jones. “And there is simply not scientific evidence for intelligence design….”

Face palm.

Cue the banjos. A bill, introduced yesterday in the General Assembly:

FIRST REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE BILL NO. 291

97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES BRATTIN (Sponsor), KOENIG AND BAHR (Co-sponsors).

0506L.01I      D. ADAM CRUMBLISS, Chief Clerk

AN ACT

To amend chapters 170 and 174, RSMo, by adding thereto two new sections relating to standard science instruction.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:

           Section A. Chapters 170 and 174, RSMo, are amended by adding thereto two new sections, to be known as sections 170.018 and 174.890, to read as follows:

           170.018. 1. This section shall be known as, and may be cited as, the “Missouri Standard Science Act”….

[….]

(a) The origin of life on earth is inferred to be the result of intelligence directed design and construction. There are no plausible mechanisms or present-day experiments to prove the naturalistic origin of the first independent living organism;

           (b) All original species on earth are inferred to be the result of intelligence directed design and construction. There are no significant mechanisms or present-day experiments to prove the naturalistic development of earth’s species from microscopic organisms

[….]

3. All science taught in Missouri public elementary and secondary schools, including material concerning physics, chemistry, biology, health, physiology, genetics, astronomy, cosmology, geology, paleontology, anthropology, ecology, climatology, or other science topics shall be standard science. All standard science course materials and instruction shall meet the following criteria:

[….]

(c) If scientific theory concerning biological origin is taught in a textbook, the textbook shall give equal treatment to biological evolution and biological intelligent design.

[….]

174.890. 1. Notwithstanding any other law, any introductory science course taught at any public institution of higher education in this state, including material concerning physics, chemistry, biology, health, physiology, genetics, astronomy, cosmology, geology, paleontology, anthropology, ecology, climatology, or other science topics, shall be standard science. All standard science course materials and instruction shall meet the following criteria:

[….]

(b) If scientific theory concerning biological origin is taught in a course of study, biological evolution and biological intelligent design shall be taught. Other scientific theory or theories of origin may be taught. If biological intelligent design is taught, any proposed identity of the intelligence responsible for earth’s biology shall be verifiable by present-day observation or experimentation and teachers shall not question, survey, or otherwise influence student belief in a nonverifiable identity within a science course;

           (c) If scientific theory concerning biological origin is taught in a textbook, the textbook shall give equal treatment to biological evolution and biological intelligent design. Other scientific theory or theories of origin may be taught…

[….]

[emphasis in original]

They need to add teaching the Gish Gallop in debate classes:

Named for the debate tactic created by creationist shill Duane Gish, a Gish Gallop involves spewing so much bullshit in such a short span on that your opponent can’t address let alone counter all of it….