https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/oklahoma-rob-standridge-education-religion-bill-b2007247.html|


Oklahoma bill would fine teachers $10k for teaching anything that contradicts religion


As a teacher and as a parent this is absolutely horrifying. I'm glad I don't live in Oklahoma. If it ever comes to my area, I'll be moving a.s.a.p. This is extremely disturbing. Especially since, unlike with police, that $10k would come directly from teachers pockets. I can't imagine being a teacher in Oklahoma if this passes. I'd think all of them would just leave.

Contradicts which religion? There are so many!

Clearly, things are not ok in OK.

Boru

When Professor Richard Dawkins went to the University of Oklahoma, the legislature there investigated:

Oklahoma legislature investigates Richard Dawkins’ free speech

This is a SLAPP, no different than the racial segregations imposed by certain states in the 60s.  What will the federal government do?  Nothing, of course, but, what should they do??

Knee jerk christian fear raising it's ugly head.

Yeah, the Okies are way behind on this.  They should listen to their more experienced neighbors:

Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97 (1968), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case that invalidated an Arkansas statute prohibiting the teaching of human evolution in the public schools.[1] The Court held that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits a state from requiring, in the words of the majority opinion, "that teaching and learning must be tailored to the principles or prohibitions of any religious sect or dogma." 

McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education, 529 F. Supp. 1255 (E.D. Ark. 1982), was a 1981 legal case in the US state of Arkansas.[1]
A lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas by various parents, religious groups and organizations, biologists, and others who argued that the Arkansas state law known as the Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science Act (Act 590), which mandated the teaching of "creation science" in Arkansas public schools, was unconstitutional because it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Judge William Overton handed down a decision on January 5, 1982, giving a clear, specific definition of science as a basis for ruling that creation science is religion and is simply not science.[1] The ruling was not binding on schools outside the Eastern District of Arkansas but had considerable influence on subsequent rulings on the teaching of creationism.[2]

It just never ceases to shock/amaze me what people can get away with in the name of, or on account of, religion in the US.

It's hard to see how such a law could survive court challenges. I doubt that even the current SCOTUS would let this go.

Imagine the irony of a nation which just put up the Webb telescope allowing one of its states to forbid teaching about it in deference to bronze-age superstition.

(February 4, 2022 at 10:41 pm)AFTT47 Wrote: It's hard to see how such a law could survive court challenges. I doubt that even the current SCOTUS would let this go.

Imagine the irony of a nation which just put up the Webb telescope allowing one of its states to forbid teaching about it in deference to bronze-age superstition.

It isn't going to make it that far. Right now the bill has zero co-sponsors and has not even made it to committee much less come up for a vote.

(February 4, 2022 at 10:46 am)Ranjr Wrote: Yeah, the Okies are way behind on this.  They should listen to their more experienced neighbors:

Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97 (1968), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case that invalidated an Arkansas statute prohibiting the teaching of human evolution in the public schools.[1] The Court held that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits a state from requiring, in the words of the majority opinion, "that teaching and learning must be tailored to the principles or prohibitions of any religious sect or dogma." 

McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education, 529 F. Supp. 1255 (E.D. Ark. 1982), was a 1981 legal case in the US state of Arkansas.[1]
A lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas by various parents, religious groups and organizations, biologists, and others who argued that the Arkansas state law known as the Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science Act (Act 590), which mandated the teaching of "creation science" in Arkansas public schools, was unconstitutional because it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Judge William Overton handed down a decision on January 5, 1982, giving a clear, specific definition of science as a basis for ruling that creation science is religion and is simply not science.[1] The ruling was not binding on schools outside the Eastern District of Arkansas but had considerable influence on subsequent rulings on the teaching of creationism.[2]

Oh boy, the USA sure wastes a lot of tax payer money on religion vs science, religion vs some_other_thing.
There are probably a couple of hundreds such court cases so far.


For a while, I was following the richarddawkins website and I think I saw a couple of recent court cases like that.
I think both cases were initiated by a politician who was trying to gain support.