An Oklahoma lawmaker wants Creationism taught in science classes. His bill is doomed.
State Sen. David Bullard has a long history of shoving his Christianity in places it doesn't belong
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Oklahoma State Sen. David Bullard is trying once again to force his religion into the law.
This time, he’s the sponsor of Senate Bill 1868, which would force educators who teach evolution to also teach students “the concepts of creationism and/or intelligent design.” The bill would go on to prohibit school districts from punishing any teacher who discusses “the scientific strengths and weaknesses of biological evolution, creationism, or intelligent design.” (Which is nothing more than permission for Christian teachers to pretend evolution isn’t valid without getting punished for it.)
It’s a bill so unscientific—and so wildly illegal—that even Oklahoma Republicans aren’t likely to take it seriously.
Bullard’s been pulling these stunts for years. He previously filed bills to resurrect Ten Commandments monuments inside and outside the State Capitol and force children to learn about “America’s Christian heritage” in their schools. He also promoted the idea of pushing the Bible directly in school before adding that he didn’t want “some pink-haired person who doesn't believe in God to start trying to teach the Bible,” as if only Christians would be allowed to teach those classes, somehow making his already-illegal bill even worse.
None of those bills passed.
His latest attempt to legislate his faith is just as pointless. According to his own press release, Bullard describes evolution as a “government-mandated ideology about the origins of life,” as if there’s no science behind it. Laughably, he pretends this bill is all about promoting “critical-thinking skills.”
“For far too long, we have clouded the understanding of where we come from and our origins as humans,” said Bullard, a former history and government teacher. “For decades, we have taught fiction as fact and forced the theory of evolution on our kids. That ends now. Senate Bill 1868 fixes this problem by putting both evolution and creationism in the classroom for students to learn.”
…
“The ability to discern the truth about the origins of man is a critical step in our kids’ education,” Bullard said. “Either we teach both ideas or we allow parents to teach their kids this important topic. We must also stop this indoctrination of our kids using a theory that even its creator openly doubted.”
I’ve never understood the idea that because Charles Darwin didn’t have total confirmation of his theory—to the point that he expressed doubts about it—it must be cast aside. That’s absurd because of the mountains of evidence we’ve had since his death confirming the reality of evolution. All the evidence points in that direction. None of the evidence points away from it.
In any case, notice how Bullard acts like there are only two options for how life began: Evolution… and the Christian fairy tale. There’s no room for anything else, including other religious views. That’s how you know this is a bad-faith piece of legislation. It’s not like he’s citing scientists who say there are other possibilities. He’s just acting like if there are any gaps in our understanding of evolution, Christianity must fill it.
And yet Republicans haven’t bought his bullshit in the past. The National Center for Science Education points out that Bullard previously tried to undermine evolution education via “Senate Bill 14 in 2019, Senate Bill 613 in 2021, and Senate Bill 1871 in 2024.” None of those bills even got through commitee.
There’s no reason to believe this one will fare any better. Just like a similar bill recently filed in Arizona, it’s doomed from the start. Creationism has been a non-starter in science classes since the Supreme Court said as much in 1987, Intelligent Design was knocked down by a court in 2005, and all the euphemisms (teach the “holes” in evolution, teach the “strengths and weaknesses” of evolution, etc.) have gone absolutely nowhere. That’s because the courts have repeatedly said you can’t shove Christian mythology into a science class no matter how much people like Ken Ham pretend it’s secular truth.
But as I said about the Arizona bill, even if this one goes nowhere, it’s a blunt reminder that Creationism and Intelligent Design—no matter how they’re packaged—are never about evidence. They’ve always been ways to sneak religious beliefs into a subject where they don’t belong. Evolution doesn’t have a viable alternative, and Intelligent Design and Creationism are nothing more than theology. Just because Republicans want to sabotage public schools doesn’t mean anyone should take their claims of giving kids a scientific “choice” seriously.
Evolution is foundational to biology, medicine, genetics, and environmental science. Undercutting it like Bullard and his GOP allies want to do weakens students’ ability to understand the world. It’s all deeply irresponsible, especially in a state that ranks at or near the bottom of the nation when it comes to education. The people of Oklahoma deserve so much better than a religious zealot who doesn’t understand the very topic he wrote a bill about.
The silver lining here is that he’s going to fail. Even if this bill were to pass, it would be challenged every step of the way. The fact that such legislation can still be proposed, though, is troubling, only because it says a lot about Bullard’s priorities: He doesn’t believe children should have a solid, accurate education. He’d rather indoctrinate them with his religious beliefs.
(Portions of this article were published earlier, because Republicans keep using the same broken playbook)
How can they call the world and all there in "intelligently designed" when they are constantly praying to God to fix or change so much of it?
I have a lovely chain saw sculpture of Raven on my front porch. I demand we teach the Raven origin myths!