North Dakota Republicans push bill to force "Intelligent Design" in science classrooms

The bill would force public school science teachers to lie to students about the strength of evolution

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Republicans in North Dakota want to force public schools across the state to teach “Intelligent Design” in public school science classes. (Yes, somehow, we’re still doing this.)

(Image via Adobe Spark)

Republicans in the state, fresh off of introducing a resolution that would “acknowledge the Kingship of Jesus Christ over all the world,” have proposed Senate Bill 2355, a straightforward bill that would require the state’s superintendent of public instruction to “include intelligent design in the state science content standards”—in other words, make teachers tell kids some unnamed Higher Power may have poofed them into existence—by the start of the 2027-2028 school year.

The superintendent of public instruction shall include intelligent design in the state science content standards for elementary, middle, and high school students by August 1, 2027. The superintendent shall provide teachers with instructional materials demonstrating intelligent design is a viable scientific theory for the creation of all life forms and provide in-service training necessary to include intelligent design as part of the science content standards.

Last year, West Virginia attempted to do something like this, but even they said Intelligent Design should be optional. Forcing science teachers to lie to kids, like these lawmakers want, should be a legal non-starter. (That is, assuming we have a legal system anyone still listens to.)

Intelligent Design isn’t a “viable scientific theory.” It’s not viable and it’s not scientific. It’s merely a theory and it’s one that doesn’t have a shred of evidence in its favor beyond the ignorance of the people who keep pushing for it. It’s Creationism wearing a trench coat and fake mustache. And if students have a science teacher who desperately wants to lie to kids, that teacher has no business being in a classroom.

The fact that the bill’s sponsors are this confused about Intelligent Design is just a sign that their own schools failed them.

Since the bill doesn’t bother defining “Intelligent Design,” here’s what you need to know about it: It stands in direct opposition to evolution and is nothing more than a religious myth intended to push God into the classroom using a plausibly legal framework since Creationism wouldn’t make the cut.

The goal is to destroy science education by demanding that teachers spread misinformation to students.

If the bill were to pass, you can expect a lawsuit to be filed. After all, Intelligent Design advocates (or, pejoratively, Cdesign Proponentsists) have already lost this battle in federal court before.

The National Center for Science Education points out that North Dakota tried pushing this kind of legislation in 2019, but it was “filed and then withdrawn by its sponsor in the space of eight days.” That bill didn’t go nearly as far as this one, though, focusing instead on teaching the “strengths and weaknesses of scientific theories and controversies” in an attempt to water down the subject of evolution.

The new bill dispenses with that euphemism and goes back to “Intelligent Design,” a concept that specifically got shot down by federal courts.

For what it’s worth, public school teachers can already talk about different scientific theories in the classroom. What they can’t do is lie to students by responding with ideas that have no basis in science, including “Intelligent Design.”

The bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Michael Dwyer, Todd Beard, and David Hogue along with Reps. Mike Lefor, Karen M. Rohr, and Cynthia Schreiber-Beck. As far as I can tell, not a single one of them has attempted to defend this bill on their social media pages or to the media.

The bill has been referred to the Senate’s Education committee. Hopefully that’ll also be its final resting place.

(Parts of this article were published earlier, because Republicans never learn)

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