The controversial bill that proposes teaching creationism and other religious origin-of-life views in addition to evolution in Indiana public schools may not make it past the state’s House of Representatives. According to The Times of Northwest Indiana, the Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma said at a press event last Wednesday that he has not yet made a decision on whether the bill will get a hearing, adding that the state legislature “should not mandate what's taught in science classrooms.”
"Delving into an issue that the United States Supreme Court has, on at least on one occasion, said is not compliant with the Constitution may be a side issue and someplace we don't need to go," Bosma said, referring to a similar Louisiana law that was ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in 1987.
The Indiana Senate approved Senate Bill 89, which would allow schools to teach “various theories concerning the origin of life,” including those of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Scientology, last Tuesday (January 31). For the bill to become law, it would have to be approved by a House committee as well as the full House by March 5. (Hat tip to ScienceInsider)
