Scientific facts, scientific theories, and dishonest legislators

Here we go again: State senator Daniel Emrich of Montana has introduced yet another bill to curtail the teaching of evolution

Image from thescientificcartoonist.com.

I’ve never liked zombie movies. Well, with the exception of Shaun of the Dead, co-written by the brilliant Simon Peg, who also stars in it. I dislike zombies because they never do anything interesting and yet they keep not dying, by definition.

Some bad ideas are like zombies. No matter how many times you kill them, they keep coming back with a vengeance, ready to eat your brain and turn you in another soldier of the army of the dead. One bad set of related idea is that there is a sharp distinction between scientific facts and scientific theories, that the first ones are objective and ought to be taught to our kids, and that the the latter are mere speculation and should be avoided like they were, well, zombies.

This particular version of the alleged fact / theory distinction is very popular among creationists, who often use it against their main target: the theory of evolution. Though occasionally they also aim at the theory of the Big Bang in cosmology, because why not.

One of my readers alerted me to the latest incarnation of this zombified absurdity: State senator Daniel Emrich of Montana has introduced bill n. LC2215 to once again try to deprive the children of his State of a sound scientific education, thus implicitly nudging them toward the particular kind of nonsense he favors: young-earth creationism.

The bill has been formally introduced on January 30, 2023, and reads almost in toto (I’m leaving out three one-line sections that deal with the details of implementation):

“Whereas, the purpose of K-12 education is to educate children in the facts of our world to better prepare them for their future and further education in their chosen field of study, and to that end children must know the difference between scientific fact and scientific theory; and

Whereas, a scientific fact is observable and repeatable, and if it does not meet these criteria, it is a theory that is defined as speculation and is for higher education to explore, debate, and test to ultimately reach a scientific conclusion of fact or fiction.