#2901: David Givens & the creationists in the Kentucky state legislature

Ah, state legislatures. David P. Givens has served in the Kentucky Senate (9^th District) since 2009 and is apparently President pro tempore of the Kentucky Senate. Givens is a creationist. Back in 2012, Givens was one of the legislators who questioned the Kentucky standards for public education, in particular the standards regarding evolution. “I would hope that creationism is presented as a theory in the classroom, in a science classroom, alongside evolution,” said Givens, apparently unaware (or unconcerned) that creationism is not a scientific theory or that it is unconstitutional to teach religious doctrine as science in American public schools. In particular, Givens had a gripe with ACT testing (ACT being the company that prepared Kentucky’s state testing program): “We’re simply saying to the ACT people we don’t want what is a theory to be taught as a fact in such a way it may damage students’ ability to do critical thinking.” That this is indeed Givens’s concern is contradicted by the fact that he wants creationism taught, but then, Givens wouldn’t be able to recognize critical thinking if his life depended on it.

 

He wasn’t alone, of course. Fellow committee member Ben Waide didn’t want evolution to be part of biology standards at all: “The theory of evolution is a theory, and essentially the theory of evolution is not science – Darwin made it up. […] Under the most rudimentary, basic scientific examination, the theory of evolution has never stood up to scientific scrutiny.” Waide didn’t expand on what he thought ‘rudimentary, basic scientific examination’ might involve.

 

Diagnosis: He’s still there, and he is still presumably a creationist and a flaming moron – yet we suspect he is no longer even the craziest person in the Kentucky state legislature. So it goes.