GOP State Senate Candidate Pushes for Montana Schools to Teach Creationism

Montana front-runner and Republican senatorial candidate Steven Daines has some very strange ideas about how “education” works. While sitting down for a radio show interview, in 2012 he stated that he supported the teaching of pseudoscientific garbage in schools.

Montana’s GOP senatorial front-runner Steven Daines has some very strange ideas about how ‘education’ works, as he pushes for creationism in schools. Image: cc 2008 by Tkgd2007 and modified by Elisabeth Parker (2012).

According to Mother Jones:

In a little-noticed 2012 interview, Rep. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), the front-runner in Montana’s open 2014 Senate race, expressed support for teaching creationism in public schools.

In an interview that aired on November 2, 2012, Sally Mauk, news director for Montana Public Radio, asked Daines, who was then running for Montana’s lone House seat, whether public schools should teach creationism. Daines responded, “What the schools should teach is, as it relates to biology and science is that they have, um, there’s evolution theory, there’s creation theory, and so forth. I think we should teach students to think critically, and teach students that there are evolutionary theories, there’s intelligent-design theories, and allow the students to make up their minds. But I think those kinds of decisions should be decided at the local school board level.” He added, “Personally I’d like to teach my kids both sides of the equation there and let them come up to their own conclusion on it.”​

He added that he would “teach his kids both sides of the story.” You can listen to that audio below:

This isn’t the first time Daines had dabbled in creationism, either. He has spoken at the Creationist Museum in Kentucky, and has had individuals associated with his campaign who were involved in creationism, such as Greg Gianforte, whose foundation helped to fund a $1.5 million creationist dinosaur museum in Glendive, Montana. This is a “museum” that contends “the wonders of God’s creation are prostituted for evolutionism.”

As Mother Jones points out, this “teach the controversy” approach won’t hurt the Republican frontrunner in the polls. A recent Pew research poll showed that 33% of Americans don’t “believe” in evolution, of the roughly 60% that do, about half think that evolution was guided by a supreme being (so we’re not a wolfing species, we’ve got a patron species after all — kudos to anyone who gets that reference, by the way). it just goes to further highlight Asimov’s now-famous quote:

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.