There are plenty of reasons to love Louisiana, but every once in a while, the state does something so inane it leaves you embarrassed to be a part of it, like passing the Louisiana Science Education Act in 2008.

The LSEA allows Louisiana public schools to supplement the teaching of evolution, climate change and human cloning with whatever alternative materials they see fit, including creationist educational materials.

It is one of the most self-serving, anti-intellectual and ignorant laws to ever pass out of the Louisiana legislature. It sticks science in its title while undermining its pursuit solely to appeal to those most challenged by its claims.

The problems I have with this law are multitudinous.

First, there is the basic misunderstanding of evolution.

Briefly, evolution is a scientific theory stating that animals pass on characteristics with modifications to their offspring and that the survival of organisms is dependent on evolutionary forces such as natural selection, leading to the diversity of life.

A scientific theory is not a guess but an explanation backed up by scientific laws, experiments and evidence.

Evolution has been observed in nature, it has been tested and evidence for it exists in the fossil record and the similarities among different organisms. For all intents and purposes, the theory of evolution is factual and uncontroversial.

Second, there are the arguments for the LSEA.

Again and again, proponents of the LSEA market the law by claiming it promotes critical thinking and broader learning.

This argument presupposes two assertions: (1) Science is a dogmatic field that discourages any questions. (2) Alternatives to established science are as valid as the established science itself.

The first point is simultaneously laughable and rage-inducing, yet this is the message communicated every time someone says this bill promotes “critical thinking.”

Science is built on refining itself. We had classical mechanics for 200 years, but once Einstein came out with relativity, measurements had to be adjusted.

The caricature of the agenda-driven scientist is built to market anti-intellectual beliefs. Find me one scientist driven solely by an agenda, and I’ll find 17 pastors trying to sell you their book.

In fact, one of the main reasons the LSEA was successful is because it was so heavily backed by the Louisiana Family Forum, a Christian lobby. Talk about an agenda.

Scientists constantly defend evolution, not out of dogmatic faith and agenda, but because there is no competing theory. Read that again, creationists. There is no competing theory.

Intelligent design is pseudoscience. It offers no evidence, it’s not testable, it makes no predictions and its claims are mostly based on trying to find holes in evolutionary theory.

Still, they insist including this belief in science classrooms encourages critical thinking.

If that’s so, why are we limiting ourselves to evolution, climate change and cloning? Why not expand?

And isn’t it suspiciously coincidental that the topics referred to in the LSEA are so politically heated?

This is exactly why the “critical thinking” argument is a weak justification.

To me, critical thinking usually means being open to ideas beyond what your parents and community instilled in you from childhood. Yet the LSEA is simply a way for communities to ensure their entrenched political and religious beliefs are not challenged in school by such pesky things like facts and evidence.

It requires no evidence for including “supplemental” materials, allows any alternative that fits a community’s accepted worldview without challenge and treats ignorance as equal to knowledge.

The LSEA is opposed by Nobel laureates and scientific organizations around the country.

If people are so keen to deny reality for themselves and their children, then that is their choice.

But their choice has no place in a science classroom.