To listen to the Discovery Institute, Tennessee's “academic freedom” law, which is based on Discovery Institute model legislation, has nothing to do with creationism or religion. “The bill includes a clear statement that it only applies to teaching science and does not protect teaching religion,” wrote Casey Luskin, research coordinator at the institute's Center for Science and Culture, on March 20. “Don't expect that to satisfy critics, who will predictably ignore the actual language of the bill and falsely claim it would introduce religion in the classroom.”

It's difficult to take these denials seriously, though, given that the language of the model bill and its stated intention of promoting “academic freedom” trace their pedigrees through a series of court battles spanning several decades of creationist efforts to inject religion into public school science classes. The model bill is designed to obviate the legal hurdles raised by previous successful challenges to creationism in the classroom.