I thought this story was over. It’s clearly not.

A quick recap: Earlier this year, a third grader wrote to her state representatives asking them to make the Wooly Mammoth South Carolina’s official state fossil.

After a couple of holdups, it looked like there were no objections and the bill would go through… but the version of the bill that looks like it’ll be signed into law contains a ridiculous amendment:

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina: SECTION 1. Article 9, Chapter 1, Title 1 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding: “Section 1-1-712A. The Columbian Mammoth, which was created on the Sixth Day with the other beasts of the field, is designated as the official State Fossil of South Carolina and must be officially referred to as the ‘Columbian Mammoth’, which was created on the Sixth Day with the other beasts of the field.”

That untrue, unscientific, twice-mentioned Creationist addition is the work of Sen. Kevin Bryant (a Republican, of course) who derailed the bill from the outset by trying to stick a full Bible passage in it. While that amendment was thrown out, this one somehow was accepted.

As if South Carolina didn’t have enough problems, a state senator just showed the world that he’s less educated than an eight-year-old.

I hope Olivia speaks out against the bastardization of her bill. She wanted to promote a state fossil, representing a creature that lived at a time before Bryant even thinks the universe existed. She certainly didn’t want to promote something anti-scientific, but that’s precisely what Bryant has done to her bill.

(Image via Shutterstock)



