This piece was originally posted at RepealCreationism

New Rule: Presidential Candidates Should Not Makes Stuff Up.

I’m channeling Bill Maher and I have a New Rule:

Presidential candidates should not make stuff up.

This rule is inspired by presidential candidate Michele Bachmann. She likes to make stuff up. Now that she is in the running for leader of the free world, she should stop.

In 2006, she claimed, “there is a controversy among scientists about whether evolution is a fact… hundreds and hundreds of scientists, many of them holding Nobel prizes, believe in intelligent design.”

Intelligent design is another name for creationism. Teaching these interchangeable theories in public school science classrooms was found unconstitutional in the 2005 Dover vs. Kitzmiller case because neither is science.

I’m an 18 year old from Louisiana, and I’ve been leading the campaign to repeal my state’s creationism law, the misnamed and misguided Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA) because it denies kids the good science education they deserve.

Louisiana’s law is similar to a creationism bill, SF 1714, that Michele Bachmann authored in 2004 while she was in the Minnesota State Senate.

I know Michele Bachmann’s “controversy” about evolution is as fictional as her Nobel Laureates.

There is no controversy among scientists over evolution. Our effort to repeal the LSEA has been endorsed by major science and educator organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which contains over 10 million scientists.

Even more significant, our repeal effort is backed by 44 Nobel Laureate scientists.

Where are your Nobels Michelle Bachmann?

You have a fake controversy and made up Nobel Laureates!

Your ongoing misrepresentation of science and scientists at a national level gives false authority to the lobbyists and politicians in my state who have an agenda to undermine evidence-based science. Your imaginary Nobel Laureate scientists have given those lobbyists a powerful argument from a prominent voice. You help them keep their harmful creationism law in place and keep students in my home state of Louisiana from getting the good education and good jobs we need.

MIchele Bachmann, please stop making stuff up.