Radical Attacks on the Basis of Science

["David Farber" <dave () farber net>]

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Subject:        Radical Attacks on the Basis of Science
Author: Randall <rvh40 () insightbb com>
Date:           11th February 2005 5:10:25 pm

Creationists take their challenge to evolution theory into the classroom
Posted on Monday, February 07 @ 10:26:22 EST 
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By Suzanne Goldenberg in Kansas City, The Guardian

Al Frisby has spent the better part of his life in rooms filled with
rebellious teenagers, but the last years have been particularly trying
for the high school biology teacher. He has met parents who want him to
teach that God created Eve out of Adam's rib, and then then adjusted the
chromosomes to make her a woman, and who insist that Noah invited
dinosaurs aboard the ark. And it is getting more difficult to keep such
talk out of the classroom. 

"Somewhere along the line, the students have been told the theory of
evolution is not valid," he said. "In the last few years, I've had
students question my teaching about cell classification and genetics,
and there have been a number of comments from students saying: 'Didn't
God do that'?" In Kansas, the geographical centre of America, the heart
of the American heartland, the state-approved answer might soon be Yes.
In the coming weeks, state educators will decide on proposed curriculum
changes for high school science put forward by subscribers to the notion
of "intelligent design", a modern version of creationism. If the
religious right has its way, and it is a powerful force in Kansas, high
school science teachers could be teaching creationist material by next
September, charting an important victory in America's modern-day revolt
against evolutionary science.



Legal debate

Similar classroom confrontations between God and science are under way
in 17 states, according to the National Centre for Science Education. In
Missouri, state legislators are drafting a bill laying down that science
texts contain a chapter on so-called alternative theories to evolution.
Textbooks in Arkansas and Alabama contain disclaimers on evolution, and
in a Wisconsin school district, teachers are required to instruct their
students in the "scientific strengths and weaknesses of evolutionary
theory". Last month, a judge in Georgia ordered a school district to
remove stickers on school textbooks that warned: "This textbook contains
material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the
origin of living things." 

For the conservative forces engaged in the struggle for America's soul,
the true battleground is public education, the laboratory of the next
generation, and an opportunity for the religious right to effect lasting
change on popular culture. Officially, the teaching of creationism has
been outlawed since 1987 when the supreme court ruled that the inclusion
of religious material in science classes in public teaching was
unconstitutional. In recent years, however, opponents of evolution have
regrouped, challenging science education with the doctrine of
"intelligent design" which has been carefully stripped of all references
to God and religion. Unlike traditional creationism, which posits that
God created the earth in six days, proponents of intelligent design
assert that the workings of this planet are too complex to be ascribed
to evolution. There must have been a designer working to a plan - that
is, a creator. 

In their campaign to persuade parents in Kansas to welcome the new
version of creationism into the classroom, subscribers to intelligent
design have appealed to a sense of fair play, arguing that it would be
in their children's interest to be exposed to all schools of thought on
the earth's origins. "We are looking for science standards that would be
more informative, that would open the discussion about origins, rather
than close it," said John Calvert, founder of the Intelligent Design
network, the prime mover in the campaign to discredit the teaching of
evolution in Kansas. 

Other supporters of intelligent design go further, saying evolution is
as much an article of faith as creationism. "Certainly there are clear
religious implications," said William Harris, a research biochemist and
co-founder of the design network in Kansas. "There are creation myths on
both sides. Which one do you teach?" For Mr. Harris, an expert on fish
oils and prevention of heart disease at the premier teaching hospital in
Kansas City, the very premise of evolution was intolerable. He describes
his conversion as a graduate student many years ago almost as an
epiphany. "It hit me that if monkeys are supposed to be so close to us
as relatives then what explains the incredible gap between monkeys and
humans. I had a realisation that there was a vast chasm between the two
types of animals, and the standard explanation just didn't fit." 

Other scientists on the school board's advisory committee see no clash
in values between religion and science. "Prominent conservative
Christians, evangelical Christians, have found no inherent conflict
between an evolutionary understanding of the history of life, and an
orthodox understanding of the theology of creation," said Keith Miller,
a geologist at Kansas State University, who describes himself as a
practising Christian. 

But in Kansas, as in the rest of America, it would seem a slim majority
continue to believe God created the heaven and the earth. During the
past five years, subscribers to intelligent design have assembled a
roster of influential supporters in the state, including a smattering of
people with PhDs, such as Mr Harris, to lend their cause a veneer of
scientific credibility. When conservative Republicans took control of
the Kansas state school board last November, the creationists seized
their chance, installing supporters on the committee reviewing the high
school science curriculum. 

The suggested changes under consideration seem innocuous at first. "A
minor addition makes it clear that evolution is a theory and not a
fact," says the proposed revision to the 8th grade science standard.
However, Jack Krebs, a high school maths teacher on the committee
drafting the new standards, argues that the campaign against evolution
amounts to a stealth assault on the entire body of scientific thought.
"There are two planes where they are attacking. One is evolution, and
one is science itself," he said. 

"They believe that the naturalistic bias of science is in fact
atheistic, and that if we don't change science, we can't believe in God.
And so this is really an attack on all of science. Evolution is just the
weak link." 

It would certainly seem so in Kansas. At the first of a series of public
hearings on the new course material, the audience was equally split
between the defenders of established science, and the anti-evolution
rebels. The breakdown has educators worried. With the religious right
now in control of the Kansas state school board, the circumstances
favour the creationists. 

In a crowded high school auditorium, biology teachers, mathematicians, a
veterinarian, and a high school student made passionate speeches on the
need for cold, scientific detachment, and the damage that would be done
to the state's reputation and biotechnology industry if Kansas became
known as a haven for creationists. They were countered by John James,
who warned that the teaching of evolution led to nihilism, and to the
gates of Auschwitz. "Are we producing little Kansas Nazis?" he asked.
But the largest applause of the evening was reserved for a silver-haired
gentleman in a navy blue blazer. "I have a question: if man comes from
monkeys, why are there still monkeys? Why do you waste time teaching
something in science class that is not scientific?" he thundered. 

Science teachers believe that the genteel questioning of the intelligent
design movements masks a larger project to discredit an entire body of
rational thought. If the Kansas state school board allows science
teachers to question evolution, where will it stop? Will religious
teachers bring their beliefs into the classroom? 

"They are trying to create a climate where anything an individual
teacher wants to include in science class can be considered science,"
said Harry McDonald, a retired biology teacher and president of Kansas
Citizens for Science Education. "They want to redefine science." 

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

Reprinted from The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1407422,00.html

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