by Larry Jones
The truth about how the world began and developed, called evolution, is being challenged by right wing religious fanatics who want to teach their so-called Creation Science in public schools. That approach is based on a literal reading of Chapters 1 and 2 of the biblical book of Genesis. Interestingly, those two chapters are actually two different versions of creation by the Bible’s God written hundreds of years apart. But Christian fundamentalists don’t worry about such contradictions because they don’t apply real science to understanding this literature written thousands of years ago by many different people.
The World Can’t Wait Call states: reads “YOUR GOVERNMENT suppresses the science that doesn’t fit its religious, political and economic agenda, forcing present and future generations to pay a terrible price.” George Bush has himself stated that he thinks Creationism should be taught in our public schools. Actually he called it Intelligent Design, which is a deceitful way to get around using the “Creationism” word. Intelligent Design claims that some supernatural intelligent being, i.e., God, must have created life because so many things like the human eye are too complex to have happened by chance. In saying that they reveal that they don’t have a clue about what evolution is all about.
However, Charles Darwin (1808-1882) developed the scientific understanding of the evolution of life based upon his empirical observations of wildlife, fossils, and the complex relationships of localized variations in the anatomy of birds, butterflies, lizards, and other animals to their environment. Almost the entire community of scientists throughout the world accepts evolution as a fact. For a thorough understanding of evolution vs creationism and Intelligent Design, go to an outstanding and very readable book, “The Science of Evolution and the Myth of Creationism” by Ardea Skybreak (Insight Press, Chicago, 2006).
GETTING INTELLIGENT DESIGN TAUGHT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
In a number of states battles have been fought between those who believe in the science of evolution and those who want to sneak biblical creationism into the public schools. In Texas the state education science advisor, a true scientist, was fired to clear the way for a science curriculum review that would allow intelligent design into the public schools of the entire state. Because Texas” textbook orders are so large, publishers favor using the same texts in other states and many states follow. So Texas” has an inordinate influence on science education throughout the nation.
When the Dover, Pennsylvania school board voted creationism into their public schools a lawsuit was filed, and ultimately the judge ordered that intelligent design and creationism are basically religious doctrine and thus unconstitutional. In Florida, the state board of education has decided to update its curriculum to teach evolution. The new standards, would promote evolution as one of several key ideas in science that students need to learn. The Polk County school board said they would oppose such a move. Five of the seven members of the County school board said they want intelligent design taught in their public schools.
In Kansas in January of 2005, the Kansas board of education voted 6 to 4 to include intelligent design in its statewide standards. Critics said it was an attempt to insert God into science education and that that is a violation of the principle of the separation of church and state. Of course right wing Christians rewrite the real history of the U.S. and claim that separation of church and state is a myth. “This is a sad day. We”re becoming a laughingstock of not only the nation, but of the world, and I hate that,” said board member Janet Waugh, a Kansas City Democrat. Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, said the decision would encourage school districts in Kansas and elsewhere to make similar moves.
DARWIN’s WORK HAS LED TO ENORMOUS BENEFITS FOR HUMANITY
Without the scientific method which underlies evolution, humanity would not have any of the technological tools that exist today, from our digital watches to computers to space probes. So those who don’t believe in the scientific method which underlay Darwin’s work should really stop watching television. Moreover without understanding evolution itself we wouldn’t have the wonders of modern medicine. As an article in Revolution newspaper said, we would have “no way to know that we could use tissue from animals sharing a common ancestry to fix a failing human heart valve. No chance to stop infections that evolve and grow resistant to treatments, or discover cures for viruses like AIDS.”
Any thinking person, as of course all readers of this site are, might ask why we need a belief in any of the many of the scores of cultural myths about the beginning of the world and life when all around us are the sources of awe and wonder. As Darwin himself put it at the end of his Origin of Species by Natural Selection: “It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us”. There is grandeur in this view of life….”
SO LET’s CELEBRATE THAT GRANDEUR BY CELEBRATING DARWIN AND HIS EARTHSHAKING CONTRIBUTIONS ON HIS BIRTHDAY FEBRUARY 12.
A list of Darwin Day events is available at http://www.darwinday.org . Many churches around the country who find their faith completely consistent with evolution are having Darwin Day events. See http://butler.edu/clergyproject/rel_evolution_weekend_2008.htm )
Larry Jones is a long time political activist and former United Church of Christ minister who lives in Honolulu.