[CSPS] anti-evolution
Jonathan Coopersmith
j-coopersmith at tamu.edu
Wed Dec 1 15:35:05 CST 2004
the good news is that this is not in Texas -- yet
Anti-evolution teachings gain foothold in U.S. schools
Evangelicals see flaws in Darwinism
<mailto:abadkhen at sfchronicle.com>Anna Badkhen, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/11/30//cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2004/11/30/MNGVNA3PE11.DTL&o=0>
Carol and Jeff Brown resigned from the Dover, Pa., school...
Dover, Pa. -- The way they used to teach the origin of the species to high
school students in this sleepy town of 1,800 people in southern
Pennsylvania, said local school board member Angie Yingling disapprovingly,
was that "we come from chimpanzees and apes."
Not anymore.
The school board has ordered that biology teachers at Dover Area High
School make students "aware of gaps/problems" in the theory of evolution.
Their ninth-grade curriculum now must include the theory of "intelligent
design," which posits that life is so complex and elaborate that some
greater wisdom has to be behind it.
The decision, passed last month by a 6-to-3 vote, makes the 3,600-student
school district about 20 miles south of Harrisburg the first in the United
States to mandate the teaching of "intelligent design" in public schools,
putting it on the front line of the growing national debate over the role
of religion in public life.
The new curriculum, which prompted two school board members to resign, is
expected to take effect in January. The school principal, Joel Riedel, and
teachers contacted by The Chronicle refused to comment on the changes.
The idea of intelligent design was initiated by a small group of scientists
to explain what they believe to be gaps in Charles Darwin's theory of
evolution, which they say is "not adequate to explain all natural phenomena. "
On an intelligent-design Web site
(<http://www.intelligentdesignnetwork.org>www.intelligentdesignnetwork.org),
the theory is described as "a scientific disagreement with the claim of
evolutionary theory that natural phenomena are not designed.''
Critics such as Eugenie Scott, director of the Oakland-based
<http://www.ncseweb.org/>National Center for Science Education, say the
Dover school board's decision is part of a growing trend. Religious
conservatives, critics say, have been waging a war against Darwin in
classrooms since the Scopes "Monkey Trial" of 1925. Tennessee schoolteacher
John Scopes was convicted of illegally teaching evolution, but his
conviction later was thrown out on a technicality by the Tennessee Supreme
Court.
"There's a constant impetus by conservative evangelical Christians to bring
religion back into the public schools," said Witold Walczak, legal director
of the Pennsylvania branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. "The end
goal is to get rid of evolution. They view it as a threat to their religion."
The intelligent-design theory makes no reference to the Bible, and its
proponents do not say who or what the greater force is behind the design.
But Yingling, 46, who graduated from Dover High School in 1976, and other
supporters of the new curriculum in this religiously conservative slice of
rural Pennsylvania say they know exactly who the intelligent designer is.
"There's only one creator, and it has to be God," said Rebecca Cashman, 16,
a sophomore at Dover High. She frowned when asked to recollect what she
learned about evolution at school last year.
"Evolution -- is that the Darwin theory?" Cashman shook her head. "I don't
know just what he was thinking!"
Patricia Nason at the Institute for Creation Research, the world leader in
creation science, said her organization and other activist groups are
encouraging people who share conservative religious beliefs to seek
positions on local school boards.
"The movement is to get the truth out," Nason said by telephone from El
Cajon (San Diego County). "We Christians have as much right to be involved
in politics as evolutionists. We've been asleep for two generations, and
it's time for us to come back."
Emboldened by their contribution to President Bush's re-election,
conservative religious activists are using intelligent design as a new
strategy of attacking evolution without mentioning God, Scott said.
"There is a new energy as a result of the last election, and I anticipate
an even busier couple of years coming on," Scott said.
She called intelligent design "creationism lite" masquerading as science.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 1987 banned the teaching of creationism -- which
holds that God created the world about 6,000 years ago -- in public schools
on the grounds of separation of church and state.
John West of the Discovery Institute in Seattle, the main sponsor and
promoter of intelligent design, defended the theory he says addresses
"evolution follies."
"Mainstream criticism should be raised in classrooms," West said.
The Dover school district's challenge to the primacy of evolution is not
isolated. In Cobb County, Ga., parents sued a local school board for
mandating that biology textbooks prominently display disclaimers stating
that evolution is "not a fact." A federal court is expected to rule next
month.
In Grantsburg, Wis., a school board revised its science curriculum to teach
"various scientific models of theories of origin." In Charles County, Md. ,
the school board is considering a proposal to eliminate textbooks "biased
toward evolution" from classrooms. Similar proposals have been considered
this year in Missouri, Mississippi and Oklahoma.
"There is nothing random about this," said Barry Lynn, executive director
of the Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "You might say
it's a planned evolution of an attack on the science of evolution."
The drive to bring more religion and what have been labeled "moral values"
into the classroom goes beyond challenges to Darwin's theory, Scott said.
The Charles County school board also proposed to censor school reading
lists of "immorality" or "foul language" and to allow the distribution of
Bibles in schools. In Texas, the nation's second-biggest school textbook
market, the State Board of Education approved health textbooks that defined
abstinence as the only form of contraception and changed the description of
marriage between "two people" to "a lifelong union between a husband and a
wife."
"The religious right has a list of topics that it wants action on," Scott
said. "Things like abortion, abstinence, gays are higher up in the food
chain of their concern, but evolution is part of the package."
This drive has found fertile ground in this part of Pennsylvania, where
billboards reading, "Many books inform but only the Bible transforms" line
the road, and family restaurants offer free booklets titled "What the Bible
says about moral purity" and "The Bible is God's word" at the door.
"These brochures give you an idea where some people in this community are
coming from," said Jeff Brown, 54, who, along with his wife Carol, 57,
resigned from the school board after they voted against changing the
biology curriculum.
Yingling, who voted in favor, said she believes God created the world in
six days and doesn't believe in evolution "at all." Another board member
who supported the measure, William Buckingham, refused to say what he
believes but has identified himself as a born-again Christian.
But religious beliefs or motivations should be beside the point, said
Richard Thompson, an attorney who represents the board members. Thompson is
the president of the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., a pro-bono
firm whose Web site promises "the sword and shield for the people of faith."
The decision was "supportive of academic freedom more than anything else, "
Thompson said.
While not talking about his own religious convictions, Thompson added,
"When you look at cell structure and you see the intricacy of the cell, you
can come to the conclusion that it doesn't happen by natural selection,
there has to be intelligent design." Thompson said he is ready to represent
the board in the Supreme Court if it comes to that. Some parents and
teachers in Dover already have asked the Pennsylvania ACLU to sue the board
on their behalf. Walczak said the organization's legal team is studying the
case before deciding whether to go to court.
Brown, the former school board member, says he is not arguing with other
people's religious beliefs.
"Don't get me wrong: I don't have a problem with having these booklets
where people can pick them up. But I do have a problem with people shoving
this down the throats of our children on taxpayers' dollars," Brown said.
"I happen to believe both in God and evolution," he said, and his wife
nodded: "Hear, hear."
The Browns appear to be in the minority. Although public schools have been
teaching evolution for decades, a national Gallup poll in November 2004
showed that only 35 percent of those asked believed confidently that
Darwin's theory was "supported by the evidence.'' More than one-third of
those polled by CBS News later in November said creationism should be
taught instead of evolution.
"A guy came up to me and said, 'Wait a minute, you believe in God and
evolution at the same time? Evolution isn't in the Bible!' " said Brown,
nibbling on a deep-fried mozzarella stick at the Shiloh Family Restaurant
on Route 74. As he became more agitated, his voice grew louder, and other
customers -- mostly gray-haired women and elderly men in baseball hats --
turned their heads to look at the couple. Carol Brown kept putting her
index finger to her lips, gesturing for her husband to be quieter.
After the Browns left the restaurant, a waitress in her 30s slipped a note
to a Chronicle reporter.
"Beware," it read. "God wrote over 2,000 years ago that there would be
false prophets and teachers. If you would like to know the truth read the
Bible."
----------
Recent actions in the teaching of evolution
Tennessee, April 2003: Blount County's Board of Education votes not to
adopt three high school biology textbooks because they do not present
creationism alongside evolution.
California, September 2003: The Board of Trustees of the Roseville Joint
Union High School District (Placerville County) decide not to enact a
district- wide policy on teaching evolution. Science teachers have told the
district that they do not want to add anti-evolutionist materials that are
not state- approved.
Oklahoma, April 2004: Textbook legislation passes after it is stripped of a
provision that all textbooks include a disclaimer describing evolution as
"a controversial theory which some scientists present as scientific
explanation for the origin of living things" and "the unproven belief that
random, undirected forces produced a world of living things."
Pennsylvania, October 2004: A Dover, Pa., school board votes to include
intelligent design in the district's science curriculum, making it the
first such school district in the country.
Georgia, November 2004: A lawsuit is filed against the Cobb County School
District over this disclaimer inserted into textbooks: "This textbook
contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact,
regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached
with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered."
Source: National Center for Science Education; Chronicle research
----------
National polls on the issue
In your opinion, is Darwin's theory supported by evidence?
Supported by evidence, 35%
Not supported, 35%
Don't know enough to say, 29%
Which best describes your views of the origin of life?
Man developed with God guiding, 38%
Man developed with no help from God, 13%
God created man in present form, 45%
Source: Gallup Poll, conducted Nov. 7-10. The poll surveyed 1,016 adults;
the margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Percentage favoring the teaching of creationism
instead of evolution
Overall, 37%
Kerry voters, 24%
Bush voters, 45%
Self-described evangelical Christians, 60%
Source: CBS News poll, conducted Nov. 18-21. The poll surveyed 795
registered voters nationwide; the margin of error is plus or minus 3
percentage points.
----------
Recent actions in the teaching of evolution
Tennessee, April 2003: Blount County�s Board of Education votes not to
adopt three high school biology textbooks because they do not present
creationism alongside evolution..
California, September 2003: The Board of Trustees of the Roseville Joint
Union High School District Placerville County) decide not to enact a
district- wide policy on teaching evolution. Science teachers have told the
district that they do not want to add nti-evolutionist materials that are
not stateapproved..
Oklahoma, April 2004: Textbook legislation passes after it is stripped of a
provision that all textbooks include a disclaimer describing evolution as
"a controversial theory which some scientists present as scientific
explanation for the origin of living things"and "the unproven belief that
random, undirected forces produced a world of living things.".
Pennsylvania, October 2004: A Dover, Pa., school board votes to include
intelligent design in the district�s science curriculum, making it the
first such school districtin the country..
Georgia, November 2004: A lawsuit is filed against the Cobb County School
District over this disclaimer inserted into textbooks: "This textbook
contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact,
regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached
with an open mind, studied carefully, and criticallyconsidered.".Source:
National Center for Science Education; Chronicle research
E-mail Anna Badkhen at
<mailto:abadkhen at sfchronicle.com>abadkhen at sfchronicle.com.
Jonathan Coopersmith
Associate Professor
Dept. of History
MS 4236
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas 77843
979.845.7148
979.862.4314 fax
Secretary
History & Philosophy of Science Section (L)
American Association for the Advancement of Science
aaas.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://philebus.tamu.edu/pipermail/csps/attachments/20041201/4bd81edb/attachment-0001.html
More information about the CSPS
mailing list