must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded faith." --
Thomas Jefferson
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May 17, 2005
The Evolution of Creationism
The latest struggle over the teaching of evolution in the public schools of Kansas
provides striking evidence that evolution is occurring right before our eyes. Every
time the critics of Darwinism lose a battle over reshaping the teaching of biology,
they evolve into a new form, armed with arguments that sound progressively more
benign, while remaining as dangerous as ever.
Students of these battles will recall that in 1999 the Kansas Board of Education,
frustrated that the Supreme Court had made it impossible to force creationism into
the science curriculum, took the opposite tack and eliminated all mention of
evolution from the statewide science standards. That madness was reversed in
2001 after an appalled electorate had rejected several of the conservative board
members responsible for the travesty.
Meanwhile, Darwin's critics around the country began pushing a new theory -
known as intelligent design - that did not mention God, but simply argued that life
is too complex to be explained by the theory of evolution, hence there must be an
intelligent designer behind it all.
The political popularity of that theory will be tested today in a school board primary
election in Dover, Pa., where the schools require that students be made aware of
intelligent design as an alternative to Darwinism. The race pits those who voted last
year for that rule against those who oppose it.
Now the anti-evolution campaigners in Kansas, who again have a state school
board majority, have scrubbed things even cleaner. They insist that they are not
even trying to incorporate intelligent design into state science standards - that all
they want is a critical analysis of supposed weaknesses in the theory of evolution.
That may be less innocuous than it seems. Although the chief critics say they do
not seek to require the teaching of intelligent design, they add the qualifier "at this
point in time." Once their foot is in the door, the way will be open.
The state science standards in Kansas are up for revision this year, and a
committee of scientists and educators has proposed standards that enshrine
evolution as a central concept of modern biology. The ruckus comes about because
a committee minority, led by intelligent-design proponents, has issued its own
proposals calling for more emphasis on the limitations of evolution theory and the
evidence supposedly contradicting it. The minority even seeks to change the
definition of science in a way that appears to leave room for supernatural
explanations of the origin and evolution of life, not just natural explanations, the
usual domain of science.
The fact that all this is wildly inappropriate for a public school curriculum does not in
any way suggest that teachers are being forced to take sides against those who
feel that the evolution of humanity, in one way or another, was the work of an
all-powerful deity. Many empirical scientists believe just that, but also understand
that theories about how God interacts with the world are beyond the scope of their
discipline.
The Kansas board, which held one-sided hearings this month that were boycotted
by mainstream scientists on the grounds that the outcome was preordained, is
expected to vote on the standards this summer. One can only hope that the
members will come to their senses first.
