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As this article clearly states: it isn't about science, it is about politics and opinion. If the fundamentalists really want us to challenge the Bible and its scientific integrity....why don't we?
Battle on Teaching
Evolution Sharpens
By Peter SlevinWashington Post Staff
Writer
Monday, March 14, 2005; Page A01
WICHITA – Propelled by a polished
strategy crafted by activists on America's political right, a battle is
intensifying across the nation over how students are taught about the origins of
life. Policymakers in 19 states are weighing proposals that question the science
of evolution.
The proposals typically stop
short of overturning evolution or introducing biblical accounts. Instead, they
are calculated pleas to teach what advocates consider gaps in long-accepted
Darwinian theory, with many relying on the idea of intelligent design, which
posits the central role of a creator.
The growing trend has alarmed
scientists and educators who consider it a masked effort to replace science with
theology. But 80 years after the Scopes "monkey" trial -- in which a Tennessee
man was prosecuted for violating state law by teaching evolution -- it is the
anti-evolutionary scientists and Christian activists who say they are the ones
being persecuted, by a liberal establishment.
They are acting now because they
feel emboldened by the country's conservative currents and by President Bush,
who angered many scientists and teachers by declaring that the jury is still out
on evolution. Sharing strong convictions, deep pockets and impressive political
credentials -- if not always the same goals -- the activists are building a
sizable network.
In Seattle, the nonprofit
Discovery Institute spends more than $1 million a year for research, polls and
media pieces supporting intelligent design. In Fort Lauderdale, Christian
evangelist James Kennedy established a Creation Studies Institute. In Virginia,
Liberty University is sponsoring the Creation Mega Conference with a Kentucky
group called Answers in Genesis, which raised $9 million in 2003.
At the state and local level,
from South Carolina to California, these advocates are using lawsuits and school
board debates to counter evolutionary theory. Alabama and Georgia legislators
recently introduced bills to allow teachers to challenge evolutionary theory in
the classroom. Ohio, Minnesota, New Mexico and Ohio have approved new rules
allowing that. And a school board member in a Tennessee county wants stickers
pasted on textbooks that say evolution remains unproven.
A prominent effort is underway in
Kansas, where the state Board of Education intends to revise teaching standards.
That would be progress, Southern Baptist minister Terry Fox said, because "most
people in Kansas don't think we came from monkeys."
The movement is "steadily
growing," said Eugenie C. Scott, executive director of the National Center for
Science Education, which defends the teaching of evolution. "The energy level is
new. The religious right has had an effect nationally. Now, by golly, they want
to call in the chits."
Not
Science, Politics
Polls show that a large majority of
Americans believe God alone created man or had a guiding hand. Advocates invoke
the First Amendment and say the current campaigns are partly about respect for
those beliefs.
"It's an academic freedom
proposal. What we would like to foment is a civil discussion about science. That
falls right down the middle of the fairway of American pluralism," said the
Discovery Institute's Stephen C. Meyer, who believes evolution alone cannot
explain life's unfurling. "We are interested in seeing that spread state by
state across the country."
Some evolution opponents are
trying to use Bush's No Child Left Behind law, saying it creates an opening for
states to set new teaching standards. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), a Christian
who draws on Discovery Institute material, drafted language accompanying the law
that said students should be exposed to "the full range of scientific views that
exist."
"Anyone who expresses anything
other than the dominant worldview is shunned and booted from the academy,"
Santorum said in an interview. "My reading of the science is there's a
legitimate debate. My feeling is let the debate be had."
Although the new strategy speaks
of "teaching the controversy" over evolution, opponents insist the controversy
is not scientific, but political. They paint the approach as a disarming
subterfuge designed to undermine solid evidence that all living things share a
common ancestry.
"The movement is a veneer over a
certain theological message. Every one of these groups is now actively engaged
in trying to undercut sound science education by criticizing evolution," said
Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church
and State. "It is all based on their religious ideology. Even the people who
don't specifically mention religion are hard-pressed with a straight face to say
who the intelligent designer is if it's not God."
Although many backers of
intelligent design oppose the biblical account that God created the world in six
days, the Christian right is increasingly mobilized, Baylor University scholar
Barry G. Hankins said. He noted the recent hiring by the Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary of Discovery Institute scholar and prominent intelligent
design proponent William A. Dembski.
The seminary said the move, along
with the creation of a Center for Science and Theology, was central to
developing a "comprehensive Christian worldview."
"As the Christian right has
success on a variety of issues, it emboldens them to expand their agenda,"
Hankins said. "When they have losses . . . it gives them fuel for their fire."
Deferring
the Debate
The efforts are not limited to schools. From
offices overlooking Puget Sound, Meyer is waging a careful campaign to change
the way Americans think about the natural world. The Discovery Institute devotes
about 85 percent of its budget to funding scientists, with other money going to
public action campaigns.
Discovery Institute raised money
for "Unlocking the Mystery of Life," a DVD produced by Illustra Media and shown
on PBS stations in major markets. The institute has sponsored opinion polls and
underwrites research for books sold in secular and Christian bookstores. Its
newest project is to establish a science laboratory.
Meyer said the institute accepts
money from such wealthy conservatives as Howard Ahmanson Jr., who once said his
goal is "the total integration of biblical law into our lives," and the
Maclellan Foundation, which commits itself to "the infallibility of the
Scripture."
"We'll take money from anyone who
wants to give it to us," Meyer said. "Everyone has motives. Let's acknowledge
that and get on with the interesting part."
Meyer said he and Discovery
Institute President Bruce Chapman devised the compromise strategy in March 2002
when they realized a dispute over intelligent design was complicating efforts to
challenge evolution in the classroom. They settled on the current approach that
stresses open debate and evolution's ostensible weakness, but does not require
students to study design.
The idea was to sow doubt about
Darwin and buy time for the 40-plus scientists affiliated with the institute to
perfect the theory, Meyer said. Also, by deferring a debate about whether God
was the intelligent designer, the strategy avoids the defeats suffered by
creationists who tried to oust evolution from the classroom and ran afoul of the
Constitution.
"Our goal is to not remove
evolution. Good lord, it's incredible how much this is misunderstood," said
William Harris, a professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City medical
school. "Kids need to understand it, but they need to know the strengths and
weaknesses of the data, how much of it is a guess, how much of it is
extrapolation."
Harris does not favor teaching
intelligent design, although he believes there is more to the story than
evolution.
"To say God did not play a role
is arrogant," Harris said. "It's far beyond the data."
Harris teamed up with John H.
Calvert, a retired corporate lawyer who calls the debate over the origins of
life "the most fundamental issue facing the culture." They formed Intelligent
Design Network Inc., which draws interested legislators and activists to an
annual Darwin, Design and Democracy conference.
The 2001 conference presented its
Wedge of Truth award to members of the 1999 Kansas Board of Education that
played down evolution and allowed local boards to decide what students would
learn. A board elected in 2001 overturned that decision, but a fresh batch of
conservatives won office in November, when Bush swamped his Democratic opponent,
Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), here by 62 to 37 percent.
"The thing that excites me is we
really are in a revolution of scientific thought," Calvert said. He described
offering advice in such places as Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio and Cobb County,
Ga., where a federal court recently halted an attempt to affix a sticker to
science textbooks saying evolution is theory, not fact.
'Liberalism
Will Die'
Despite some disagreement, Calvert, Harris and the
Discovery Institute collectively favor efforts to change state teaching
standards. Bypassing the work of a 26-member science standards committee that
rejected revisions, the Kansas board's conservative majority recently announced
a series of "scientific hearings" to discuss evolution and its critics.
The board's chairman, Steve
Abrams, said he is seeking space for students to "critically analyze" the
evidence.
That approach appeals to Cindy
Duckett, a Wichita mother who believes public school leaves many religious
children feeling shut out. Teaching doubts about evolution, she said, is "more
inclusive. I think the more options, the better."
"If students only have one thing
to consider, one option, that's really more brainwashing," said Duckett, who
sent her children to Christian schools because of her frustration. Students
should be exposed to the Big Bang, evolution, intelligent design "and, beyond
that, any other belief that a kid in class has. It should all be okay."
Fox -- pastor of the largest
Southern Baptist church in the Midwest, drawing 6,000 worshipers a week to his
Wichita church -- said the compromise is an important tactic. "The strategy this
time is not to go for the whole enchilada. We're trying to be a little more
subtle," he said.
To fundamentalist Christians, Fox
said, the fight to teach God's role in creation is becoming the essential front
in America's culture war. The issue is on the agenda at every meeting of pastors
he attends. If evolution's boosters can be forced to back down, he said, the
Christian right's agenda will advance.
"If you believe God created that
baby, it makes it a whole lot harder to get rid of that baby," Fox said. "If you
can cause enough doubt on evolution, liberalism will die."
Like Meyer, Fox is glad to make
common cause with people who do not entirely agree.
"Creationism's going to be our
big battle. We're hoping that Kansas will be the model, and we're in it for the
long haul," Fox said. He added that it does not matter "who gets the credit, as
long as we win."
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