Creationism vs. Evolution Battle Evolving in Georgia
(CNSNews.com) - The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is urging its members to lobby the Cobb County, Ga., school board to remove disclaimers about evolution placed in middle and high school textbooks.
The school policy also is the subject of a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, which is demanding that the disclaimers be removed. The stickers tell students that evolution is a theory, not a fact, and should be looked at with an open mind.
NAS President Bruce Alberts said in a letter to the Academy's Georgia membership that these kinds of actions by school officials are classic approaches to introduce intelligent design theory into the biology curriculum.
"Intelligent design is a recent permutation of 'creation science' that is being touted as an alternative to the modern theory of evolution," Alberts said.
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>>"...it replaces science curriculum with a religious curriculum, which is inappropriate in public education," Boston said.
Baloney!!!
1. Discussing "disputed views," as the school district policy states, does NOT replace one curriculum with another. Rather, it expands the existing curriculum and opens it up to further discussion. IF evolution is indeed a fact, then it will stand up under scrutiny and all other views will not, right? So what is the NAS afraid of?
2. Naturalism is a RELIGION. Secular humanism is a RELIGION. Students are ALREADY being taught RELIGION in their science classes, whether the NAS admits it or not!
3. Religion is not inappropriate for public education. Teaching children about the different religions is not unconstitutional. Promoting one religion above all others, in a government school setting, may be unconstitutional (I haven't studied the topic enough to say "is unconstitutional" . But that is not what anyone is trying to do here--they are simply opening up the possibility that evolution might not be a fact (gasp!). However, since the historical clash in science has been between the Bible and evolution (in Europe and America, anyway), Christian "fundamentalism" is the most obvious other "disputed view" that would be addressed. So what? Let the two views battle it out, with a FAIR and BALANCED presentation of both sides (which is unlikely in government schools, unfortunately), and let's see who wins. Even liberal intellectual Neil Postman thinks this is a good idea (of course, he and I disagree about which side would prevail).
Notice that the NAS position does not debate whether "intelligent design" is a tenable theory. Rather, they utilize the ad hominem attack of "it's another permutation of creation science."
Even if true, what we have here from the NAS is not science, but an ad hominem (ad theorem?) attack, and one that comes from a materialist perspective to boot.
This, and other examples, indicate to me that the "scientists" in today's society have largely abandoned the scientific method. Rather, we have a postmodern/Hegelian ethic supporting materialism. It's scary...
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Dr. Terry Mortenson | 1/15/2009
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. But that is not what anyone is trying to do here--they are simply opening up the possibility that evolution might not be a fact (gasp!). However, since the historical clash in science has been between the Bible and evolution (in Europe and America, anyway), Christian "fundamentalism" is the most obvious other "disputed view" that would be addressed. So what? Let the two views battle it out, with a FAIR and BALANCED presentation of both sides (which is unlikely in government schools, unfortunately), and let's see who wins. Even liberal intellectual Neil Postman thinks this is a good idea (of course, he and I disagree about which side would prevail).
