Re: Challenges to teaching biology

What is controversial about evolution? As far as scientific accuracy, and
scientific evidence there is very little that is controversial about it.
The controversy comes about from those that mistakenly equate evolution with
atheism.

I resectfully disagree with you. I hardly see the anti-evolutionists being
a strong enough force to change the policies of public education. They are
a very vocal minority.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ted Davis" <tdavis@messiah.edu>
To: <drsyme@cablespeed.com>; <dopderbeck@gmail.com>; "Keith Miller"
<kbmill@ksu.edu>
Cc: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 7:27 PM
Subject: Re: Challenges to teaching biology

>>>> "jack syme" <drsyme@cablespeed.com> 04/03/06 6:31 PM >>>asks the
> following obvious question:
>
> How exacty can we "choose" not to give tax dollars for public education?
> The last time I looked, they didnt deduct the tuition I pay for Christian
> education from my tax bill. ;)
>
> Ted answers:
> By refusing to authorize school districts to increase levies for public
> education. That is, as part of a taxpayer rebellion.
>
> Now, let me add immediately: I'm saying this not to foment that rebellion
> myself. I'm saying this as an observer and commentator. I believe this
> may
> well be coming. Let me elaborate.
>
> Public education (that is, "free" education to all, paid for by tax
> dollars) began at the state level (remember, the US constitution leaves
> education to the states, despite many federal initiatives concerning it)
> in
> the mid-19th century; it postdates the constitution by several decades.
> When public schools began, and for the first several decades thereafter,
> it
> was understood widely that public education was NOT to deal with
> controversial subjects. Evolution entered around the end of the 19th
> century, and the Scopes trial came 30 years later. Evolution largely
> disappeared after Scopes until the aftermath of Sputnik, when Congress
> (not
> the states) reinvigorated science education by authorizing the rewriting
> of
> curricula in the 3 major sciences, at which point evolution came back big
> time. Henry Morris and company started to get a large audience in the
> 1970s
> and 1980s, and ID has come along in the 1990s to provide a far more
> sophisticated challenge. But the bottom line is, that when something as
> controversial as evolution is taught in public schools, political support
> for public education erodes. This isn't rocket science.
>
> Ted
>
Received on Mon Apr 3 19:48:01 2006