Attached is Colson's Breakpoint articles on the Kansas education
issue.
The really important thing is that creationism is moving away from
the old line that evolution should be taught less, to the new ID line
(championed by Phil Johnson) that evolution should be taught
*more*:
"What Christians ought to be telling people is that we
don't want to ban Darwinism. We don't want LESS
taught in the classroom, we want MORE taught. Of
course students should know the basics of
evolutionary theory, and all the evidence cited in
its favor. But they should also learn the
evidence AGAINST evolution, the problems and
anomalies."
It will be hard for even the Darwinists to argue against *that*!
Steve
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>Date: Wed, 01 Sep 1999 15:44:24 -0600
>From: <Lori_Whaley@pfm.org>
>Reply-To: <Lori_Whaley@pfm.org>
>Sender: breakpoint-request@lists.netcentral.net
>Subject: [breakpoint] Is the Sky Falling?, 9/1/99
To subscribe to this list,
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BreakPoint Commentary #90901 - 9/1/99
Is the Sky Falling?: The Kansas Evolution Vote
by Charles Colson
Listening to all the Chicken Littles in the press,
you'd think the sky had fallen in Kansas. When the
Kansas Board of Education voted not to include
macroevolution in their state standards, dozens of
hand wringing editorials decried the vote as
"religious prejudice," "banning knowledge," and
"destructive to education." As we speak, lawsuits
are being threatened.
But wait a minute! What did the Kansas Board
of Education actually do? Contrary to the hysterical
reports, the board did not ban the teaching of
evolution. On the contrary, the vote actually
increased coverage of the topic in the state science
guidelines--by more than fivefold over earlier
guidelines. All the board did was refuse to require
teachers to tell students that Darwinian
macroevolution is a fact beyond dispute.
The vote can best be understood as a protest against
placing any scientific theory beyond the reach of
criticism.
This board ought to be commended for taking a
courageous stand for academic freedom--for giving
students an intellectual right that scientists
themselves take for granted: the freedom to examine
all the evidence, pro and con, on every contested issue.
Without this freedom, science education degenerates into
science indoctrination.
What Christians ought to be telling people is that we
don't want to ban Darwinism. We don't want LESS
taught in the classroom, we want MORE taught. Of
course students should know the basics of
evolutionary theory, and all the evidence cited in
its favor. But they should also learn the
evidence AGAINST evolution, the problems and
anomalies.
For example, let's teach the gaps in the fossil
record, which is completely incompatible with the
idea of gradual, continuous change in living things.
Let's teach the Cambrian explosion, when all the basic body
plans appeared suddenly in the earliest fossil
record--contradicting the dogma of a slow, gradual
appearance of new life forms. Let's teach
what the discovery of DNA means--that at the core of life is a
language, and that there are no known
natural forces capable of producing such information.
As well, we should teach the frauds and fakes that
have duped scientists, sometimes for centuries--like
the recent revelation that the peppered moths were
faked. The idea was that after the industrial revolution,
the tree trunks darkened and the lighter moths were
picked off by birds, while the darker moths
proliferated--the showcase example of natural
selection in action. It now turns out that the moths
don't even rest on tree trunks, and that the photos
that are included in every biology textbook were
faked--that scientists glued dead moths onto the tree
trunks.
Why aren't these facts taught in the public school
science classroom? Why should only one view be
taught? This is a question I deal with in my new
book, How Now Shall We Live?, written with Nancy
Pearcey, the executive editor of BreakPoint.
It's not a question of teaching religion in the
science classroom. It's a question of teaching
Darwinism honestly--not covering over its weaknesses
with dogma. Let's set scientific proposition against
scientific proposition, and let the strongest one win.
Perhaps those who are reacting so hysterically to the
Kansas decision are really afraid of what those kids
will discover--this time it is Christians on the side of
academic freedom.
Copyright (c) 1999 Prison Fellowship Ministries
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"I have come to the conclusion that Darwinism is not a testable scientific
theory, but a metaphysical research programme-a possible framework for
testable scientific theories." (Popper K.R., "Unended Quest: An Intellectual
Autobiography", [1974], Open Court: La Salle, Ill., Revised Edition, 1982,
p168)
Stephen E. Jones | sejones@iinet.net.au | http://www.iinet.net.au/~sejones
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