The Kansas Board of Education, which lost its conservative Christian majority in November 2000 elections, reinstated evolution, the Big Bang theory and plate tectonics into the state's science curriculum on 2.14.2001.  Those three subjects had been removed from state standardized tests a year and a half earlier, in effect no longer requiring science teachers to cover those subjects.

John Bacon, a board member who opposed returning evolution to state tests said, "If the scientific community thinks they can sit back and say, 'Phew, we got that done,' that would be very presumptuous of them.  Kids are not stupid.  They're going to realize that what they've learned at home is not what their science teacher is trying to push on them."

40% of biology teachers in rural Kansas (25% in the state overall) and 30% in Texas and Ohio describe themselves as creationists.

The Onion, a parody newspaper, spoofed the conservative Christian effort to remove evolution from schools in a recent issue.  The picture below is a link to the article.

Above: Conservative Christians protest the second law of thermodynamics on the steps of the Kansas Capitol.

Evolution in the Classroom - 2.8.2000

In 1925 John Scopes, a teacher in Tennessee, was taken to court for violating a state statute that prohibited teaching evolution in public schools. The trial received a lot of attention, but never resolved whether bans on teaching evolution were permitted by the first amendment. This happened in 1968, when the Supreme Court ruled (Epperson versus Arkansas) that bans on teaching evolution in the classroom were religiously motivated and therefore unconstitutional. In 1987 (Edwards versus Aguillard) the Supreme Court stuck down a Louisiana law that required biology teachers who taught evolution to also teach "creation science."

The creationists have been losing ground and now their only remaining tactic is to limit the teaching of evolution. In Kansas, for example, the board of education voted to remove macro-evolution (the emergence of new species) from standardized state tests, in effect encouraging local school boards to drop or de-emphasize teaching evolution. In Alabama, all new biology text books are required to include a disclaimer that describes evolution as a "controversial theory." (Click here to see the disclaimer.) A poll among public school teachers in Tennessee revealed that most of them avoid discussing evolution for fear of religious conservatives.

"I believe you're a creature of God," says Pat Buchanan. "I think parents  have a right to insist that Godless evolution not be taught to their children or their children not be indoctrinated in it." The irony that Pat Buchanan is concerned about children being indoctrinated is amusing. If schools are not going to indoctrinate children in science, perhaps they should also stop indoctrinating children in reading and math.

The news isn't all bad, however. After the Oklahoma State Text Book Committee voted unanimously to include a disclaimer identical to Alabama's, Attorney General Drew Edmondson overturned their decision, stating that they had "...obviously acted beyond their authority." The decision came under attack from state Rep. Jim Reese (R), who has introduced a bill that would require biology books to include the committee's disclaimer.

In response to the recent pressure from Christian conservatives, the National Academy of Sciences issued a guidebook for teachers, school administrators and parents that states evolution must be taught in public schools if children are to understand biology at all. They assert: "There is no debate within the scientific community over whether evolution has occurred, and there is no evidence that evolution has not occurred."

Frank Zindler, a science writer and atheist, eloquently summarizes why teaching evolution is important: Scientific ignorance may be comforting and blissful in the short run, but religiously motivated ignorance cannot save us from the problems that face our species. It is knowledge, the hard fact and the sometimes unpleasant truth about things, that leads to power. In contrast to the many religious groups that actually WANT our species to come to disaster - fervently believing that it is foretold in scripture - American Atheists wants homo sapiens to survive and thrive.

We urge teachers and school administrators to utilize that quintessential feature of vertebrate anatomy - the backbone - and stand up for evolution and against the religious pressures that oppose it.

The rule creationists would like to impose is that scientific principles should be a matter of public opinion. Many of history's most significant scientific discoveries chip away at the egocentric universe man has constructed for himself, and are therefore unpopular. If, during their day, these discoveries were put to a public election to decide if they were true, not one would have passed.

First, man learns that the earth is not flat with flood gates in the sky and stars hanging above, but that it is one of many planets. Then man discovers that the Earth is not the center of the universe, that other planets and stars don't orbit around it. Obviously, the reason man thought the Earth was at the center of the universe was because man thought he was at the center of the universe. Evolution, however, teaches us that just as the stars do not orbit the Earth, life on Earth does not orbit around man. Evolution destroys the last bit of hope that man is the center of all creation. It is the cumulation of 500 years of disillusionment. It is no wonder that creationists fight evolution so aggressively. It is much more appealing (and easy) to believe that we are made in the image of a God. But as the saying goes: The truth hurts.

Closet Atheist

(We should be thankful that the Flat Earth Society doesn't have as many registered voters as the conservative Christians. Geography class could be very different.)