Boulder Daily Camera
April 2, 2000
If there is any doubt in any one's mind that Americans remain unconvinced of the
fact of the evolution of life on Earth a recent poll commissioned by the liberal
civil-rights group People for the American Way should dispel that notion. The
results of that poll released on 10 March shows that although most Americans
support the continued teaching of evolution in the public schools the vast
majority, 79%, remain ambivalent concerning the concomitant teaching of creation
science, some 30% believing that it should be taught as scientific theory,
others that it should be taught as a plausible alternative notwithstanding its
religious overtones, and still others that it is basic religious belief but
suitable for public education. However, the fact that 79% believe that
creationism has a place in the public school curriculum is cause for concern
among persons who grasp the meaning of these numbers in terms of scientific
literacy of Americans in the 21 century.
The unanticipated re-emergence of creationism fifty-six years after the celebrated 'Tennessee monkey trial' of 1925 which convicted biology teacher John Scopes of teaching evolution in violation of state law, may be viewed in relation to a shift in the political climate of the times, commencing with the 1980 presidential campaign. The front-running Republican candidate asserted his conviction to an evangelical audience that evolution "...is a theory only...not believed by the scientific community to be as infallible as it once was." It is clear that this 'scientific community' of which he spoke had no relation to the vast inter- national community of research biologists and teachers who consider the fact of evolution to be the unifying principle of all life on earth and the underlying basis of all that they observe and instruct. He was referring rather to a small group of self proclaimed experts who form the core of a nascent pseudo-discipline called creation science, dedicated to the proposition that all living and extinct species were created in the space of six 24-hour days, separately and fully formed as we now find them.
Despite the complete disconnect between these ideas and the enormous body evidence pertaining to biologic evolution collected and studied for more than 200 years, creation science is currently gaining strength and credibility in several state legislatures. Laws promulgated by these states threaten to dislodge one of the most compelling and fully corroborated concepts in human experience and replace it with what began as a tribal tradition of an obscure, embattled and often enslaved ancient people.
How is it possible that this could happen in one of the most technically advanced and educated populations on earth in the late 20th century? The 1925 Scopes trial, despite his conviction (which was later quashed on a technicality), was considered by most scientists to be a moral victory and vindication of evolution. Furthermore, in 1987 the Supreme Court struck down Louisiana's "balance treatment" law, similar to one in Arkansas. Instead of the triumph of science over pseudo-science as many expected from these high court rulings, these judgments have proved to be a tocsin summons for the creationist movement at the state level: six states introduced antievolutionary laws in 1986; two more states were added in 1997 and one in 1998. Since 1950 several state Boards of Education have so diluted any mention of evolution in the standard biology texts that many school children are now graduating in a state of basic illiteracy on matters fundamental to the understanding of the cosmos: the formation galaxies and stars, the origin of the solar system and the forces that shaped the earth, and life itself.
On August 11, 1999 the steady erosion of science education suffered another sudden, serious ratchet as result of the decision by the Kansas Board of Education to remove all mention of evolution from the current curriculum and replace it with the biblical account of origins by divine fiat. Past Supreme Court decisions precluded state laws that explicitly prohibited the teaching of evolution. However, the defacto result of the new laws and restrictions enacted by states will be at least as effective in annulling the teaching of evolution as the laws explicitly banned by the Supreme Court. In Kansas and other states where evolution has been expunged from textbooks, standards of accountability related thereto have also been eliminated creating an environment specifically designed to further discourage teachers and students from engaging in any form of instruction on the subject. Teachers wishing to avoid unpleasant confrontations with evangelistic parents and school administrators, understandably, may be expected to toe the new party line in order to retain their reputations and their jobs. The overall effect is that entire communities are becoming intellectually hostage to a dedicated minority of religious fundamentalists where the main short-term losers are the school children - the long-term loser, inevitably, will be the nation.
The religious right has enjoyed phenomenal success in achieving its goals in recent times. However, it must be borne in mind that such successes do not materialize in a vacuum and overnight. The United States provides fertile fields for the nurture and development of almost any religious movement. It is by any measure an extraordinarily religious country. In contrast to our cultural antecessors the United States Constitution, by ensuring freedom of and freedom from religion, has allowed a multiplicity of faiths to coexist and prosper in the determined but peaceful pursuit of souls. This congenial environment provides ample space for every shade of religious faith: ephemeral cults, slowly evolving mainline denominations adapting to the fruits of scientific discovery, and the immutable orthodox and fundamentalist doctrines that cling to each of the Semitic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
The results of our profound religious commitment as it affects scientific literacy in the United States are quite astonishing. A 1993 survey by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago, ranked 21 technically advanced nations of the world on knowledge questions pertaining to human evolution. The United States came in dead last, i.e., least knowledgeable of any surveyed nation on the basic understanding of human origins. Why are Americans so abysmally ignorant of this subject so intimately connected with being human? Opinion polls have consistently demonstrated that the vast majority of Americans share a virtually unshakable belief in God (~96%) and life after death (75%). Beyond these generally ubiquitous beliefs credibility trends towards the fantastic. Among 17 western nations, including eastern Europe, Russia and Israel surveyed by NORC, the U.S. ranked third (37%) among nations holding to the Bible as the literal, actual word of God; first (45%) among those who believe in the Devil; first (50%) among those who believe in Hell; second (63%) among those who believe in Heaven; and first (46%) among those who believe in religious miracles. Great Britain, in contrast, has 7% who believe in the literal Bible; 13% who believe in the Devil; 13% who believe in Hell; 25% who believe in Heaven and 15% who believe in miracles.
It is small wonder then, set against this milieu of religious belief, that certain state legislatures act as they do in response to (and often in accord with) a constituency of like mind. This constituency, however, is by no means a doctrinaire monolith. Creation science may be the principal instrument of the religious right in their quest for scientific legitimacy, nonetheless it represents only a small part of the overall religious community. Despite the miniscule size of core Creation Science its leader- ship are seldom of a single mind; its philosophy is fractious; and its message is both contradictory and self-contradictory. Creation scientists range from such fellows as criminal law Professor Phillip Johnson who holds strictly to the biblical account of creation to political pundit William Buckley who accepts the fact of speciation by descent but insists that it is the product of intelligent design, ordained and executed by God - an idea now fully embraced by the Vatican in Rome.
The mainline Protestant denominations may find the rantings of the more extreme members of the creationist brotherhood an embarrassment and a detriment to Christianity in the public eye, but only murmurs are heard from that direction. Creation science is seen by scientists as a transparently contrived effort to match and equate its brand of scientific discovery with scripture, but few wish to engage in that fruitless argument. Despite this widespread apathy creation scientists face a daunting and hopeless task in their efforts to overturn centuries of scientific progress; they may, however, succeed in corrupting a portion of the U.S. public school system.
Howard Garcia