The school of creationism

[Pah]

Article complete at The Independant Online

The school of creationism

Children in a Pennsylvania town will be taught that God made the world, igniting a debate which splits the US. Andrew Buncombe reports from Dover

20 December 2004


Was the landscape around the small town of Dover in Pennsylvania created in just six days? Were the gently curving hills perfected, the streams formed and finished, the wide, empty skies fixed in place beneath the firmament and the narrow wooded valleys completed? Was it all really done in less than a week?

At the eye of this storm is Dover, where a legal battle that could end up costing local taxpayers very dear has been launched.

"I was very surprised. I would not have thought it [would come to this]," said Steven Sough, one of 11 parents who last week filed a lawsuit with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to try to prevent the change to the curriculum, arguing it would breach the US Constitution. "I have a daughter, Ashley, who will be 14 in two-weeks time. This is a personal issue. I want her learning science at school. I want her learning religion at home with me or at church."

The dispute in Dover blew up in October when the elected members of the district school board voted 6-3 that the biology course for 15-year-olds should be amended to include a theory about the origins of life known as intelligent design or ID.

The lawsuit filed last week by the ACLU, accuses the school board of breaching the First Amendment of the US Constitution which prohibits the establishment of an official religion.

In its lawsuit it argued: "ID is a non-scientific argument or assertion, made in opposition to the scientific theory of evolution that an intelligent, supernatural actor has intervened in the history of life and that life 'owes its origin to a master intellect'." It also noted that in 1987 the US Supreme Court ruled that creationism was a religious belief that could not be taught alongside evolution

Rumours suggest that the 60 copies of Pandas were donated to the school by Irene and Don Bonsell, whose son is a board member. Mrs Bonsell, who described herself as a creationist, refused to confirm or deny whether they had donated the books. She said she approved of the books being available to the students even though she also denied religion was being placed in the classroom. "I think it's a good idea that students should learn this theory," she said. "I'm a creationist. I don't understand what the problem is [with ID]. It's another theory. Darwinism has never been proved, it's just a theory. They are trying to take God out of everything, out of the pledge, off our money."

Pandas also has evangelical links. The book is published by the Texas-based Foundation for Truth and Ethics, a small conservative think-tank which has published two other books, one promoting abstinence before marriage and another which disputes that America's founding principles came from Greek, Roman and Enlightenment traditions but rather from Christianity.

The foundation's president, John Buell, who formerly worked to promote Christianity on university campuses, said Pandas was not a religious book even though he conceded that ID implied a "supernatural power"

 

[Sunstone]

That town just ain't going to produce a lot of scientists, is it?

 

[No*s]

That town just ain't going to produce a lot of scientists, is it?

No, but it will produce a bunch of apologists for their view to pester those of us who accept evolution.

 

[Jaymes]

"Creationists make it sound like a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night."

I think everyone should be sat down and taught the difference between "theory" and "impossible to prove religious belief."

 

[Master Vigil]

Dover, wow, thats like... 6 hours away from me. Now I feel I must move. Hmmm... perhaps canada?

 

[Sunstone]

There's something wretched about politicians deciding what does or does not constitute a sound science education. Politicians tend to think everything revolves not around truth, but around politics. And they tend to think that a majority vote can decide any issue -- even the veracity of a scientific theory. It's a shame on Dover that that community has allow its scoundrels and scalawags to determine what sort of science education its kids will have.

 

[Ceridwen018]

Oy veh, this is precious. Pennsylvania: the Northern Georgia. Don't get me wrong, I love Georgia, but aren't they doing this same thing? Oh well, I think we're generally safe. Survival of the fittest, am I right?

 

[painted wolf]

perhaps they will teach the horosope as a tool for ecconimics? Tea leaf reading in home-ecc?
Alchemy in Chemistry... lead into gold anyone? Or to just cross your fingers and pay insead of First aid?

*sigh*

wa:do

 

[Jaymes]

Or to just cross your fingers and pay insead of First aid?

Heh heh.. nice Freudian slip there, painted wolf.

*hums and wishes for universal health care*

 

[painted wolf]

I guess it works just as well for sex ed doesn't it...
I ment to be talking about 'faith healing' but hey, it works.

wa:do

 

[Sunstone]

We live in an age of willful ignorance. It used to be folks were merely ignorant. Science came along and cleaned up much of that ignorance. But people didn't feel that was right somehow. So now many people are willfully returning to ignorance. Isn't that very strange?

 

[painted wolf]

It's a bit scarry realy. Ignorance led people to blame 'bad spirits' for disease and 'witches' for 'bad spirits' so the answer to illness... kill 'witches'. Science gave us the 'germ theory of disease' wich put the blame where it belonged, on bacteria and viruses, and most recently on prions.

wa:do

 

[Mr Spinkles]

It's a bit scarry realy. Ignorance led people to blame 'bad spirits' for disease and 'witches' for 'bad spirits' so the answer to illness... kill 'witches'. Science gave us the 'germ theory of disease' wich put the blame where it belonged, on bacteria and viruses, and most recently on prions.

Someone has been devouring Sagan's Demon Haunted Universe, hasn't she?

 

[retrorich]

"They are trying to take God...out of the pledge, off our money."


Sounds like a plan to me.

However those issues have been discussed in other threads.

 

[Sunstone]

"Darwinism has never been proved, it's just a theory. They are trying to take God out of everything, out of the pledge, off our money."

That seems to be an example of the sloppy thinking that goes into so much anti-evolutionary thought. Is she opposed to "Darwinism" because she believes it lacks scientific merit, or is the real reason she's opposed to "Darwinism" that she feels it "takes God out of everything"?

 

[painted wolf]

Someone has been devouring Sagan's Demon Haunted Universe, hasn't she?

how ever did you guess?
Sagan makes a great case for the all or nothing nature of science. You can not have selective application of science. Hobbling scince in one area risks hobbiling it in all areas.

wa:do

wa:do

 

[The Voice of Reason]

I have to say that Pah has an uncanny ability to find stories like this one. He puts some of the best stuff up here for all of us to consider. Thanks, Pah.
As for this effort, it will be well worth watching as the court battle unfolds. Hopefully, God will help the Judge see the facts as they really are, and will have His hand in the Judge's decision.

Pah - can you keep us up to date as this thing gets rolling?

Thanks,
TVOR