The rising voices of conspiracists are right: Be afraid.
But unlike the tin-foil-hat brigade certain this administration or the next will grab everyone’s guns so the Chinese can enslave us, I see a far more sinister threat to American freedom: public schools. What we teach and how is more likely to undermine our exceptional freedoms than any gun-show loophole law. This week, while protesters outside the state Capitol were clamoring to keep their assault rifles and endless quantities of ammunition, inside state Rep. Stephen Humphrey was trying to persuade fellow lawmakers to pass House Bill1089, the Academic Freedom Act. Freedom is the furthest thing from this catastrophe.
The bill was an overt attempt to make it possible for creationism or intelligent design to be discussed in high-school and college biology classes alongside discussions about evolution.
I know. It all sounds so innocuous and unimportant. It’s not. It’s chilling, and here’s why. It dumbs down a society already slipping fast in the ranks of the best and brightest in the world. The Chinese, the Japanese, the Germans and even the Indians are now becoming the world’s think tanks and innovators because Americans have for some reason come to see science as more of a nuisance than an asset.
Somewhere in the past few decades, Americans have come to distrust science as a whole. I don’t know if it was because coffee was good for you and then bad for you and then good for you. Or if it was because science created a growing list of things that threaten our very existence and then recommends we give up the good petroleum life to take us back a few hundred years. Or whether it all just got so vast and so complex that it became overwhelmingly intimidating. But too many Americans sneer at science like it was a disreputable car lot. And they don’t understand why we just can’t teach creationism alongside evolution if it keeps the peace. In fact, a whopping 46 percent of Americans say they believe people came from God without evolution.
If you’re jaw doesn’t drop there, that’s why we’re in serious trouble.
Creationism is NOT SCIENCE. It is NOT a SCIENTIFIC THEORY. The notion of creationism or any other creation story no more belongs in a biology class than do stories about storks bringing human babies. The very nature of science insists that “theories” must include a hypothesis based on a logical set of ideas and supported by data and observations that can be repeated by others. There is no science behind the Book of Genesis. For generations, even the Catholic Church has expressly stood behind evolution as THE explanation for all life on Earth and said it does not conflict with Christian or Catholic beliefs or doctrines.
The danger in allowing a noisy bunch of ignorant and malicious Christian zealots to have their way on this matter is that it shows impressionable students that science can be dismissed like an unpleasant court case or a bad relationship. It makes Americans stupid in a world where the stupid are abused.
“Your world just becomes fantastically complicated when you don’t believe in evolution,” Science Guy Bill Nye told the world last year on a YouTube video that enraged the creationist cabal. He asked that if parents denied evolution and science, at least don’t inflict that malady on children. “We need scientifically literate taxpayers and voters for the future.”
I’ve become jaded enough by years of journalism to not be surprised that this pesky measure was back again in Colorado. But I was astounded to see how many state Republicans were willing to back this dangerous propaganda.
The measure failed in the state House Education Committee 7-6 on a party line vote. Six prominent House Republicans and another handful of secondary sponsors were willing to deny the entire body of human science —for what?
I’ll give most of them the benefit of the doubt that they know not what they do. They fear angering the powerful and unforgiving Christian right, which has smote many a conservative politician in Colorado. I was aghast that even here in the newsroom, there are those who see no harm in letting the creationists have their way, believing that the truth will out in a science class.
If you’re wondering why the notion of allowing religious leaders to set education policy and curriculum standards is setting off a few alarm bells in the back of your mind, it’s because that’s what happened in Iran and other countries being smothered in Islam. Just a few days ago, the world was horrified at the loss of science and culture in Timbuktu. There, Islamists had destroyed libraries and schools because science and religion clashed.
Humphrey and his gang of bullies have no intention of widening the breadth and depth of human knowledge. They simply want to undermine science they don’t like. It’s science that without dispute agrees the planet is heating up and that human activity is part or all of the reason why. Humphrey and his cohorts are malevolent in pretending that they just want to clear up the controversy over evolution. There is no controversy over evolution — at all. The entire field of biology is a long and complicated expression of evolution. It is biology. It is the study of life, and not one single, reputable scientific body claims any differently. Not one. Insisting that creationism is somehow related to science is as ludicrous as insisting that Christmas presents come from Santa Claus, or that creationism is valid because scientists can’t prove it didn’t happen. The very process of entertaining this idea is anathema to the scientific method. By all means, students and everyone else should be talking about creationism, but it belongs in sociology, history, psychology and archaeology classes.
Politicizing science curriculum is dangerous. That’s what George Orwell warned us about. It’s the very foundation of Islamic extremism. And it’s got to stop.
Reach editor Dave Perry at 303-750-7555 or dperry@aurorasentinel.com.
OK Dave Perry, I agreed with you right up to the end. You know, that part where you expect me to entertain serious discussion of creationism in my history classes at the Community College of Aurora. No, I will not do that. Students may believe (have faith in their faith) anything they want to believe. But in my classes, the notion of knowledge is fact-based.
Hi Dave,
I will make this short and sweet. The supposition that there is any connection between an Islamist’s approach to anything and Christianity is hysterical on your part to say the least. The absolute arrogance of unbelievers who couch any person who believes that life began by the creative act of an intelligent mind rather than by accident can only be attributed to willful rejection of the obvious. The reason you believe in evolution is because the alternative is unconscionable, right? That is an act of the will. Just stay with me for a minute.
THE – MOST – OBSERVABLE – SCIENTIFIC – FACT – on this planet is intelligent design. You disagree? I take it then that you do not believe you are intelligent nor capable of designing or creating anything. Oh! I didn’t think so!
Every SECOND on this planet – order, information, complexity, and technology are created by intelligent minds. And not just by people on top of that. The difference, for example, between a log jam and a beaver dam is information. Not digital information like DNA, I understand, but design information just the same.
The point I am making is extremely simple. No one was there at the Creation or the Big Bang or the Spontaneous Generation of the original life form or the seeding of life on planet earth by some alien life form, nor has anyone observed the actual evolution of one life form from another because by definition the process takes much too long. Evolution within species takes place all of the time – caused by intelligent minds or by natural biological processes.
You obviously agree that true science is that which is testable, repeatable, and verifiable. WHATEVER happened in the beginning is unknowable from a scientific standpoint. But the ONLY testable, repeatable, and verifiably observable process is creation by an intelligent mind which happens (as I said) every second on this planet.
Scientists cannot even create a living entity from non-living molecules in a test tube. Much less is spontaneous generation scientifically testable. And by the way, alphabet soup contains zero information. Even you, Sir, would not say, “WOW, what are the chances of that happening!” if you looked down at your bowl of cereal or soup and saw the message, “I LOVE YOU”. And making a bunch of amino acids (both positive and negative, by the way) “by accident” demonstrates nothing at all in terms of any naturalistic possiblility of spontaneous generation of any life form from “dirt” without the intervention of an intelligent mind.
Not an intelligent scientist on this planet has any idea what could have precipitated the Big Bang, or what the actual condition of the event horizon was, or what “was” in “eternity past” before the Big Bang, whatever that could possibly mean in a naturalistic sense before time and space. So which “virgin birth” would you prefer to believe in? One caused by an Intelligent Mind, or one caused by an unscientific and unknowable accident? You’ve got a whole lot more faith than I do! “Spontaneous” accidents are not testable, repeatable, nor verifiable.
I know, I know, neither is God. But creation by intelligent minds as a scientific observation IS.
As far as I know no living form of any kind has been found on any “rock” except this one. You all keep hoping against all hope, huh?
My final statement is this. The real reason that all of you so hysterically reject the notion of “creationism” is found in the gospel of John, chapter 3, verse 19.
The answer to your hysteria is found in the grace of the previous three verses.
Sincerely,
David A Maxwell
Colorado Springs
Dave:
Nice piece. Top rate. When I covered the statehouse for UPI & the Rocky (69-77), everyone respected the Republican Legislature members. Then, the “House Crazies” arrived: Tom Tancredo, Cliff Dodge, Steve Dunham, and a few others. From then on, it has been a descent into irrationality.
-Richard J. Schneider / Denver..
Good evening. I just picked up the Aurora Sentinel on my way home on the bus. I am always compelled to read your thoughts, although I may not agree with them all, in the majority I agree with a lot of your ideology. That being said, I want to thank you for bringing this to fruition. Among other things that get slipped under the table by the plethora of diversions, this article was of utmost importance. I assent that our society is being dumbed down, and to add insult to injury politicians are comfortable with letting this happen. As a father of two young boys, I have sworn that I will educate them properly when they come of age to have such discussions on the plethora of such topics of life. I am a spiritual human being. I have studied the likes of philosophy, science, law, among other similar topics. Call me crazy, but I prefer to educate myself versus gluing myself to the television. It is very unfortunate that our society can not see that science is in tandem with even the most prevalent philosophers on subjects of moral laws of nature. Science in itself is a black hole to knowledge we have only begun to understand, and to see ourselves preoccupied with voluptuousness’ and vices instead of achieving spiritual divinity through science as it applies to our own energy and soul in the bodies we have taken up space in. Without boring you to death as I rant, I am in full agreement to your concerns. I appreciate you taking the time to express your concerns.
May God Bless you, and continue to bring truth so that you may see it through your eyes.
Sincerely,
Concerned parent,
Philip Martinez
One of the consistent characteristics of far-left folk is their inability to simply disagree with opinions and/or positions. Folk like yourself must resort to
insults and hyperbole; forget any applied logic. Probably too late for you to get a “real” life, so enjoy your constant state of agitation and anger. Why do I read your offerings? I have no clue. Certainly not to be informed. Must be something like watching a really bad movie; you just can’t believe it is as bad as it is. Thanks again for your time.
Jim
Dave,
Thanks for the gutsy article. Please continue to trumpet the basic yet essential axiom that you cannot prove a negative. And, one more: religion should not undermine critical thinking. Many believe in their specific religion or denomination merely because the tenets have been repeated, unceasingly; (and thus absorbed); shall we consider that that is how brainwashing works? A lie, repeated, never does actually become the truth.
Blind faith, absent any opportunity to question, evaluate or verify teachings is the wobbly platform that hard-driven preachers can rely upon as long as they’ve successfully combined salesmanship with a broad swath of the gullible. I would propose that provisional faith, wherein teachings can be verified, is a far more convincing platform wherein the conscious/aware human is given the opportunity to consider what is being taught, and verify the truth whether through personal experience, or other means.
Without that, we are simple-minded sheep.
Mdaily, Denver.