Revolution Online, September 22, 2008
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Attacking Evolution in the Name of “Critical Thinking” and “Academic Freedom”
We received the following letter from a reader:
A relative who had just finished reading Neil Shubin’s Your Inner Fish1 wrote me recently saying, “Thank you, thank you again for the fascinating story of human evolution. It really gets you thinking, doesn’t it? How can people still be so stupid about so much of the science world? It is right there before us in the fossil and human embryonic development record.”
So many people are ignorant about science because the educational system offers rigorous scientific training to only a few, tracking the majority of students in this country into substandard schools. For several years now, Christian fascists have been working tirelessly to exploit and deepen scientific illiteracy and make sure that the great majority of people are deprived of even the little science they might get now. The nomination of Sarah Palin as candidate for vice president signals that fundamentalist assaults on science—especially on the science of evolution—will continue no matter who is elected in November.2 Bills mandating or allowing teaching creationism were introduced into a number of state legislatures this year.
On June 28, the Louisiana Science Education Act3 was signed into law by Governor Bobby Jindal.4 In the name of promoting “critical thinking” and “academic freedom,” this new law smuggles creationism into the science curricula of Louisiana public schools. It is the fruit of the Discovery Institute’s5 most recent maneuvering to avoid the appearance of bringing religion, and especially creationism, into the public school science classroom while doing exactly that.
In 1987 the Supreme Court shot down Louisiana’s Balanced Treatment Act in the Edwards v. Aguillard decision, ruling that the purpose of the Act was to “advance a particular religious belief” since teaching “creation science” would require that teachers put forward the religious belief that a supernatural being created humanity.6 Since then, there have been numerous attempts by creationists of various stripes to employ what Bob Avakian7 has called “relativism in the service of absolutism” to maneuver around opposition from scientists and others.
When the Dover, Pennsylvania school board adopted the concept of Intelligent Design into its science curriculum in 2005, a Discovery Institute attorney visited the school district and counseled the school board to reconsider. He feared, correctly as it turned out, that the school board, by mandating the teaching of Intelligent Design, was heading toward a test case. The Thomas More Society, a “public interest” and “pro-life” law firm, defended the Dover School Board when parents and teachers sued them. In 2005 a U.S. District Court ruled that Intelligent Design is creationism by another name.
If you go to the Discovery Institute’s website now, you will find that Intelligent Design is somewhat downplayed, but elsewhere on the Internet you can find copies of a revealing 1996 Discovery Institute internal memo, “The Wedge Strategy—Center for the Renewal of Science & Culture” which explicitly states, “Design theory promises to reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist worldview, and to replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions.” The Discovery Institute now says that it opposes mandating the teaching of Intelligent Design and instead urges “teaching the controversy.”
Earlier this year, anti-evolutionists unveiled what some have called “Creationism 3.0.”8 The release of the film Expelled, which argues that science academics who embrace Intelligent Design are being persecuted, is part of this initiative. They have also drafted model legislation and are lobbying state legislatures to adopt these models. A number of states entertained bills with similar wording this year, and in June, the governor of Louisiana signed the first of this new breed of anti-evolution law. The Louisiana Science Education Act says, “The state...shall allow and assist teachers, principals, and other school administrators to create and foster an environment...that promotes critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories being studied, including, but not limited to, evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning” and the law “shall not be construed to promote any religious doctrine, promote discrimination for or against a particular set of religious beliefs, or promote discrimination for or against religion or nonreligion.” Such seemingly contradictory statements within the same law are a product of the creationist agenda of misrepresenting science by implying that evolutionary theory and other established scientific facts are not supported by evidence, and at the same time hiding the religious intent behind such legislation. They use language like “critical thinking” and “open and objective discussion” to open a backdoor so they can smuggle religious doctrine into the science classroom. Their claim that the theory of evolution is a contested theory, controversial among scientists, is a misrepresentation of the facts.
Each time they’ve encountered opposition and defeat, creationists have adjusted their tactics in the service of their goal to establish a Christian theocracy. They have no problem with using obfuscation, misrepresentation, and outright lying to advance their agenda. Even though they abhor moral relativism, they’ll use relativism to promote the idea that there are no scientific truths. Their goal is to have a society based on the Bible. What people need is a society that values scientific thought and aims to make scientific knowledge available and accessible to all people. If these Christian fascists are allowed to rob people of the exhilarating, exciting, and true theory of evolution this would be a crime against humanity.
ENDNOTES
1. In 2004, paleontologist Neil Shubin and his team discovered a 375-million-year-old fossil, Tiktaalik, in the Canadian arctic that is transitional between fish and land animals. Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body (Pantheon Books, New York, 2008) tells the story of finding Tiktaalik and delightfully explains that “In every organ, cell, and gene in our bodies is a deep connection to the rest of life on our planet. And the story of our bodies is written in the fossils, bodies, and DNA in creatures as different as worms, fish, and sponges.” (Revolution Interview with Neil Shubin, revcom.us/a/130/Shubin_Interview-en.html) [back]
2. When she ran for governor of Alaska in 2006, Palin told a television audience that she is in favor of teaching Creationism in schools. “Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of information. Healthy debate is so important, and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both.” “‘Creation science’ enters the race.” Anchorage Daily News, adn.com/news/politics/elections/story/8347904p-8243554c.html, October 27, 2006. [back]
3. Louisiana Science Education Act, legis.state.la.us/billdata/streamdocument.asp?did=482728 [back]
4. “New legal threat to teaching evolution in the US,” New Scientist, July 9, 2008, http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg19926643.300-new-legal-threat-to-teaching-evolution-in-the-us.html [back]
5. The Discovery Institute is a Christian fundamentalist think tank based in Seattle. It is one of the main creationist organizations in the U.S. and is closely identified with Intelligent Design creationism. [back]
6. The Science of Evolution, p. 208. Ardea Skybreak’s The Science of Evolution and The Myth of Creationism (Insight Press, Chicago) is an invigorating explication of overwhelming evidence for evolution and dissects creationism, including Intelligent Design creationism. [back]
7. Bob Avakian’s talk, “Balance Is Not the Criterion” (bobavakian.net) analyzes the way right-wing ideologues use terms like “academic freedom” to attack critical thinking on college campuses. Bringing Forward Another Way (revcom.us/avakian/anotherway/anotherway.pdf)and “Dictatorship and Democracy, and the Socialist Transition to Communism” (revcom.us/avakian/avakian-works.html#democracyspeech) discuss how Christian fascists and other right wingers exploit relativism and post-modernism in service of absolutism, especially when attacking science. See, for example, “The role of dissent in a vibrant society,” revcom.us/a/072/ba-dissent-en.html [back]
8. “Creationism’s Latest Play—Using Academic Freedom to Keep God in the Science Classroom,” by Lauri Lebo, June 1, 2008, The Washington Spectator, washingtonspectator.com/articles/20080601creationism.cfm [back]
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