Creationists strike back ... in the classroom

I ran across this article in the Christian Science Monitor.

Now evolving in biology classes: a testier climate

To sum up: Some biology teachers report that a challenge to evolution is coming ... from their students. This is exactly what I have seen happening for years. Proponents of creationism have been systematically getting smarter, coming up with arguments against evolution, and spreading their teachings in churches, books, videos, CDs, websites, you name it. All this time, evolutionists have either been blissfully unaware of the rising organized resistance, or have discounted its power.

Now, science teachers are reporting that students are coming in to class armed with specific ways to challenge the teacher and the curriculum. They're armed with "Ten Questions to Ask Your Biology Teacher." And teachers are saying that their job is getting tougher and tougher.

Personally, I think it's great that students are challenging teachers. Although I am a hardcore evolutionist, I have no problem with creationism being discussed in schools. Creationist teachings are being promulgated in churches across the country. The majority of evolutionists I know seem to be opposed to any mention of creationism in school. But if creationism isn't critically discussed in schools -- where will it be discussed? Where will it be seriously challenged? Some of these kids are receiving a steady diet of crap science and bad logic, and they're being told that the secular world is their enemy. But if no one ever points out the problems with creationist teachings to them, then what? Then we have set up an us vs. them scenario, where good Christians learn everythign about evolution in the pulpit, and secular scientists are the enemy.

One of the greatest lessons I learned from the Jesuits at Georgetown was that ideas are nothing to fear. The way to the truth is to question and examine ideas critically. False ideas collapse under scrutiny. I don't find the idea of creationism a threat at all. In fact, if after carefully examining the evidence, someone concludes that the creatures of the earth were created as they are in seven days, more power to them. But I hope they get there after carefully examining the facts ... not Darwin's interpretation of the facts, or a teacher's interpretation, or a pastor's interpretation, or a creation scientist's interpretation. In my view, the facts lead inevitably to the conclusion that evolution happened. Whether you like that idea or not doesn't change its truth.

As for how science should be taught in school, I think it has to be based in evolutionary theory. There is no way around it. Evolution and natural selection provide the underlying logic for our modern understanding of biological processes. Of course, in Kansas, they are trying to redefine what science is, so any number of alternative theories can be taught in school as legitimate science. ReluctantCynic wrote an interesting reflection on this debate in his blog.

Tomorrow: How would you respond to the Ten Questions To Ask Your Biology Teacher? I'm going to give it a shot.