Creationists defeated in Kansas school vote on science teaching
Pastor Dale Morgan
Creationists defeated in Kansas school vote on science teaching*
· Guidelines challenging Darwinism banned
· Decision is latest blow to intelligent design activists
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Thursday February 15, 2007
The Guardian
School authorities in the American heartland state of Kansas have
delivered a rebuff to subscribers to the notion of intelligent design by
voting to banish language challenging evolution from new science guidelines.
In a 6-4 vote on Tuesday night, the Kansas state board of education
deleted language from teaching guidelines that challenged the validity
of evolutionary theory, and approved new phrasing in line with
mainstream science.
It was seen as a victory for a coalition of moderate Republicans and
Democrats, science educators and parents who had fought for two years to
overturn the earlier guidelines.
The decision is the latest in a string of defeats for proponents of
creationism, and its modern variant, intelligent design. It reverses the
decision taken by the same authorities two years ago to include language
undermining Darwinism - on the insistence of conservative parents and
activists in the intelligent design movement.
In redrafting guidelines for science teaching, the board removed
language suggesting that key concepts such as a common origin for all
life on Earth and for species change were seen as controversial by the
scientific community.
The board also rewrote the definition of science, limiting it to the
search for rational explanations of what occurs in the universe. The
move, though limited in its scope, was seen as significant because it
rejected a key argument of subscribers to intelligent design: that
providing children with arguments for and against evolution merely
amounts to fair play.
But Kansas remains a conservative state and many people harbour
misgivings about teaching evolution to school children. The school board
received a petition with nearly 4,000 signatures opposing Tuesday's
decisions.
Overcoming such misgivings will be difficult, said Jack Krebs, a former
maths teacher who is president of Kansas Citizens for Science.
"The bigger issue is the cultural divide. The intelligent design people
and the anti-evolution people truly believe that science as it is
practised is atheistic, and excludes God, and this is really the heart
of the cultural battle," Mr Krebs said.
Despite this latest setback proponents of intelligent design remain
active across the US. In the last five years, anti-evolution legislation
has been introduced in 24 state legislatures and similar policies were
under consideration in at least 20 states, according to the National
Centre for Science Education in California.
Given the deep passions surrounding the teaching of evolution in Kansas,
it is widely expected that proponents of intelligent design will not let
up in their campaign over science teaching.
"They have really been on a rollercoaster for the last 10 years in
Kansas," said Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Centre for
Science Education. "This isn't really good for the state of science
education in Kansas for the treatment of evolution to be in such flux.
It probably does have the effect of encouraging creationism in the local
classroom."
Backstory
Teaching creationism in American public schools has been outlawed since
1987 when the supreme court ruled that the inclusion of religious
material in science classes was unconstitutional. In recent years,
however, opponents of the theory of evolution - first developed by
Charles Darwin, above - have regrouped, challenging science education
with the doctrine of "intelligent design", which has been carefully
stripped of all references to God and religion. Unlike traditional
creationism, which claims that God created the earth in six days,
proponents of intelligent design say the workings of this planet are too
complex to be ascribed to evolution. There must have been a designer
working to a plan - that is, a creator.