RECENT EVOLUTION / CREATION SCIENCE CONFLICTS IN U.S. SCHOOLS

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Overview:

	Protestant religious schools: There is little conflict over evolution within most Christian home schooling programs and Christian religious schools. Creation science is taught there as the only valid belief system concerning the history of the world, its life forms and the rest of the universe. Naturalistic and theistic Evolution is generally rejected. However, there seems to be an increasing trend among some Christian high schools and colleges to abandon creation science in favor of theistic evolution -- the concept that evolution of the species happened on earth over billions of years, and that God used evolution as a tool to create the species that we see today. "Experts say theistic evolution is showing up in a growing number of Christian colleges. For example, Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill., recently invited a guest speaker from Kansas State University to lecture on the topic. And Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., also presents biology and geology from that point of view." John Mark Reynolds, of Biola University in La Mirada, CA, suggests that parents check out the purity of school teaching by inquiring whether the entire faculty believes in a literal Adam and Eve, by studying the course descriptions carefully, by examining the student newspaper for discussions on evolution, and by using an Internet search engine to find and study any papers that school professors have written about origins.
	Roman Catholic schools: Among parochial (called "separate schools" in Canada) schools, there is also little discord. The schools have accepted, and taught evolution and the origin of the species for decades. However, the Church teaches that God has specially created the human soul and thus differentiated humans from the lower animals.
	Public schools: It is in the U.S. public schools that the battle between evolution and creation science rages. After the Scopes Trial (Tennessee, 1925) the theory of evolution gained much public support. ₁ However, this did not translate into evolution being taught widely in the public schools. It took the Russian satellite Sputnik in the late 1950's to convince the country that the U.S. was falling behind in science. The National Science Foundation funded the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, which was influential in returning evolution to high school biology textbooks. In the 1960's, evolution began to be widely taught.

State creationism laws were passed during the 1980's in Arkansas and Louisiana, to force the teaching of creationism in place of evolution. In a 1987 case, Edwards v. Aquillard, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that these laws were unconstitutional because they violated the establishment clause of the 1st Amendment of the U.S. constitution. Creation science was seen to be a expression of religious belief. It was judged to be not a true science because it could never be falsified -- i.e., it was firmly held as a religious belief by its adherents that no amount of contradictory physical evidence could change. During the mid 1990's, creation science groups started to persuade school boards to give equal time to creation science. More recently, they have promoted the teaching that the theory of evolution contains internal contradictions. More details.

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Is the conflict solvable?

The battle between evolution and creation science will not be settled in the foreseeable future:

	Most conservative Protestants believe in the literal truth of the stories of creation found in the book of Genesis in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). They interpret the Hebrew word "Yom" as implying that creation took six actual 24-hour days. This implies an earth that is less than ten thousand years old.
	A minority of conservative Protestants, most liberal Protestants, the Roman Catholic Church, and most scientists accept either Theistic Evolution or Naturalistic Evolution. Both accept that evolution of the species has happened, and that the earth is over 4 billion years of age -- some 500,000 times older than young-earth creationists believe.
	Over 95% of scientists generally, and over 99% of scientists in the fields of biology and earth sciences, accept the theory of evolution. These beliefs require the earth to be many billions of years old.
	General acceptance of creation science would mean that the entire foundational structure and inter-relationships of many sciences (geology, biology, astronomy, nuclear science, etc.) would become meaningless, and would have to be abandoned.
	General acceptance of theistic or naturalistic evolution requires people to interpret Genesis symbolically or to reclassify the creation stories as myths. However, the creation stories are closely tied to the fall of man and to original sin. The latter are two key beliefs among many Christians. If Genesis were interpreted as symbolic, as a myth, fable or fantasy, then the entire role of Jesus would have to be reinterpreted. Without original sin, there is no obvious need for a savior. Jews do not have this problem; although they share Genesis with Christians, they never developed the concept of original sin. Liberal Christians also have no problem; most have already concluded that Genesis is a myth. But the rejection of original sin would shake conservative Christianity to its knees.

The battle over the teaching of creation science in the public schools will not be resolved soon either. The concept of separation of church and state that is contained within the First Amendment of the Constitution requires that public schools do not teach that:

one religion as superior to any other religion, or that

religion is superior to a secular lifestyle.

Thus, creation science could be taught in the public schools as part of the regular science curriculum. It can be argued that it is important that it be taught in order that the students become fully aware of the range of beliefs about origins. But, in order to be constitutional in the U.S.:

	Creation science can only be taught as a concept that some people believe in; it cannot be taught as actual truth.
	Creation science based on the biblical book of Genesis cannot constitutionally be discussed in isolation. The beliefs of other religions, and of secular movements would have to be taught along with the Judeo-Christian belief. Otherwise, Judaism and Christianity would seen as being promoted by the school as superior to other religions and to a secular lifestyle.

Public opinion polls:

1999-AUG: ABCNEWS.com quoted The Gallup Organization's most recent results relating to public opinion about the teaching of creationism in public schools: ₂

Item In favor Opposed No opinion

Teach creationism and evolution 68% 29% 3%

Teach creationism instead of evolution 40% 55% 5%

DYG Inc, a opinion research firm, conducted a public opinion poll among U.S. adults in the wake of the Kansas Board of Education's decision to not require evolution to be taught in the state's public schools. The poll was sponsored by People for the American Way. They found that "There is broad agreement that schools should acknowledge that some people have creationist beliefs and even teach about those beliefs - but not as science. There is also a strong consensus not only that schools should teach evolution, but that how they handle the subject along with creationist beliefs should be a matter of national policy, not just a local matter to be decided by each state or school district." Specific finding were:

Almost half of American adults have never heard of "Creation Science."

60% oppose the decision by the Kansas Board of Education to drop evolution from state science standards.

83% believe that evolution should be taught in public schools. Of these:

	20% say that only evolution should be taught in schools.
	17% say that only evolution should be taught in science class; creation science could be taught in other, non-science, classes
	29% would allow the teaching in science class of both evolution as a scientific theory and creation science as a belief.

About 70% feel that evolution and creation science can be harmonized.

Fewer than 30% want creation science taught in science class as a scientific belief.

13% want creation science and evolution taught together as science.

16% want creation science to be taught as the only scientific theory. ₈

2002-JAN: Channel One news supplies a cable news program to about 12,000 public schools in the U.S. They conducted a non-scientific, online poll of student's attitudes towards the teaching of origins. ₆ They asked: "...which theory should be taught in school? Creationism, Evolution or Both?" Results were:

Teach creationism only	Teach evolution only	Teach both
31%	17%	52%

Unfortunately, the poll did not sample students' opinion on how origins should be taught. Some might prefer creation and evolution to be taught side-by-side in science class, as alternate belief systems. Others might prefer that evolution be taught in science class, because essentially all earth and biological scientists accept the theory. Creation stories from various religions could then be taught in a comparative religion course.

Recent battles in the war:

Some of the recent bills and laws considered by state legislatures are clearly unconstitutional. They place local school boards in a difficult position. If they refuse to implement the laws, their funding may be cut. If they follow the laws, they become vulnerable to lawsuits that they will undoubtedly lose. The cost of these court actions could impoverish small school districts. They also cause conflict for individual legislators: If they vote in favor of some of these laws, they will be violating their oath of office which is to uphold the state and national Constitution; if they vote against some of the laws, they will lose significant voting support in the next election.

Some past developments in the teaching of evolution in public schools:

1987: National: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public schools cannot teach creationism in science classes.

Late 1990's: State school boards in Arizona, Alabama, Illinois, New Mexico, Texas and Nebraska have tried to either

	no longer mandate the teaching of evolution, or
	de-emphasize the teaching of evolution ₃

1998: North Carolina: The North Carolina House passed a bill which mandates that evolution be presented as a theory, not as a fact.

1999: Kansas: The Kansas Board of Education abandoned the recommendations of their own science panel and established new state science standards. They announced that students would not be tested on their knowledge of evolution. "Studies of data regarding fossils, geologic tables, cosmological information are encouraged. But standards regarding origins are not mandated." ₅This policy was overturned in 2001 after the election of a new board.

1999: Kentucky: The Kentucky State Education Department substituted the term "change over time" for "evolution" in their curriculum.

2000: Louisiana: The U.S. Supreme Court declared the Tangipahoa Parish school board's disclaimer to be unconstitutional. The board had required its teachers to announce that evolution was just "presented to inform students of the scientific concept and [was] not intended to influence or dissuade the biblical version of creation or any other concept..."

2001: Hawaii: Denise Matsumoto, chair of the Regular Education Committee, of the Hawaii State Board of Education proposed that evolution and creation science be taught as competing theories in science class. It was unanimously rejected by the board.

2005: Georgia: A federal judge ordered that the Cobb County school board remove stickers that they had ordered placed on science text books. The stickers state: "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered." ₇

More details on recent events can be seen in our listing of evolution & creation science news items.

References used:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still valid today.