EVOLUTION IN GEORGIA (2-2004)

Georgia has become just the latest of a number of states that has tried 
to dictate to its high school students just what does and does not 
qualify as science in the school curriculum. Once again, politicians 
and religious right-wingers want to decide whether or not there are any 
competing scientific theories that should be taught to biology students 
along with evolution.

Georgia’s state School Superintendent, Kathy Cox, recently suggested 
eliminating the word “evolution” from the state’s curriculum. “The 
unfortunate truth is that evolution has become a controversial 
buzzword…,” Cox said. She wants to replace it with the phrase, 
“biological changes over time.” She also supports the addition of 
“multiple scientific models.”

She said the curriculum would still include evolution, and that 
teachers were still free to use the word. But it would not be mentioned 
in the state’s official science curriculum.

Well, it’s true; the word “evolution” is a loaded term. But to pretend 
it doesn’t exist is ludicrous. 
So Cox has taken some major flack for her proposal, including from 
former president Jimmy Carter.

Carter was outraged at such a proposal, saying that it would promote 
the stereotype of southerners as backward people. In a statement, he 
said, “As a Christian, a trained engineer and scientist, and a 
professor at Emory University, I am embarrassed by Superintendent Kathy 
Cox's attempt to censor and distort the education of Georgia's 
students.”

He further stressed that the acceptance of evolution as science should 
not preclude a belief in God. “There can be no incompatibility between 
Christian faith and proven facts concerning geology, biology, and 
astronomy,” the former president said.

Carter has been accused of many things, including being a weak 
president. But few people can accuse him of lacking Christian values 
and morality.

And Carter isn’t the only one to criticize Cox’s proposal. An associate 
professor of biology at Georgia State University said that Cox’s 
proposal and her support of Georgia’s governor in a public statement 
reveal an ignorance of science. Her colleagues agree with her position.

The sad fact is, even though whatever Georgia decides to do with its 
curriculum won’t affect Indiana’s students, the Christian right-wingers 
are not limited to that state. They are here in Indiana, too. And they 
will stop at nothing to introduce their brand of pseudoscience into the 
science curriculum at all levels. 

People are free to believe whatever they wish. That is one of the 
foundation blocks upon which this nation was built. They are also free 
to proselytize. But they are not free to create a new brand of science 
for inclusion in the school curriculum based only upon their perception 
of the truth, without regard to the scientific method.

The writing of history, and what is included in history textbooks, 
should be left to historians, not writers of fiction. By the same 
token, science should be left to scientists, because only they 
understand what it really is, and what it is not.

Conservative Christians may wish that their pet religious “theories” 
passed scientific muster. But they do not. They don’t even come close. 

What some people need to understand is that there are no alternative 
theories to evolution. If there were, they would already be 
incorporated into the science curriculum. That’s what science is all 
about.

David Bechler, head of the department of biology at Valdosta State 
University, explained what a theory is in the Atlanta Journal-
Constitution, “You're talking about a statement that describes a body 
of data that has gone through testing and proving. The theory of 
creation, intelligent design, or whatever you might want to call it, 
has not been tested and should not be discussed in science classes. 
It's not the same thing.” Creationism is a belief, not a science.

It is ironic that the same people who complain about evolution also 
find no problem in going to the doctor, taking medicine, and being 
cured of diseases that may have killed them a century ago. The research 
that produced modern medicines and much of our medical knowledge comes 
directly from an understanding of how evolution works.

If creationism is finally added to the science curriculum, we may as 
well go ahead and replace globes with blocks, to placate the flat-earth 
people. We probably should just go ahead and add alchemy to the 
chemistry classroom as well. It holds as much scientific merit as 
creationism.

Religious conservatives are never going to believe any differently. 
Whatever is taught in the science classroom will make no difference to 
them. But just as science does not try to bully its way into the Sunday 
school classes each week, the bible’s view of creation should be left 
out of the science classroom. It’s simply not science.