The decision by the Kansas State Board of Education (KSBE) not to require students to believe "macro" evolution generated enormous media coverage. Most of what I have read has been uninformed and untrue. The typical claim is that the debate is one of "science vs. religion," evolution being 'science." If evolution were defined as mutations and adaptation, it would be science.
But the conviction that fish sired lizards, or apelike creatures sired man has not one shred of scientific evidence.
Karl Popper, the world's most revered philosopher of science stated emphatically: "It is important to note that evolution is not science. It is a metaphysical research program." Michael Ruse, the philosopher of science most responsible for the evolutionist victory in the Arkansas "Creation Trial," recently stated that evolution is a religion and always has been. Thus, the two leading evolutionist philosophers in the past 50 years stated flatly that evolution is religion. Furthermore, every scientist knows that all scientific theories are tentative.
The standards the board rejected were largely from the National Academy of Sciences, which consists of only 517 scientists in relevant fields, 72% of them atheist. Those standards treated all theories as tentative except evolution. They would have required students to believe they descended from pond scum, that evolution created everything in the cosmos, and that science can be done only if you "understand" evolution. Or the students could lie on the tests, or flunk.
Evolutionist myths destroyed Germany and the communist bloc and have undermined U.S. social fabric possibly beyond repair. KSBE never promoted creation or religion. It succinctly stated four obvious truths: Science is tentative; it should not be taught dogmatically; students should not be required to believe theories; evidence and logic unfavorable to popular theories should not be censored from students.
Because the idea that fish became lizards over billions of years has no solid scientific evidence, the KSBE said, essentially, "You can teach these ideas if you wish, but we will not require students to believe them."
My conviction is that KSBE's enemies and the media have one thing right: This is a battle between science and religion. Most people believe in evolution by faith. The KSBE decision promoted science.
Tom Willis is president of the Creation Science Association for Mid-America.
POWRÓT