Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Another Round in the Old “Evolution vs. Creation” Debate

Another Round in the Old “Evolution vs. Creation” Debate

Last updated on: September 24, 2013 at 12:57 pm by Roger E. Olson

Another Round in the Old “Evolution vs. Creation” Debate 2013-09-24T12:57:39-05:00 Roger E. Olson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I live in the great state of Texas. Every year, and sometimes throughout a year, controversy erupts over public school textbooks. Here’s the back story.

Texas is so large and its public schools are so populated that textbook publishers do not want to alienate the Texas state agency that approves textbooks. So, indirectly, anyway, Texas has the ability to sway national textbooks’ contents.

For several years the board that examines public school textbooks to make sure they are accurate and fair has included some members who have complained about some science textbooks’ treatment of life’s origins. Apparently, according to news reports and at least one consultant I met with, some science textbooks strongly imply that all life began with chemical interactions.

Of course, anti-evolutionist Christians and advocates of “intelligent design theory” (not all of who reject evolution) have tussled quite publicly with members of groups like the Texas Freedom Network over whether that is science or philosophy and whether “alternative theories” of life’s origins should be mentioned in science textbooks.

On and on the argument goes with the “creationists” (as the media labels all the critics) and the “scientists” (how’s that for stacking the deck) calling each other names like “ignorant” and “atheists.”

Now I want science textbooks to stick to science. So do many others involved on the “creationist” side of this debate. Neither I nor they are anti-evolutionists. The issue for some of us is not whether life forms evolve; the issue is whether science, as science, can state that all life began with chemical interactions.

The issue is, for some of us, that some scientists like to smuggle philosophy, metaphysical beliefs, into science. The classic case of this, of course, was scientist Carl Sagan’s opening statement in his book and film series, read and shown in thousands of public school classrooms, that “The cosmos is all there is, all there ever was, and all there ever will be.” Few people realized that, at that moment, he was speaking as a philosopher, out of his own life and world view, and not as a scientist. Science cannot establish that metaphysical belief as fact.

The media tend to portray all parents (and others) who object to the contents of public school textbooks as back woods ignoramusus, Mencken’s “booboisies,” religious fanatics and anti-intellectuals. Some are. But not all. Some public school textbooks are full of biases.

I’ll just mention one example here. When my daughter was in ninth grade in a public school her social studies textbook was _____________ World Geography. (I’m omitting the publisher’s name which was part of the book’s title because I don’t want to get into a legal fight with them.) My daughter brought the book home and I sat down and started looking through it.

The book was mainly about world cultures including their histories, beliefs and practices. I noticed that in almost every case outside the U.S. religion was a big part of the discussion of cultures. In the chapter on China, for example, much was made of the influences of Confucianism, Toaism and Buddhism in its history and present culture. The same with every non-U.S. culture described. And what was said about non-U.S. cultures’ religious beliefs and practices was always positive.

The chapter(s) on U.S. culture, including history, was almost totally lacking in anything about religion. It was as if America had always been secular and pluralistic. For example, nothing was said in the book about the Great Awakenings (first, second) or about the religious motives behind the abolitionist or civil rights movements. No mention was made of Martin Luther King’s status as an ordained Baptist minister or anything about his religious beliefs or motivations. Students would never know from that book that he was religious at all.

So I talked to the principle of my daughter’s school. She brushed me off as some kind of trouble-making parent and gave me a form to fill out. I filled it out completely, in detail describing the flaws, the biases, of the textbook. She promised I would hear something. I never did.

At my daughter’s honors awards ceremony a teacher was asked to give an opening “inspirational talk”—clearly the replacement for a prayer or meditation. He quoted passionately, from memory, the poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley including the final line spoken with eyes closed, looking up “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.”

Of course, anyone who knows the history of poetry knows Henley wrote this as an expression of his own belief system which was inspired by Stoicism. (Although it does not exactly express a Stoic philosophy well!) My question, as I sat there as a parent and tax payer, was why it is okay for a public school teacher to quote such a poem, that clearly expresses a quasi-religious worldview, while the teachers could not, of course, express anything of traditional religious belief?

There is a myth “out there” in the “public square” that only Christianity is a religious belief system that must be expunged from public spaces. But its expulsion does not result in neutrality toward all beliefs; other beliefs simply come in to replace it. My daughter had teachers in public high school who openly promoted their beliefs in reincarnation, for example. But that was not deemed “religion.”

Returning to the current round of controversy about science in public school textbooks. The media seem to think that it’s all about some people attempting to impose their literalistic interpretations of Genesis on everyone else. I’m sure that is the case in some cases. But I suspect most critics of public school science textbook are worried about a deeper issue—ethics.

Many modern scientists step over a line from what science knows into metaphysics—what they believe but cannot prove. Sometimes that gets smuggled into textbooks and classroom presentations. Science cannot prove that all life began with chemical interactions and certainly not by accident. And yet that is what some defenders of some statements in science textbooks are saying “is the scientific consensus.” It may be the consensus among scientists, I don’t know. But it certainly is not science. One must distinguish between science as a discipline, which has limits, and what scientists believe. Perhaps, I don’t know for sure, most scientists in 1930s Germany believed in eugenics. That did not make it science.

If science textbooks are going to address “origin of life” and “origins of the universe” issues they ought to admit that answering those questions lies beyond the scope of science and that even scientists have different views about them—including an intelligent designer and creator.

Returning to the ethics issue. I suspect that lying behind much of the furor is the concern of many parents and tax payers that once students believe in naturalism, which is often smuggled into textbooks under the guise of “science,” they will conclude that there is no rational basis for altruism, compassion, service to others and live for themselves only (Ayn Rand style).

Let me illustrate from my own experience. Some years ago I was invited by the local school district (not here in Texas) to participate in a day long discussion among “community leaders” about values in public schools. The question was what values the local public schools could and should teach and promote. A (then) recent Supreme Court decision had declared that public schools could teach and promote “community values.”

About one hundred community leaders of all kinds came to the conference. We sat around large, round tables in “focus groups” and wrote on large pieces of paper, with felt tip markers, our “community values.” When the lists were put up around the room, near the top of every list (if not at the top) was “love.” Other values on most lists were “compassion,” “integrity,” “honesty,” etc.

When the school district’s “official list” of community values to be taught and promoted in the schools was published “love” was notably missing. So I made an appointment with the school district official in charge of the event and asked her why. Her answer was swift and certain: “Because love is a religious value and has no secular basis.” I agreed with her but pointed out that the Supreme Court did not say community values taught in public schools had to be “secular.” I also pointed out to her that there was no purely secular basis for compassion and yet it was included. She had no response and treated me like a trouble maker. She just sat and stared at me until I left.

It is my concern that, once God or anything like God, something or someone transcendent to nature, is completely removed from culture the only stable value with a foundation (in nature) is self-interest. In other words, if that public school system (or any) were to expunge from the values it teaches and promotes every one that depends on revelation, religious traditions, faith, etc., and teaches and promotes only those with a firm natural foundation, the only value that could be taught is “Be true to yourself.” The question is whether community can survive on self-interest alone?

Uncategorized

Previous Post

September 21, 2013

(Fireworks Alert!) My Response to "The Emerging Divide in Evangelical Theology" by Gerald McDermott (JETS 56:2 [June, 2013])

Next Post

September 27, 2013 What Should a Pastor Say to a Group of Boys?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Against Liberal Theology Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who asked God for wisdom and wrote many proverbs?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Elijah David Saul Solomon