Attacking Evolution

Evolutionary theory is under attack again, this time in Ohio. The Washington Post reports today that two U.S. congressmen, John Boehner and Steve Chabot, have sent a letter to the Ohio Board of Education arguing that the federal education reform law passed earlier this year obliges its members to "consider" teaching alternatives to biological evolution. The lawmakers specifically point to language in the conference report that was issued when the law was passed: "Where topics are taught that may generate controversy (such as biological evolution), the curriculum should help students to understand the full range of scientific views that exist." The "alternative" the solons evidently have in mind is called "intelligent design" theory. Supporters of that notion claim that life is far too complex to have arisen without the guiding hand of a designer. Essentially, they are arguing a more sophisticated version of creationism.

According to a Zogby poll, 71 percent of Americans supported offering students "scientific evidence against evolution."Put that way, that sounds fair doesn't it? The only problem is that there is no scientific evidence against evolution. Evidently, the two Ohio lawmakers believe that biological evolution is incompatible with belief in God. However, even Pope John Paul II supports evolution as the explanation for how life arose on the earth. In his 1997 message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, he noted, "new knowledge has led to the recognition in the theory of evolution of more than a hypothesis. It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory."

Of course, if parents had a choice as to which schools they could send their children, they could pick either the ones that offer instruction in science or others that teach intelligent design nonsense.