Written by Don Byrd
Is the science of evolution atheist? Surely not, right? Nothing about the theory of natural selection is incompatible with a belief in a higher power. Some in Kansas apparently believe otherwise, however, and have filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s science curriculum for, it claims, promoting a non-theistic religious view.
The Associated Press has more:
The lawsuit argues that the new standards will cause Kansas public schools to promote a “non-theistic religious worldview” by allowing only “materialistic” or “atheistic” explanations to scientific questions, particularly about the origins of life and the universe. The suit further argues that state would be “indoctrinating” impressionable students in violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution’s protections for religious freedom.
So, let me get this straight. Every time the public school science curriculum properly refuses to teach creationism, it is guilty of teaching a religious world view? That makes no sense. Evolution is a well-established explanation in the scientific community. Teaching it in science class is not teaching a religious view in violation of church-state separation.
It sounds like proponents would prefer teaching no science at all? Should we just throw up our hands and say, to every question, “we don’t know?” Will that be the science education of the 21st Century if arguments like this one prevail?
You can read the complaint here.
