The real problem with Darwinism in the public school classroom is that it is often taught in an atheist way. Textbooks by biologists like William Provine and Richard Dawkins routinely assert that evolution has done away with the need for God. The claim is that chance and natural selection have demonstrated that we can have design--or the appearance of design--without a designer. In this sense Darwinism becomes propaganda for atheism.
Typically evangelical Christians seek to counter this atheism by trying to expose the flaws in the Darwinian account of evolution. This explains the appeal of "creation science" and the "intelligent design" (ID) movement. These critiques, however, have not made any headway in the scientific community and they have also failed whenever they have been tried in the courts. Fortunately there is a better way.
Consider this: the First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits public schools from teaching or promoting atheism in any way. How do I know this? Well, the religion clauses of the First Amendment protect the "free exercise" of religion and at the same time forbid the "establishment" of religion. Courts have routinely held that the free exercise clause protects not only religious beliefs but also the absence of religious beliefs. If you are fired from your government job because you are an atheist, your First Amendment rights have been violated. In other words, the term "religion" means not only "religion" but also "atheism."
Yet if the free exercise clause defines religion in a way that includes atheism, then the no-establishment clause must define religion in the same way. So the agencies of government are prohibited from "establishing" not only religion but also atheism. This means that just as a public school teacher cannot advocate Christianity or hand out Bibles to his students, so too public school textbooks and science teachers cannot advocate atheism.
I'd like to see Christian legal groups suing school districts for promoting atheism in the biology classroom. No need to produce creationist or ID critiques of Darwinism. All that is necessary is to parade the atheist claims that have made their way into the biology textbooks and biology lectures. The issue isn't the scientific inadequacy of evolution but the way in which it is being used to undermine religious belief and promote unbelief. If the case can be made that atheism is being advocated in any way, then the textbooks would have to be rewritten and classroom presentations changed to remove the offending material. Schools would be on notice that they cannot use scientific facts to draw metaphysical conclusions in favor of atheism.
In this way Darwinism in the public schools would no longer be a threat to religion in general or Christianity in particular.
Reader Comments ( Page 68 of 68)
1006. Reporter: Mr. Hays... It's been 3,931 years since religion began worshiping the brick wall instead of the science community. How intelligent is that?
William Hays: It's dumbed down! If we worshiped the big bang, then we would get more pooty tang. Dimwit athiest!
Reporter: Mr. GHB... It's been 2008 years since the year of your Lord. How many dimensions have you circumnavigated through in your search for intelligence?
Godless Heathen Brian: True intelligence is the kind of intelligence that people figure out. It's Reason, the true religion of the Ori! I am in the 11th dimension of the current vernacular.
Reporter: Given that your Lord created a different vernacular for every year of his reign... doesn't that mean you are 1997 years behind the times?
Linda: I must protest, Mr. Reporter. GHB is a true renaissance man, the second coming. If he didn't come, then we would all be back to the Big Bang.
Reporter: Janesophie1... Is it true God blessed the US? GisUs uknow.
Janesophie: Well, given that half the population worships a brick wall... we must all sense that wonderful feeling of being one. Until our own split into two, one angel & one devil.
Reporter: Do you admit that religion has a devilish side to it?
Man_in_wilderness: That is an insult! If we hoard all intelligence into one being, that being would be God! If we only give it to those who read outside of school, then we are just a mob.
Reporter: What about the bully?
JetFlyingV: If he's bigger than a bread basket, he's been bred to be my workforce. If he doesn't like it... he can rob and pillage for a living. Middle class families love that stuff!
Reporter: But isn't intelligence about having a civilized society? To promote liberty & freedom?
Mokele Mbembe: You are not a real reporter are you? If you were a real reporter, you would know the have's would make sure Americans have knots!
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Reporter: This just in... breaking news from the white house. The President of the United States has just confirmed not-pboyfloyd's insult. It appears the government has finally done it.... it has erradicated all intelligence in America!
All except for God's latest creation... internet bloggers who compete for the most memory capacity, so they can remember everything but the truth. So they can put down every American who wishes to evolve past the brick wall. So America will not remember why they prayed to a brick wall for all those years. So women can be free! as long as they watch the husbands they were forced to marry. And the men can have liberty... if they would just give up the right to Life & that pesky pursuit of Happiness!
Ladies & Gentlemen, the President of the United States...
The President: Thank you, thank you. In commemoration of this day, we will be making some changes to old faithful... that red, white & blue flag. It's now just Black & Blue.
If you wish to make a contribution... all communist nations have been invited into our borders to receive the gift of your soul. You will never know your children's names, but to console you, we have set up these nifty brick wall things to comfort you. Sing... and you will forget what it was like... to be intelligent! So screw over your family members, and let the free dumb ring!
sil-ly at 12:45PM on Apr 11th 2008
1007. “Textbooks by biologists like William Provine and Richard Dawkins routinely assert that evolution has done away with the need for God.”
D’Souza is a liar. No books written by Dawkins are used in any United States high school biology classrooms, and no biology textbook used in the United States mentions the word “God”.
Dinesh D’Souza is a political writer and he knows nothing about science.
Both gravity and biological evolution are scientific facts. Nobody calls gravity atheistic, and there’s no reason to call evolution atheistic. Evolution conflicts with the religious belief called magical creation, but who cares? The only religious people who deny the facts of evolution are uneducated hicks.
Dinesh D’Souza, I don’t care about your breathtaking stupidity, but I don’t like your compulsive lying. You should be ashamed of yourself. You are using your dishonesty to attack science education. That makes you a traitor. I strongly encourage you to get out of my country. If it was up to me liars like you who attack education would be put in prison.
By the way, it’s called biological evolution, not “Darwinism”. Only creationist morons like D’Souza use the word Darwinism.
bobxxxx at 8:27PM on Jun 1st 2008