The Creationism Myth vs. the Theory of Evolution

Recently in Georgia , the Department of Education, specifically Superintendent Kathy Cox, proposed to eliminate the word “evolution” from the state's curriculum. In Missouri they have passed house bill 911, which would set a new standard for state science teachers requiring them to teach students the theory of intelligent design (aka creationism) in addition to evolution. Back in 1999, the Kansas board of education voted six to four to eliminate references to biological evolution and the big bang origin of the universe from its state school syllabus. Clearly this is the work of Christian fundamentalists who are bent on transforming our country into a theocracy and they want to begin by brainwashing our kids.

People who still believe the earth is flat, the Holocaust did not happen, and that the KKK is an organization of good Christian men, have the right to speak out in our society. But that does not mean we have to teach their views to our children. The same is true for “creationists”. This issue has been to the US Supreme Court who has ruled that teaching creationism in science classrooms violates the 1 st Amendment. But that has not stopped fundamentalists from pushing their agenda into the legal arena where a few misguided authorities are actually making decisions in their favor.

It does not pay to listen to the arguments of the creationists either. There is no way to appease their viewpoint. They believe (I am not exaggerating) that dinosaurs were actually dragons that co-existed with humans a few thousand years ago and that carbon-14 dating used by scientists to measure the age of rocks and fossils is a hoax! Some of them are geo-centrists (earth is the center of the universe) and a very few are actually flat-earthers! No amount of reasoning is going to get these people into the 20 th century. And we need not bother to try. They are entitled to their fantasies and myths. But they do not have the right to force us or our children to study them.

There are literally thousands of creation myths from every culture and religion on earth. Many are similar, but all are stories invented by ancient men to explain the unexplainable. If we are to teach our children one myth we are bound by law to teach them others. To teach one religion's creation myth to the exclusion of all others is unconstitutional and therefore illegal. But the fundamentalist Christians, claiming that America is a “Christian” nation, seem determined to twist and impose the legality of their beliefs onto the rest of us. To give in to this would be misguided in the short run and tragic for our country in the long.

Robert Mickelsen

11/12/04