Evolution & Creationism in Schools

More of this Feature • Part 1: Overview • Part 2: Supreme Court  Join the Discussion Creationists typically and repeatedly drag out pseudo-scientific arguments that are incorrect or just plain non-sense. Why does this bunk continue to be recycled? Do the Creationists ever check their facts? Who thinks of this wacky claptrap in the first place? Doug   Related Resources • Supreme Court Decisions • Evolution/Creation FAQ • About Evolution • About Creationism   From Other Guides • Witchita, KS & the new evolution standards • Athropology Guide on the Kansas Decision

The debate continues to be argued in the lower courts, despite the two Supreme Court rulings. In 1994, the Tangipahoa Parish school district passed a law, under the guise of promoting "critical thinking," requiring teachers to read aloud a disclaimer before they taught evolution. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals found in Freiler v. Tangipahoa that the stated reasons for the disclaimer were largely a sham, however.

But even if a valid secular purpose for the disclaimer were accepted, the court also found that the actual effects of the disclaimer were ultimately religious. The disclaimer, taken as a whole, encouraged students to read and meditate upon religion in general and the "Biblical version of Creation" in particular.

Another tactic was tried by creationist biology teacher John Peloza in 1994. He sued his school district for forcing him to teach the "religion" of "evolutionism." In Peloza's view, Evolutionism is a historical, philosophical and religious belief system, but not a valid scientific theory. Evolutionism is one of "two world views on the subject of the origins of life and of the universe."

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals complete rejected all of Peloza's arguments in the case of Peloza v. Capistrano. They found that his arguments were inconsistent - sometimes he objected to teaching evolutionary theory, sometimes he objected to teaching evolution as a fact. The court also held that evolution is in no way a religion and has nothing to do with the origins of the universe.

Another important case, Webster v. New Lenox School District, was decided in 1990 by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. This ruling allowed school districts forbid the teaching of creationism since it is a form of religious advocacy. Ray Webster had been instructed not to teach creation science in his social studies class. Webster filed suit and claimed that the New Lenox School District violated his first and Fourteenth Amendment rights by prohibiting him from teaching a nonevolutionary theory of creation in the classroom. The court rejected each of his allegations.

Creation scientists have largely failed in their attempts to have evolution banned from the classroom or to have creationism taught alongside evolution. But this is no reason to rejoice or to become complacent - politically active creationists have not given up, nor are they likely to do so any time soon.

Creationists are encouraged to run for local school boards to try to gain control of the teaching of evolution, with long-term hopes of diluting and eventually eliminating it through slow attrition. Unfortunately, this need only happen in a few areas to be successful, because some states command a larger share of the market for school text books than others. School boards determine what texts the schools may and may not use. Creationists who complain to school boards about the teaching of evolution are more likely to be successful in their efforts at censoring science texts if the school board has several creationists.

If the text book publishers cannot easily sell books with a strong emphasis on evolution to larger markets like Texas, then they are unlikely to go to the trouble of publishing two versions. What this means is that there will be only one version - the one with less emphasis on evolution and which sells well. So it doesn't matter where creationists become successful in their efforts, because in the long run, they may end up affecting everyone.

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