Teach the Controversy

This title meme is the battle cry of the neo-scientific creationists. It’s creationism vs. evolution, Part Deux, all over again. Only this time it’s more insidious, sneaky, sexy. They’re trying to “sell the sizzle” because there is no meat. And they’re doing it with our children! A more coherent articulation is seen in the current issue of Wired in the cover article “The Crusade Against Evolution“. The creationists have dropped the “scientific creationism” label and the previous theological (Christian, mainly) flavor of their stance. They’ve cleverly adopted scientific jargon and take their cause directly to the court of public opinion via public schools.

Baffling parents and school boards with “academic freedom” and “scientific objectivity” issues, they press on to convince the public that public schools must “teach the controversy” to children. Note the not-so-subtle difference between teaching about a controversy and giving the creationism theory equal time with biological evolution theory. These notions are available online, but I’m not going to aid their cause by providing a link.

I love the quote from Lawrence Krauss of Case Western Reserve University who told Wired: Some people have opinions that the Holocaust never happened, but we don’t teach that in history. Amen.

Send your rants to Georganna at Writer’s Edge.