Those whacky school board members in Cobb County (the second largest county in Georgia) have expanded their war on evil-lution. Previously they’ve slapped labels on their science books noting evolution “is a theory, not a fact,” and should be “approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered.” Now they’ve voted to require teachers to give a “balanced education” about the origin of life, giving equal weight to evolution and biblical interpretations.
Board members said they were not restricting the teaching of evolution or encouraging the teaching of creationism. The policy, they said, was simply a reflection of the district’s philosophy of teaching a wide and objective range of ideas, particularly in discussing “disputed views of academic subjects, including the origin of species.”
After the vote, Gordon O’Neill, a board member, led his colleagues in a prayer: “Heavenly father, we ask that you provide to all of us a clear understanding of our fellow man and an acceptance of a diversity of thinking. Amen.”
Now isn’t that cute? Who’d have thought “acceptance of a diversity of thinking” is something a Georgia school board member would pray for?
The policy adopted last night says that evolution “remains an area of intense interest, research and discussion among scholars,” and so should be handled with objectivity.
Jay Dillon, a district spokesman, said teachers should teach “all sides of an issue” instead of just evolution.
The difference, of course, is that while there are scholars who debate the precise reasons that the US beat the Soviet Union in the Cold War, nobody debates whether the Soviet Union lost.
Similarly, while you will find a lot of debate in the scientific community about the modality of evolution, or about the precise mechanisms by which it takes place, nobody debates evolution per se, as a blanket label.
Of course, you can find plenty of “scholars” who disagree. Many of them have D.D. in their list of scholarly degrees.
If the Georgia school board is honest about wanting a variety of life/world-origin “theories” to be taught, of course, I’m sure they’ll give equal time as well to a variety of religious origin tales, be they Navajo, Norse, Buddhist, or Masai.
After all, it’s not that they want to put forward only one religion’s agenda, right?
UPDATE: Well, perhaps this will be a good thing. Or, more importantly, entertaining.