Creationists in Kansas Come Full Circle: They File a Lawsuit Against the Teaching of Evolution

Have you ever heard that phrase: truth can be stranger than fiction?  Well, the topic of this blog post seems to fit that statement.  In the history of creationism vs. evolutionary science, there have been all kinds of shenanigans played by creationists in their attempts to promote their religion as science; in the beginning, this often took the form of outright bans against the teaching of evolution.  In fact, it was just such a state ban in Tennessee that led to the now famous Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925.

Well, here we are nearly nine decades after that opening salvo in the creationist/evolution battles, and creationists in Kansas are taking a page from the old (and I mean OLD) playbook… they are filing a lawsuit to stop the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards (since the NGSS promotes the teaching of evolution, which they claim “promotes atheism and materialism”).  Read this report from the National Center for Science Education for more details:

Anti-NGSS lawsuit filed in Kansas

Are the Next Generation Science Standards unconstitutional? A complaint filed in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas on September 26, 2013, alleges so. The complaint inCOPE et al. v. Kansas State Board of Education et al.contends (PDF) that the NGSS and the Framework for K-12 Science Education (on which the NGSS are based) “will have the effect of causing Kansas public schools to establish and endorse a non-theistic religious worldview … in violation of the Establishment, Free Exercise, and Speech Clauses of the First Amendment, and the Equal Protection Clauses of the 14th Amendment” (pp. 1-2). The plaintiffs ask for a declaratory judgment in their favor and for an injunction prohibiting the implementation of the NGSS in Kansas or, failing that, an injunction prohibiting the implementation of the sections of the NGSS to which they object.

NCSE’s Joshua Rosenau told the Associated Press (September 26, 2013) that it was a familiar argument, but “no one in the legal community has put much stock in it.” He added, “They’re trying to say anything that’s not promoting their religion is promoting some other religion,” and dismissed the argument as “silly.” Steven Case, director of the University of Kansas’s Center for Science Education, concurred, citing previous court rulings as evidence that the new lawsuit “won’t hold up.” “This is about as frivolous as lawsuits get,” Case told the Associated Press. The Kansas state board of education voted 8-2 to accept the Next Generation Science Standards on June 11, 2013, as NCSE previously reported, and the lawsuit is evidently attempting to undo the decision. … [emphasis added]

I would like to speak to Josh Rosneau’s comment that I put in bold above; this really is the kind of thinking employed by creationists.  They believe that you’re either with them or against them, and there’s no such thing as a grey area within their black and white thinking.  Therefore, if you are not actively promoting their religious beliefs, then you are by default promoting the opposite of their religious beliefs which is atheism.  Never mind that one can hold religious beliefs, even adhere to Christianity, and still accept evolutionary science; these creationists think that there can be no room at all for modern science within their belief system.  So, if they view science as the enemy – as arch-creationist Ken Ham and his followers appear to believe – then science must be fought at every turn.  Hence stupidity like this lawsuit…

Of course, I have no doubt that this lawsuit will go down in flames, as it should.  And I have no doubt that it will prove to be yet another embarrassing blow to the creationist movement, maybe becoming as famous as the Dover vs. Kitzmiller trial a few years ago.  But I also have no doubt that these creationists will not stop there; they will attempt to thwart every effort to teach good science in our public schools.  And because of that fact, we must be ever vigilant.

85th Anniversary of the Scopes “Monkey” Trial

As a reference to the long & twisting history of the evolution/creationism conflict in the United States, I just wanted to point out that today is the 85th anniversary of the infamous Scopes “Monkey” Trial. This trial was an American legal case that tested the Butler Act which made it unlawful to teach any thoughts on the origin of man other than the Biblical account of man’s origin – in other words, it was illegal to teach evolution.  John T. Scopes had the audacity to actually teach his students science (the horror!), and he was fined and put on trial for doing so…

Ah, how far we’ve come in 85 years.  Not only is evolution now recognized as the unifying principle in biology – as well as being confirmed & connected via geology, archaeology, anthropology, chemistry, physics, and cosmology – but across the world the notion of creationism is widely recognized by educated & thinking people as thinly-veiled religiously motivated pseudoscience.

However, despite this progress, the forces of ignorance and anti-science continue their crusade to hold us back.  While their attempts to force creationism in its varied forms – from Young Earth Creationism to so-called “Intelligent” Design – into science classes have been thwarted time and again, they still fight against the teaching of evolutionary science at every turn.  They can’t make it illegal, but they can (and do) pressure teachers, principals, and school boards to dumb down, or even delete completely, the teaching of evolution in schools.

But we’ll fight on.  We have to.  If you’re interested in joining the fight on the side of science & reason, I suggest you get in touch with the National Center for Science Education.