Let's Make the Kids Dumber

One day, Galileo announced that the Earth revolves around the sun. Heresy! Outrage! Denunciation! Consequently, Galileo was excommunicated by the Pope for his heretical ideas. Hundreds of years later, Pope John Paul II asked for pardon for the church’s trial of Galileo.

We have hit another such situation going on in Kansas and other parts of the south, only this time scientists aren’t fighting the Pope, they’re fighting the Bible, or at least proponents of a fundamentalist interpretation of it.

Religious advocates are trying once again to discourage the teaching of Darwin’s evolutionary theory in schools, saying it conflicts with the biblical idea of Creationism.

These fundamentalists wrap their whole belief system around the idea that God created the world in seven days. I have to wonder if, when the story of Genesis was first written down thousands of years ago, they could conceive of numbers like 10,000, a billion or beyond.

Many scientists (including many Christian ones) have confirmed that some sort of evolutionary process has taken place. Only one side will be heard by the state’s Board of Education in Kansas, though, because the scientists have boycotted meetings, opting instead to hold daily press conferences outside.

Interestingly, a compromise that would allow both views to be taught side by side is not an option thanks to a 1987 Supreme Court ruling barring the practice.

My source of comfort: If they don’t already, these fundamentalists will someday look like fools—just as the Catholic Church did for its actions against Galileo. But that will be long after my time, and I hardly expect anyone to ask for pardon.