The Revisionaries

I've been watching this documentary on the Texas Board of Education and science text books. It's fascinating and disturbing.

The big textbook companies want to keep the business of Texas, which is--along with California--the largest market in the U.S. In order to sell to Texas, they must publish textbooks that meet the standards the Board of Education establishes. Members of the board, who are conservative Christians, have been trying to have language put in the texts that talks about the "weaknesses" or "insufficiencies" of the Theory of Evolution. The struggle is especially intense because changing the texts for the Texas schools means changing them for the entire country.

This is opposed by advocacy groups who do not want to see evolution taught as only one of several viable theories. They point out that it is the only theory that fits all the facts and that the rival ideas of Scientific Creationism and Intelligent Design are not testable theories at all and have no place in a scientific discussion.

I agree, and the dishonest tactics used by the anti-evolution forces seen in the film bother me. It reminds me of an apocryphal story I heard years ago. Pi is a number that is useful in geometry, but it is infinitely long and seems kind of cumbersome. Supposedly, the Alabama legislature passed a bill changing the value of Pi to 3 and cited biblical texts in support of their decision.

The story isn't true. It started as an aside in Robert A. Heinlein's novel, Stranger in a Strange Land, and was more recently expanded into a brilliant bit of satirical writing which perfectly captures the spirit of the anti-evolution side of the debate. Huge leaps in logic and outright fabrications are justified in the people's minds because they are defending a literal reading of the Bible.

This bothers me because truth can never be defended with lies. If we believe in God (I do) and believe that God embodies truth (I do) than it follows that God will stand up to any sort of intelligent and honest search for truth. Science deepens our understanding of the world around us. It may challenge our assumptions, but that's a good thing. If we assume that that we have all the answers, we need to be knocked down from time to time. Besides, it's not the existence of nature of God that science challenges, but outdated human theological ideas. The Bible was never meant to be used as a science book, and the efforts do do so have always lead to very unscientific ideas, like the earth being the center of the universe, or the earth being only 6000 years old, or Creationism and Intelligent design.

I think people are afraid that casting off this silly pseudo-science means losing faith in God, but that's not true. It is perfectly possible to accept the wonderful findings of the sciences and keep your faith in God. I know because that's how I've always lived, and I know many who have done the same.