THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9603280011
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
Once again our officials, because of ignorance, or worse, are conspiring to make our children less informed.
William C. Bosher Jr., state superintendent of public instruction, believes that God created the universe and everything in it, as stated in Genesis (News, March 24). (As an aside, which of the two creation stories in Genesis does he believe?) His belief is his own business. The education of my child is mine.
It is somewhat reassuring that the new Standards of Learning adopted by the commonwealth require that students be taught evolution. The fact of evolution is accepted by all biological scientists, implicitly if not explicitly. Bioengineering and modern medicine are not possible without genetics, and genetics is the linchpin of modern evolution theory. I differentiate the fact of evolution from the theory because the factors that drive the creation and extinction of species, and their relative importance (how much catastrophe? how much natural selection?) will always be controversial.
But the argument in scientific circles is not whether the chicken crossed the road, but how, when and why. To teach our children anything else in school is to intellectually cripple them in these fields.
As an atheist, I am often asked how I can celebrate Christmas. I do not object to public (or even occasionally publicly funded) displays of a religious nature. They do no harm and make many people happy. I will gladly sing along with ``Silent Night'' and ``Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.'' I object, however, to anyone insisting my child be taught Genesis as science along with chemistry and physics, when there is not a shred of evidence to support it and a mountain indicating otherwise.
After seeing the results of the National Association of Scholars' study showing that solid education in our colleges has almost evaporated, we must stop those who would advance ignorance in the guise of moral superiority. We should teach morality and science. But above all we should teach truth in all its beauty and ugliness. I can understand why someone would object to having an ape as a forebear. But we were not asked any more than the ape was. It is a simple fact. It happened. Get over it.
If we return to teaching Genesis as science in our schools, we will have begun the long slide into barbarism and a new Dark Ages will have begun.
DAVID L. SIMMONS
Virginia Beach, March 24, 1996 by CNB