Evolutionary Biology has fallen out of favor in America.  Currently, it is not listed an acceptable major for low-income college students seeking financial assistance.  Intelligent Design is a popular pursuit and belief in this country today.  For quite some time, a majority of Kansas State School Board members advanced the study of scientific creationism.  Recently however, the tide turned.  The Red sea parted and the balance was shifted.  An earlier 6 to 4 majority was reversed.  Still, there is little reason to rejoice.  This Renaissance occurred before and likely, we will witness it again.
In 2000, the state regional panel of science-based creationist eliminated the study of evolutionary science.  The public panicked.  In the following election year, the people brought about their own evolution.  They voted the 6 to 4 Intelligent Design board out and installed a council that supported Scientific Theory.  However, again the balance of power was tentative.  The new board majority was 6 to 4.  Still, with this reversal the core curriculum was restored.  “Science” survived.  Yet, it is clear, history tells us fluctuation is fluid.  Creationists come, and science goes.  The evolutionary progression of panel members is not etched in stone.  It is pliant.

However, the information engraved in computer chip is stable, or so it seems.  This data effects many.  Though it can be changed, for now, Evolutionary Biology has disappeared from the Department of Education databases.  The subject is no longer listed as an accepted study for struggling college students wishing to receive a federal grant.

It is true this reality can change with the help of humans.  It takes time, effort, and desire.  Creatures created in the image of G-d, must care to construct a varying truth.  Transformation is often slow in coming.  Katherine McLane, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, the organization that administers the grants states, “There is no explanation for it being left off the list.  It has always been an eligible major.”  Nevertheless, for now it is gone.  

Samara Yudof, another representative for the Department reassured journalists and university scholars.  She vowed evolutionary biology would return to the list.  However, according to New York Times reporter Cornelia Dean, “as of last night it was still missing.”

This “minor” mishap might not be of concern, mistakes are easily made; nevertheless considering the climate and the current Bush administration, there is reason for concern.  

Our “fair” President, just as the people he serves, thinks G-d guided the process of creation.  Sixty-seven percent of those that voted for George W. Bush believe God created humans in their present form.  Forty-five out of every hundred Bush backers think that evolution need not be taught.  However, creationism must be part of the curriculum.  Mr. Bush advocates the causes of his Religious Right supporters and has changed policies to advance their agenda.

Scientists know this.  They find this reality troubling.  There are ample “threats to the teaching of evolution.”  A physicist at Case Western Reserve University, Lawrence M. Krauss, is well aware of this.  Professor Krauss said he discovered the omission of Evolutionary Biology from the master list quite unexpectedly. After an anonymous employee at the Department of Education contacted the physicist, he wrote an essay, which appeared in The New York Times on August 15, 2006.  The Krauss article addressed the necessity of teaching evolution.  “Dr. Krauss would not name his source.”  The Department staff member expressed his concern for being publicly identified.  He did not want to draw “attention to the matter.”  Nevertheless, suspicions and reasons for trepidation are mounting.

Scientists who knew about the omission also said they found the clerical explanation unconvincing, given the furor over challenges by the religious right to the teaching of evolution in public schools.  “It’s just awfully coincidental,” said Steven W. Rissing, an evolutionary biologist at Ohio State University.

Jeremy Gunn, who directs the Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at the American Civil Liberties Union, said that if the change was not immediately reversed “we will certainly pursue this.”

It is well known that those categorized as the Religious Right are strong supporters of this President.  In August 2005, Baby Bush told Texas newspaper reporters that he believes that Intelligent Design should be taught in conjunction with evolution.  The boy Bush enthusiastically proclaimed, “Both sides ought to be properly taught . . . so people can understand what the debate is about.”

The “debate” is a not a discussion by any means.  It is a dispute of infinite proportions.  Those advocating Intelligent Design maintain that “evolutionary science” is a fallacy.  

For one thing, I.D. is not Biblical literalism.  Unlike earlier generations of creationists–the so-called Young Earthers and scientific creationists–proponents of intelligent design do not believe that the universe was created in six days, that Earth is ten thousand years old, or that the fossil record was deposited during Noah’s flood.  (Indeed, they shun the label “creationism” altogether.)  Nor does I.D. flatly reject evolution: adherents freely admit that some evolutionary change occurred during the history of life on Earth.  Although the movement is loosely allied with, and heavily funded by, various conservative Christian groups–and although I.D. plainly maintains that life was created–it is generally silent about the identity of the creator.

The movement’s main positive claim is that there are things in the world, most notably life, that cannot be accounted for by known natural causes and show features that, in any other context, we would attribute to intelligence.  Living organisms are too complex to be explained by any natural–or, more precisely, by any mindless–process.  Instead, the design inherent in organisms can be accounted for only by invoking a designer, and one who is very, very smart.

Smart indeed, clever constituents, proponents of religious policies and teachings are mounting their campaigns throughout the nation.

Proposals hostile to evolution are being considered in more than twenty states; earlier this month, a bill was introduced into the New York State Assembly calling for instruction in intelligent design for all public-school students.  The Kansas State Board of Education is weighing new standards, drafted by supporters of intelligent design that would encourage schoolteachers to challenge Darwinism.  

Senator Rick Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican, has argued that “intelligent design is a legitimate scientific theory that should be taught in science classes.”  An I.D.-friendly amendment that he sponsored to the No Child Left Behind Act–requiring public schools to help students understand why evolution “generates so much continuing controversy”–was overwhelmingly approved in the Senate.  (The amendment was not included in the version of the bill that was signed into law, but similar language did appear in a conference report that accompanied it.)  In the past few years, college students across the country have formed Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness chapters.

Thus I ask, is there reason for concern?  Is a clerical error merely that?  My intent is not to advance a conspiracy theory.  I only wish to “create” awareness.  I think the science behind evolutionary theory is sound.  I trust that is only my opinion.  However, in a world where those that represent the “superpower” repeatedly reiterates, “You are either with us or against us,”  I wonder what will happen to other theories that do not parallel those of our President. Will the hard drive mysterious be erased and replaced with a “Brave New World” hatchery?

Intellectually Design your Evolution.  Study the science and sources . . .
*Bush Remarks On ‘Intelligent Design’ Theory Fuel Debate, By Peter Baker and Peter Slevin. Washington Post. Wednesday, August 3, 2005

Betsy L. Angert Be-Think

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