Biology Test Omits Creation and a School Official Complains

 A Kentucky school superintendent objects to a proposed new state biology test he believes treats evolution as a fact.


Summary: The theory of evolution can be controversial in Kentucky. In Hart County near Louisville, the local school superintendent is objecting to a new state biology test in the works that he believes treats evolution as a fact and omits any mention of the “creation story” which cites God as the Creator of the universe.  


Superintendent Ricky D. Line sent his objections to the state education commissioner and education board via e-mails and letters. "I have a very difficult time believing that we have come to a point ... that we are teaching evolution ... as a factual occurrence, while totally omitting the creation story by a God who is bigger than all of us," he wrote.


Line believes the majority of Kentuckians reject the evolution theory.  Some supporters of teaching evolution agree that many Americans have a hard time accepting what Darwin called his “dangerous idea.” "Overall, the nation has a big problem," Dr. Brian Alters, a professor and author of the book Evolution in the Classroom, has said. "Approximately half of the U.S. population thinks evolution does (or did) not occur. While 99.9% of scientists accept evolution, 40% to 50% of college students do not accept evolution and believe it to be 'just' a theory." 


State education commissioner, Terry Holliday, said the state biology test would deal with evolution as theory, not fact. And, according to a Lexington newspaper reporter, teachers in Kentucky have the freedom to discuss theories of creation other than evolution although they are not required to do so.


Teachers in Line’s district apparently told him they would have to spend considerable time teaching evolution in order to prepare students for the test.  And Line was not impressed by claims of a scientific consensus in favor of evolution.  He noted a great majority of scientists once considered Pluto to be a planet but no longer do.


To read the entire article, click on LOS ANGELES TIMES.


Comment: Kentucky is the state that has warmly welcomed the Creation museum to its turf. The Creation museum supports the biblical account of creation and a young universe of about 6,000 years. So it is not out of character to find some leaders in that state raising concerns about evolution being taught as fact in Kentucky schools.


However, if Superintendent Line really wants the creation account in Genesis to be taught in Kentucky public schools, I see problems with that, and I believe from what I read, most creationist leaders are not pushing for that proposal. In the first place, people who believe in the separation of church and state would agree that teaching Genesis as science and history would clearly be crossing the line. Allowing for Genesis to be taught in public schools would also open the door for allowing creation accounts from other cultures to be taught as fact, stories such as the Four Creations from the Hopi Indians or the Pan Gu and Nü Wa from China, to name just a couple.  Secondly, an atheistic teacher or even a theistic evolution teacher might well mock the Genesis account if forced to teach it, and that could do more harm to students than good.


On the other hand, tax-paying Christian citizens have the right and even the duty to try to improve education programs in their state, even if they home-school their own children or send them to private schools. That means Christian citizens should be concerned about what is being taught in public school science classes. The tons of books which point out serious flaws with evolution theory written by authors with advanced degrees in science show there is another side to Darwinism that doesn’t seem to be presented in secular science textbooks. What possible objection should anyone have to the right of public school science teachers to point out weaknesses in evolution theory as long as the educators stick to science? 


Opponents of Christianity will sometimes point to the many creation stories from other cultures and try to lump Genesis in with them as just one of many creation fables. That is where faith comes in for the Christian (Hebrews 11:3), but it is not a faith that hangs on nothing. It is a faith supported, first of all, by the unerring Word of God. It is also supported by what we see in the world around us (Romans 1:18-20). The Genesis account of creation is not contradicted by anything in the natural world because the Author of Genesis and the Creator of our universe are one and the same, and He is a holy God who can’t contradict Himself.


In Genesis we have the true story of where we came from and how we fell into sin. But in Genesis we also have the first promise of a Savior, a promise repeated many times until the Savior finally appeared. That Savior came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ as a little baby born in the village of Bethlehem on the first Christmas day. “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). 


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QUESTION OF THE DAY


Which is a better value, buying bottled water or buying a water filter?


Buying and using bottled water will on average cost $3 a day or $1,095 a year.  Using a water filter costs about 12.5 cents a day or $45.63 a year.


Source: USA Today (September 2-4,2011)


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