DUMBING DOWN OUR SCIENCE CLASSES

For the past several years, the Texas State Board of Education has been embroiled in controversy over the teaching of evolution. Christian conservative board members, convinced that Darwin's Theory of Evolution goes against the teachings of the bible, want to inject "creationism" or "intelligent design" into the science curriculum to offset the teaching of evolution. The board, when selecting science textbooks, is also requiring the publishers to include a special section debunking evolution as an unproven theory. Kansas and other states have had similar experineces.

We have the good fortune to live in a country where freedom of speech, thought and relegion are among basic rights guaranteed by the Constitution. We have a right to believe that God created everything in the universe on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and that after toiling for six days he was so exhausted that he had to stop and rest on Sunday. We have a right to believe that life started with a man, a woman and a snake, or that Moses parted the waters of the Red Sea.

Differences in beliefs and opinions help make this country great. Unlike in Saudi Arabia, here we can express ourselves freely in public without fear of getting arrested by the religious police. We are free to practice Christianity, the Muslim faith, Judaism, Buddhism, the Hindu faith, atheism or whatever. We can accuse our government of lying by claiming that the manned moon landings were actually staged on a back lot of Universal Studios. We can brag about being honored by the Flat Earth Society without being locked up in the loony bin.

Christian conservatives, God bless them, are free to teach creationism or intelligent design in their parochial schools. But, they should not have the right to inject religious dogma into the public school curriculum, especially not into science courses. Religious teachings belong in the churches, mosques, synagogues, temples and within the family, not within our public schools.

During this critical period of global competition, the last thing our nation can afford is the dumbing down of our public school science classes. There are those who insist that a scientific theory is not factual because it is not a law, especially when it clashes with their religious beliefs. Are there any reputable scientists who question Einstein's Theory of Relativity because it is not the law of relativity? I don't know of any. And as to Darwin's theory, almost all of the world's scientists accept it as fact.

Our students are already behind in math when compared to students in many other parts of the world. We must guard against letting any faith-based group dumb down our science classes by injecting their religious teachings into the public school science curriculum. If we don't, some day not far down the road, we may find ourselves behind the rest of the world in science as well as in math.