University Dally Kansan, March 4, 1981
Page 7
Scopes II sparks reactions
By ANNIKAN NILSSON Staff Reporter
In 1925, a young biology teacher, John Scopes, was convicted by a Tennessee court for teaching public school science that denies the divine creation of man.
Today, the vast majority of biology teachers teach evolution without mentioning the biblical account of creation.
However, the biology teachers may be forced to change their approach to teaching the origin of man and earth in the near future.
Bills requiring teachers to present the creation theory on an equal basis with the evolution theory in public schools and have been applied in several states including Missouri.
The creation theory has also gone to court several times. In a current case, a mother and son sued the California State Board of Education on behalf of younger children in the family. The trial began Tuesday.
They claim their religion is being disparaged and held up to ridicule when only evolution is taught in public school science class rooms. They also claim that evolution theory is scientific dogma and therefore is a mantra of a religion, not a state. They say, is establishing a relation by teaching only evolution.
THE MOST COMMON argument for reintroducing creationism in public schools is not based on freedom of religion, however. The creationists offer evidence for creation that outweighs the evidence for evolution.
Mike Windheuser, Lawrence senior,
and a creationist, said he did not so
much object to evolution being taught
in schools as it be taught as fact.
Windheuser, who is presently student-teaching biology, said a two-model approach would provide students with the skills to explain contrast evidence for the two theories.
'You would then be able to say what
the other opposing evidence was and look at the assumptions of creation theory," he said.
Bill Lashier, professor of curriculum and instruction, said introducing creation in public schools would require changes in teachers' education. He said teachers today were ill-equipped to teach creationism.
According to Laahier, a two-model approach could be pedagogically effie-
"Teaching is improved if you have some contrast," he said. "From that point of view it is sound to contrast the two models."
ACCORDING TO ONE study, students develop a more positive attitude toward biology and learn evolutionary arguments better with a two-model approach than when taught only evolutionary theory.
However, Lashier said laws forcing teachers to teach creationism on an equal basis with evolution could harm education.
"We lose even more teachers if they are forced to teach something they don't believe in," he said. "The evidence for scientific creationism isn't evidence for the fact that put teachers in a difficult situation if they have to present both sides."
Stanley Roth, Lawrence High School biology teacher and past president of the National Association of Biology Teachers, said he would refuse to follow any state laws requiring him to teach creationism.
According to Roth, scientists have not taken the creationists seriously but are now starting to act.
"Public school teachers have done an inadequate job of teaching legislators what science is and what it can do," Roth said. "What we are trying to do now is to show the procedure of science and how concepts of evolution fall into line with science and not with creation."
Ed Wiley, assistant professor of systematics and ecology, said introducing creationism in science classes would create severe problems.
"Creationism is about as scientific as astrology," he said. "If we accept these people's views we must reject all science."
Wiley said fair play was not the real issue.
"We don't teach science on the basis of science, but we teach science on the basis of merit."
Milo Stucky, professor of higher education administration, said the creationist claimed their theory was static and had no connection with religion.
A MEMBER of the New Life Student Fellowship, which sponsors lectures on creation by people with advanced degrees in science, said creation as a valid approach was actively suppressed in the university community.
"This is a strategy for getting it into the public schools curricula," he said.
Smith said there was solid ground for the creationist theory.
Scientific creationism posits that the book of Genesis is an accurate scientific account of origin of earth and man.
"I think the crucial clue is not where the particular theory comes from, but how it stacks up scientifically," Jay Smith, Village Nursery senior, said.
Windheuser said evolution, as well as creation, required a step of faith.
"To say God exists is a step of faith as much as saying God does not exist is a step of faith," he said. We freely and openly admit that the creation theory falls apart if our first assumption, that God exists, is not true. The logical, scientific, and philosophical existence of evolutionary theory negates the existence of a god or God."
The battle lines in the creation versus evolution debate are not drawn between scientists and the church however, and we have a different evolution with their religious faiths.
KU police are investigating a rash of recent thefts of several license plates from cars parked in the Daisy Hill lot near Lewis and Templin halls.
Vincent Krische, St. Lawrence
Student Catholic Center priest, said
teaching creationism as science
misused the scriptures.
On the Record
The Jayhawk statue in front of Strong Hall was covered with about a gallon of white enamel paint.
were vandalized early yesterday morning, police said.
At least seven plates have been stolen in the past month, all of them are from different states, police said.
The vandals put plaster in the hand of one of the figures on the Jimmy Green statue in front of Lippincott Hall.
Police said that the thefts were probably related and the thief was collecting the plates from as many different places as possible.
"We don't hold the book of Genesis as a scientific account of creation," he said.
interest places as possible Two statues on Jayhawk Boulevard
A thief took $500 Monday from a room in Hashinger Hall, police said. The money was taken from a wallet in a desk drawer.
JACK BREMER, campus pastor for the United Methodist Church, said Genesis was not intended as a serious scientific message.
"In practice the Methodist Church has said that the biblical story of creation is primarily a religious story," he said.
Bremer said the creation movement had political overtones and was aimed at ensuring stability and control of society.
"It is an effort to overcome the long American tradition of pluralism," he said.
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