The Creation vs Evolution Controversy

Faith-based science
Editorial
Houston Chronicle (Texas), page B10
December 28, 2007

State recognition of a creationist institute’s degree would undermine science teacher credentials.

Visitors to the Institute for Creation Research Web page can quickly deduce that the organization, founded in California and recently transplanted to Dallas, is a Christian group dedicated to spreading the doctrine of divine creation of the world and challenging the teaching of evolution as fact in public schools.

An advisory committee to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board recommends that the group be allowed to confer master’s degrees in science education for teacher candidates. This indefensible action would be the equivalent of allowing an institute of faith-healers to issue advanced medical degrees. It would devalue the credentials of all science teachers and misrepresent to the public the capabilities of teachers with questionable diplomas.

The institute’s statement of purpose leaves no doubt about its mission. According to its founders, it was formed “to equip believers with evidences of the Bible’s accuracy and authority through scientific research, educational programs, and media presentations, all conducted within a thoroughly biblical framework.”

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Creationist school offers a degree of controversy
by Melissa Ludwig
Houston Chronicle (Texas), page 1, 8
December 19, 2007

Science teachers are not allowed to teach creationism alongside evolution in Texas public schools, the courts have ruled. But that’s exactly what the Dallas-based Institute for Creation Research wants them to do.

The institute is seeking state approval to grant an online master’s degree in science education to prepare teachers to “understand the universe within the integrating framework of Biblical creationism,” according to the school’s mission statement.

Last week, an advisory council made up of university educators voted to recommend the program for approval by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, sparking an outcry among science advocates who have fended off attempts by religious groups to insert creationism into Texas classrooms.

“It’s just the latest trick,” said James Bower, a neurobiologist at the University of Texas at San Antonio who has publicly debated creationists. “They have no interest in teaching science. They are hostile to science and fundamentally have a religious objective.”

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by Jason Szep
The Vancouver Sun (Canada), page C8
December 8, 2007

BOSTON — A Christian biologist is suing the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, claiming he was fired for refusing to accept evolution, lawyers involved in the case said Friday.

Nathaniel Abraham, an Indian national who describes him self as a “Bible- believing Christian,” said in the suit filed Monday in U. S. District Court in Boston that he was fired in 2004 because he would not accept evolution as scientific fact.

The latest academic spat over science and religion was first reported in The Boston Globe newspaper Friday. Gibbs Law Firm in Florida, which is representing Abraham, said he was seeking $500,000 in compensation.

The zebrafish specialist said his civil rights were violated when he was dismissed shortly after telling his superior he did not accept evolution because he believed the Bible presented a true account of human creation.

Creationists such as Abraham believe God made the world in six days, as the Bible’s Book of Genesis says.

Woods Hole, a U. S. government funded non-profit research centre on Cape Cod, said in a statement it firmly believed its actions and those of its employees in the case were “entirely lawful” and that it does not discriminate.

Abraham, who was dismissed eight months after he was hired, said he was willing to do research using evolutionary concepts but that he had been required to accept Darwin’s theory of evolution as scientific fact or lose his job.

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by Derek Scally in Berlin
Saturday`s Irish Times (Ireland), page 11
July 21, 2007

A German minister for culture and education has come under fire for suggesting that the biblical story of creation should be discussed in school science classes.

The suggestion by Karin Wolff, culture minister in the western state of Hesse, appears to call into question the separation of church and state in German schools and has caused alarm among leftwing politicians.

They are wary of the “creationist” teachings of some evangelical Christians in the US, in particular the idea of “intelligent design”: that many life forms have elements too complex to be explained by the random process of evolution, proposed by Charles Darwin in 1859, and must instead have had a creator.

Ms Wolff, a theologian and former religion teacher, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper that she saw “no contradiction between biological evolution and the biblical explanation for origin of the world”.

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by Paul Gorman, Science reporter
The Press (New Zealand)
20 Jun 2007

Evolution teachers are being told to confront creationism in the classroom and make sure students understand what sets science apart from other subjects.

At the Evolution 2007 conference in Christchurch yesterday, Dr Elizabeth Elle, of Simon Fraser University in Canada, outlined how teachers of evolutionary biology at all levels should deal with resistance from students.

While most of that resistance would come from those with strong religious beliefs, some just had ‘‘misconceptions of the world’’, she said.

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