Cobb (County, GA) dads enter fray over evolution in schools

When Jeffrey Selman learned the Cobb County public schools had put disclaimers on evolution in thousands of science books, he skipped his usual outlet, a letter of protest.

The 56-year-old computer programmer sued the district to remove the textbook stickers. And he is ready to broaden the suit's scope if the school board allows science teachers to discuss what he sees as faith-based alternatives to evolution.

Five miles away, in another east Cobb neighborhood, Larry Taylor had his own visceral reaction to the debate over science and religion.

Well-read and articulate, Taylor grew tired of seeing critics of evolution dismissed as uneducated rubes.

The construction manager attended his first school board meeting two weeks ago to urge members to require teachers to expose flaws in evolution.

"If it raises tough questions in the classroom, that's why they're there," Taylor said.

The men, both fathers of students in east Cobb schools, inserted themselves into a fray that neither expected would turn national. Both have found the attention unsettling. They worry about the impact on their families and will not disclose the names of their wives or children. Both screen phone calls. But neither regrets taking a public stance on an issue that has divided Cobb and drawn national media attention.

The division among parents is unprecedented, said board Chairman Curt Johnston, who is receiving 15 messages a day, divided on either side. "This is the most difficult and polarized debate the board has had since I've been on the board," he said. "Right now, we're just listening."

Selman, the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed against the district by the American Civil Liberties Union, said his decision to seek court intervention took perhaps "half a second." A transplanted New Yorker, Selman wants people to know he believes in God. A practicing Jew, he attends temple several times a year. He does not want to be equated with the California atheist whose challenge of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance drew national scorn.

Selman describes his lawsuit as a patriotic action, stopping a move toward government-sanctioned religion. While the textbook advisories are vague, Selman and many other parents think the school board discussions that produced the inserts reflect a conservative Christian intent.

The advisories were approved after the board heard about two dozen parents protest the teaching of evolution, many on religious grounds. They produced a petition signed by nearly 2,000 parents who demanded accurate science texts. Many petitions circulated in Cobb churches.

A counterpetition is now circulating among pro-evolution parents, who will demand that the board maintain "traditional academic standards and integrity in the sciences."

Selman isn't sure what sparked the anti-evolution movement in Cobb, a county he and his wife chose nearly 10 years ago based on the good reputation of its schools. He thinks the board is pandering to a small group of parents. His own actions have produced a few dozen phone calls to his home, more supportive than not.

"This is one battleground," said Selman, who has a child in elementary school. "I'm sure they're not going to stop at this. The next thing, the moment of silence is going to be attacked, which is a beautiful piece of compromise."

Nancy Myers, a co-worker, wasn't surprised that Selman became involved in the dispute. "He's got a hot justice button," she said. "When he sees wrong being done, he wants to do something about it. I'd call him principled."

Although Selman thinks his lawsuit will squash any attempt to dilute evolution, he suspects the board policy will open classrooms to religious-based instruction. "The side for scientific education was asleep," he said. "We felt safe. This is the 21st century, for crying out loud. We can't go back to this."

Taylor, 41, moved to Cobb as a child and was educated in its public schools. But like Selman, he now questions whether the county schools live up to their generally good reputation. He has two daughters and a son, in middle and high school.

While he disagrees with biological evolution, Taylor will not identify himself as a creationist or an advocate of "intelligent design," which argues that the diversity of life is the result of some master plan by an unidentified "designer."

But Taylor has read "Darwin's Black Box," a challenge of evolution by a biochemist at Lehigh University, and a stack of other books that question evolution. He has given copies to friends and co-workers.

Taylor believes these critiques, many written by scientists if not biologists, are being ignored unfairly by public school teachers and the media. "The media presents it as the educated scientists vs. the religious, fanatical extremists."

He was particularly angered when science teachers told the Cobb school board that criticism of evolution was based in religion.

"All the facts should be taught in the science class," he said. "There are many credible scientists in America who believe evolution has many flaws."

Taylor attends his church, Trinity Fellowship in west Cobb, twice weekly. The Rev. Richard Hemphill said the church had not become involved with the evolution dispute. Taylor has spoken out before, taking a position against abortion in a letter published in a newspaper. His pastor is not surprised to see him take a stance on something that affects his family.

Parents and teachers who dismiss views opposing evolution are practicing their own form of religion, Taylor said. He insists intelligent design is not a faith-based approach.

"The supporters of evolution have an agenda as well. Their agenda is to keep God out, even if the evidence points to God. . . . It's faith. Those people are as fervent in their beliefs as Christians are in believing God created Earth."

This is debate focusses on three issues really; first, weither Creationism is soemthing that should be taught in schools; second, should Evolution Theory be taught with or without any counter balance and should schools who teach it go out of their way to explain that it is indeed a theory; and third what is or should be allowed by law.

In addition to those three topics there is also the additional issue of if weither Creationism should can be justified scientificly or can Evolution Theory be justified using the bible. My personal religious beliefs demand that science and religion must be in harmony; without science to back up parts of religion it becomes dogmatic and stale, and without religion for science we lose our moral bindings.

First lets handle the issue should a religious belief be taught in schools.

We live in a Secular nation, but one who like many other secular countries our laws and beliefs are based on a religion and that religion is Christianity.

(from dictionary.com)
sec·u·lar Pronunciation Key (sky-lr)
adj.

1. Worldly rather than spiritual.
2. Not specifically relating to religion or to a religious body: secular music.
3. Relating to or advocating secularism.
4. Not bound by monastic restrictions, especially not belonging to a religious order. Used of the clergy.
5. Occurring or observed once in an age or century.
6. Lasting from century to century.

n.

1. A member of the secular clergy.
2. A layperson.

But in this country many of the people who founded it are were from religious sects that were not widely supported or even harrased by their local government(s). For instance the "pilgrims" were of a religious sect, puritians, that was widely persecuted in England and sought a place where they could practice their brand of Christianity without such persecution. The puritian movement had such an effect that when our constitution was drafted special protections were granted to those who wished to practice their own religion whatever it maybe.

The original intent of that clause was to allow anyone to practice their version of Christianity without persection from the state and to prevent the state from choosing or making a version of Christianity it's own. In the centuries following that we have taken that meaning to implay any religion or any sect of any religion. So it has become the duty of our nation and any of our local governments not to promote one religion in particular, even if a majority of it's people practice it. This does not prevent anyone associated with the state in any way from practicing their religion it merely protects us from the undue influence from the state. On that grounds since our public schools are an embodyment of the state it is only logical, and prudent to keep the schools as secular as possible and leave the schools only to teaching that which is of a secular nature, thus Creationism does not fit that profile.

On the issue of Evolution Theory, is there not a saying that God works in mysterious ways? I would consider Evolution if it is true to be that. Were Evolution proved true what would it change? Perhaps God in some mysterious way lobbed a lightening bolt down into a pool of water and that spark created some simple celled orginism that eventually became man. Could he not in the billion years it took for those orginisms to form into creatures guide their creation in such a way that he infact did give life, souls and intellect to us all? (well most of us, that is) Was belief in God broken when Capernicus turned his glasses to the sky and found that the sun did not revolve around the earth and that instead the earth revolved around the sun? No, it mearly broke the principles of Aristotle that the Cathlic church was built on. To claim that a Theory at best is defunct because it contridicts the bible could very well be considered a sin to God since it would forbit is from looking at a theory that could allow us to look at God and appreciate his mysteries that much more. If an interpetation of the bible goes up against science and one or the other is wrong I am willing to bet that it is the interpetation of the bible rather than science, since from what is written in the bible more than one gleaning can be made.

Lastly, can science be used to back up Creationism? No, creationism in it's current from does not conform with what we know, we know how the earth was formed we know when it was formed, and we know how old the entire universe is. The belief that God created everything day by day in our senses is quite a streach since we know the earth was not formed in one day the sun did not light up in just one day, the oceans were not formed in just one day and so forth and so on. It is only logical that man was not formed in one day nor was the rest of creation, atleast not in our sense of days, as it is written a day is but a thousand years.

The teaching of religious beliefs is not something for our government, I would rather them not instruct on the matter than risk the chance they instruct incorrectly. Religion is something to be taught by parents not the government and not through the government. The problem is that too few parents actually want to bother with their child's education and consider school for their children nothing more than tax supported day care. These parents become obssively upset when they find that the day care actually exists to try to instruct their children.

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