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."

"Those people are as fervent in their beliefs as Christians are in believing God created Earth."

Why limit your comment to Christians, excluding the other religions of the world?

As to evolution v creation - Who is to say that God does not have a sense of humor?

Yes, the one we've all been waiting for ... the Darwin Award 2002.

The candidates have finally been released! For those not familiar
with the Darwin Award, It's an annual honor given to the person
who provided the Universal human gene pool the biggest service by
getting KILLED in the most extraordinarily stupid way.

As always, competition this year has been keen again. Some idiots
appear to have trained their whole lives for this event!

DARWIN AWARD CANDIDATES

1. In September in Detroit, a 41-year-old man got stuck and
drowned in two feet of water after squeezing head first through
an 18-inch-wide sewer grate to retrieve his car keys.

2. In October, a 49-year-old San Francisco stockbroker,
who "totally zoned when he ran," accidentally jogged off a 100-
foot-high cliff on his daily run.

3. Buxton, NC: A man died on a beach when an 8-foot-deep hole he
had dug into the sand caved in as he sat inside it. Beach goers
said Daniel Jones, 21, dug the hole for fun, or protection from
the wind, and had been sitting in a beach chair at the bottom
Thursday afternoon when it collapsed, burying him beneath 5 feet
of sand. People on the beach, on the outer banks, used their hands
and shovels, trying to claw their way to Jones, a resident of
Woodbridge, VA, but could not reach him. It took rescue workers
using heavy equipment almost an hour to free him while about 200
people looked on. Jones was pronounced dead at a hospital.

4. In February, Santiago Alvarado, 24, was killed in Lompoc, CA,
as he fell face-first through the ceiling of bicycle shop he was
burglarizing. Death was caused when the long flashlight he had
placed in his mouth (to keep his hands free) rammed into the base
of his skull as he hit the floor.

5. According to police in Dahlonega, GA, ROTC cadet Nick Berrena,
20, was stabbed to death in January by fellow cadet Jeffrey
Hoffman, 23, who was trying to prove that a knife could not
penetrate the flak vest Berrena was wearing.

6. Sylvester Briddell, Jr., 26, was killed in February in Byville,
Del, as he won a bet with friends who said he would not put a
revolver loaded with four bullets into his mouth and pull the
trigger.

7. In February, according to police in Windsor, Ontario, Daniel
Kolta, 27, and Randy Taylor, 33, died in a head-on collision, thus
earning a tie in the game of chicken they were playing with their
snowmobiles.

DARWIN AWARD HONORABLE MENTIONS

1. In Guthrie, Okla, in October, Jason Heck tried to kill a
millipede with a shot from his 22 caliber rifle, but the bullet
ricocheted off a rock near the hole and hit pal Antonio Martinez
in the head, fracturing his skull.

2. In Elyria, Ohio, in October, Martyn Eskins, attempting to
clean out cobwebs in his basement, declined to use a broom in
favor of a propane torch and caused a fire that burned the first
and second floors of his house.

3. Paul Stiller, 47, was hospitalized in Andover Township, New
Jersey, and his wife Bonnie was also injured, when a quarter-stick
of dynamite blew up in their car. While driving around at 2 AM,
the bored couple lit the dynamite and tried to toss it out the
window to see what would happen, but apparently failed to notice
the window was closed.

RUNNER UP

TACOMA, WA - Kerry Bingham, had been drinking with several friends
when one of them said they knew a person who had bungee-jumped
from the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the middle of traffic. The
conversation grew more heated and at least 10 men trooped along the
walkway of the bridge at 4:30 am. Upon arrival at the midpoint of
the bridge they discovered that no one had brought a bungee rope.
Bingham, who had continued drinking, volunteered and pointed out
that a coil of lineman's cable lay nearby. One end of the cable
was secured around Bingham's leg and the other end was tied to the
bridge. His fall lasted 40 feet before the cable tightened and
tore his foot off at the ankle. He miraculously survived his fall
into the icy river water and was rescued by two nearby
fishermen. "All I can say," said Bingham, "is that God was watching
out for me on that night. There's just no other explanation for
it." Bingham's foot was never located.

AND THE WINNER

PADERBORN, GERMANY - Overzealous zookeeper Friedrich Riesfeldt fed
his constipated elephant Stefan 22 doses of animal laxative and
more than a bushel of berries, figs and prunes before the plugged-
up pachyderm finally let it fly, and suffocated the keeper under
200 pounds of poop! Investigators say ill-fated Friedrich 46, was
attempting to give the ailing elephant an olive oil enema when
the relieved beast unloaded on him. "The sheer force of the
elephant's unexpected defecation knocked Mr.Riesfeldt to the
ground, where he struck his head on a rock and lay unconscious
as the elephant continued to evacuate his bowels on top of him",
said flabbergasted Paderborn police detective Erik Dern. "With no
one there to help him, he lay under all that dung for at least an
hour before a watchman came along, and during that time he
suffocated. It seems to be just one of those freak accidents
that happen."

OK, so the theory of gravity, is faith based then as well? Or the theory of calculus, mathematics, etc, all scientific findings are called theories. And yet evolution is the only one that Christians flip out about.

A theory, is speculation based on known scientific facts, evolution is that, astronomy is that, mathematics is that, all science is that.

Creationists attach themselves to Evolution only because it somehow goes against their book, when in fact, if looked at in the proper light, really does not.

Creation takes a HUGE amount of faith, you must believe that the bible is indeed the word of god, you must believe that god really cares enough to have created it in the first place, you must believe in all your heart that all of those words in the bible, rewritten and translated as they have been, have not been perverted or changed through that translation. All of that takes a lot more faith then the theory of evolution, the theory of evolution is scientific, it is speculation based on scientific facts.

I do not believe that fantasy and religion should be taught in a publicly funded classroom, PERIOD. A classroom is a place for learning facts and science, not mythology and religion. If you want your children to learn such things, then send them to PRIVATE school for that faith based education you seem to want them to have so badly, or better yet, TEACH IT TO THEM YOURSELVES!!!

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.