Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Wise Words
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What I found interesting and somewhat hopeful was this:
The sooner conservative theists realize this, the safer we’ll all be.
Martha Wise, an elected member of the Ohio Board of Education and one of the leaders in the successful reversal of Ohio’s benchmark requiring "critical analysis" of evolution and the approved model lesson plan for doing so has an interesting opinion piece in the Cincinnati Enquirer called "Conservative Ohio values led to change in evolution policy." Much of it is what science advocates have been saying all along, highlighted by a punch line worthy of Eugenie Scott: "There is no scientific controversy - only a religious one."
What I found interesting and somewhat hopeful was this:
Creationism is religion and deserves to be respected as religion, and protected. Creationists do not all believe exactly the same thing. This may be the best-kept secret in the whole creationist movement. So if we were going to teach creationism or other religious concepts in school, how would we decide whose view to teach? How can we be fair to all people of faith? The founding fathers came to the conclusion that the only way to protect religion was for the government to keep its nose out of it. I believe the founding fathers were right.Now, the different flavors that creationism comes in is no surprise to those of us who have observed the phenomenon of anti-evolutionism in the U.S. over the years. The Discovery Institute and others have been busily trying to paper over those differences in order to foster a "big tent" but sectarianism cannot be held in check forever. Ultimately, the separation of church and state is not a weapon against religion, it is its greatest shield.
The sooner conservative theists realize this, the safer we’ll all be.
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