Viewpoint Discrimination

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 30 November -0001 00:00

Earlier this year the SC Education Oversight Committee and the SC State Board of Education debated and passed the proposal to include an additional biology standard requiring students to analyze critically the theory of evolution. This strategy, requiring students to think critically, improves the learning process and is a skill that all educators should be promoting and incorporating into their instruction. It is certainly incredible that any educator, judge, or legislator would even oppose this sound educational goal; but the real reason for the debate was the allowance of questioning evolution by the new standard. This debate and battle continues to be a major political issue for state legislatures, school boards, and both state and federal courts. It boils down to: is it creation or the “theory” of evolution when considering origins? Court decisions have been unanimous.  Creation, or implying a designer, has been ruled religion, while evolution is ruled science. As a result, only evolution can be legally taught in the public school and university science classrooms. But, a close examination will reveal that these decisions and rulings are not based on good science and are extremely biased; thus, they promote viewpoint discrimination.

Operational science is a search for truth, using the core components and procedures of the scientific method, which are observation and repeatable experimentation.  Thus, it is important to recognize that operational science is subject to limitations. One is that science can deal only with the present and what can be observed and tested.  Another is that science cannot answer the question why. Information dealing with the origin of the universe, earth and life is outside the realm of true science because the events took place in the past without any human observers and cannot be tested.  As Dr. Enno Wolthius, a noted chemistry professor, has stated, “Science seeks to explain the behavior of that which is, and to check its explanation by means of experiments. But this experimental requirement can be met only in the present time. The past and especially the beginning of things, lies beyond the grasp of this method, and so science can only speculate about the origin and history of the world.” 

 
 Supposedly, the first step in the evolutionary process was the “Big Bang,” an explosion that occurred some 10-20 billion years ago. Planet earth formed about 4.5 to 5 billion years ago. Then, about 3.9 billion years ago, the chemicals resulting from the “Big Bang” started arranging themselves and formed the first life forms, all by chance. From that point, the evolutionary process has been responsible for all the different life forms, again all by chance. It is truly absurd that anyone would consider that scenario a scientific fact. It is obvious that these events are outside the realm of science. Who was there to observe these events? Can experimentation take place? The answers to these questions are absolutely negative. Therefore, any conclusions that are made concerning these events are mere philosophical (Shall we say religious or faith?) speculations.

When considering the order and precise movements of the galaxies, stars, and planets in our universe, it is inconceivable to come to the conclusion that it was all caused by an undirected explosion. It is equally absurd to come to the conclusion that each living cell (the major component of life), containing thousands of chemicals and maintained by thousands of chemical reactions, came into existence by undirected chance. The workings of each living cell have been compared to all the operations of a major city. So, each of the trillions of cells that make up the human body is a microscopic city.   

The following are quotes from a widely used college biology text, Life: The Science of Biology, 6th Edition, W H Freeman and Co., pp. 450-451, dealing with the “Big Bang”: “Scientists believe that between 10 and 20 billion years ago there was a mighty explosion. The matter of the universe, which had been highly concentrated, began to spread apart rapidly.” Also, regarding the origin of life, it states: “The events leading to the origin of life may have happened only once and we have no direct observational evidence of them. It is more speculative than most components of scientific inquiry.” It is obvious that both these statements are pure speculation, and far from being scientific facts. This is typical information found in most biology textbooks in the sections dealing with the “Big Bang” and origins.

Let’s consider some evidence that points to a Creator. The law of biogenesis states that life only comes from life. This biological law refutes the chance formation of life. We see this law in complete operation today. Life only comes from life. There are no exceptions. Man’s feeble attempts at even creating some of the components of life have resulted in dismal failure. During the last 20 years, several prestigious scientists have attempted to calculate the mathematical probability of the random-chance origin of life. Their conclusions are that the probability is zero that life could have begun from chance. Francis Crick, a winner of the Nobel Prize in biology and an atheist, stated: “An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going.”    

But the “evolution only” scene is changing today. There are a growing number of scientists who are coming to the conclusion that the evolutionary process has some major shortcomings. There are thousands of reputable scientists who are questioning and rejecting Darwin’s theory of evolution. They point out that the evidence for design in the molecular components of living cells is overwhelming, and that Darwin’s theory is totally lacking in explaining this complexity. As prominent scientist Dr. Stephen C. Meyer comments, “Science, done right, points toward God.”  Allan Rex Sandage, considered the greatest observational cosmologist in the world, has stated, “It was my science that drove me to the conclusion that the world is much more complicated than can be explained by science, and it was only through the supernatural that I can understand the mystery of existence.”  Another scientist rejecting Darwinian speculations is Dean Kenyon from San Francisco State University. He stated that he has come to the point that he is critical of all naturalistic theories of origins. His position is that the molecular complexity in the cell points to a Designer of life. A legitimate question is: “Why should this evidence pointing to a Designer and questioning evolution be withheld from public school and college students?”  

Yet, even though the scene is changing, there is open hostility today toward anyone that questions Darwinian evolution. Many excellent teachers and professors have been fired, denied tenure, or demoted simply because they have questioned evolution. This is best exemplified by biology professor, P.Z. Myers, at the University of Minnesota who has demanded “the public firing and humiliation of teachers” who question evolutionary science. Having this mindset is unfortunate because it goes against the very grain of the scientific method and is an unhealthy position for science to take. Is Darwinian evolution a “sacred cow” that cannot be questioned? The correct scientific position should be that no doors be closed in the quest for truth.    

In closing, of all the generations to inhabit the Earth, we are the generation with the electron microscope and the Hubble telescope. This advanced technology has revealed the unfathomable complexity of life and of the universe. We, then, have no  excuse for not coming to the conclusion that there is an awesome Creator and Scientific Mathematician who created and set everything into motion around us and directs the courses of all things.  As the Psalmist said, we should be in awe when we observe the wonders of His creation. Three thousand years ago, King David of Israel wrote: “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You are mindful of him? And the son of man, that You visit him?” (Psalm 8:3-4)