FAITH VERSUS SCIENCE.

• Author: Steinberg, Jacques
• Position: Debate over teaching of evolution

A KANSAS RULING REIGNITES THE DEBATE OVER EVOLUTION, PITTING RELIGIOUS BELIEF AGAINST SCIENTIFIC THEORY

TOPEKA, KANSAS

In the last school year before the new millennium, students in Kansas are at odds over a controversy left over from the 19th century. Just before school opened this year, the Kansas Board of Education voted to delete any mention of the theory of evolution from the state's science curriculum.

"It's such a basic concept of science," exclaims Jocelyn Nichols, 16, of Topeka. "It was completely unnecessary, and it created a very negative image [of Kansas] for the rest of the United States."

But to students like Arin Turvey, 16, the state's decision squares with her belief that God created the world. "There's no more proof for evolution than for creation," she says. "So they should either teach them both or don't teach any of it."

The Kansas ruling, which removes evolution from the state's recommended curriculum and its standardized tests, was the latest victory for a growing conservative religious movement in the U.S. that has pressed school boards to give religious beliefs equal status with science. Alabama, Illinois, and New Mexico are among several states that have also recently adopted standards that weaken the teaching of evolution.

AN ATTACK ON SCIENCE

But while creationists applaud these decisions, scientists are protesting what they call an attack on a cornerstone of natural science. "If you take away evolution because it's a theory, you can't teach science," says Steve Angel, a chemistry professor who is president of the Auburn-Washburn school board in Topeka. "All of science is theory."

The debate over evolution has been raging since Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859. The theory holds that life began with single-cell organisms 4.5 billion years ago, then gradually evolved into more complex plants and animals. Some 4 to 6 million years ago, scientists say, apes and human beings branched off the same family tree.

LEGAL BATTLES

This battle has been fought on schoolhouse grounds before. At the beginning of the century, several states forbade the teaching of evolution, a trend that resulted in the famous Scopes trial of 1925 (see article, page 21). In 1968, the Supreme Court ruled that such laws were unconstitutional on the basis of the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech.

In the 1970s, Arkansas and Louisiana required that schools teaching evolution must also teach the biblical story of...