Gimme that Ol’ Time Science…

Just had a nice chat with Brandon Weim, who's writing a story on the evolution / creationism school wars for Wired magazine. It seems that eight Florida school districts (and in Florida, each district comprises an entire county) have passed resolutions calling for alternatives to evolutionary theory to be taught in biology classes. Brandon fears that:

If Florida opts for evolution-unfriendly textbooks and is followed by neighboring Texas -- also undergoing its own curriculum revision -- then other states, looking for less-expensive texts, may buy those same books. Much of an entire generation could be raised to think of evolution as a theory with no more grounding in reality than intelligent design.

The thing is... that's already true. As a Gallup poll reported in 2004, only a third of Americans think that evolution is a theory well-supported by scientific evidence (Frank Newport, "Third of Americans Say Evidence has Supported Darwin’s Evolution Theory," Gallup Poll News Service, 19 November, 2004).

And this is true, remember, generations after the scientific explanation of the origin of species became the only one legally permitted in public school biology classes around the country. As I've said before, we've already tried the "You evolved, Dammit!" approach for a protracted period of time, and it has failed.

Scientists pride themselves on being driven by the evidence rather than personal dogma. Well, here's your chance, guys: Dump the failed government-mandated-curriculum approach and start campaigning for unfettered parental choice and a competitive education marketplace. Free schools to teach science properly if they so desire, and quit fooling yourselves into imagining that you can force the rest of the public to understand science by having government ram it down their throats. Make science humble, exciting, and welcoming again, in the vein of Carl Sagan and Jacob Bronowski, instead of calling our religious fellow citizens rubes or worse, and treating them like recalcitrant children.

And as for the fear that educational freedom would lead old time religion to eclipse science, consider that the Netherlands has had universal public and private school choice for a century, including religious schools, and has become one of the most secular nations in the world. Another datum for the science crowd to stick in their thinking caps....