Couple Files Lawsuit Against UC Teachers’ Website on Evolution
The Monterey Herald reports:
Operators of a University of California-Berkeley Web site that is designed to help teachers teach evolution are being sued by a California couple who say the site improperly strays into religion.
Defendants include two top biologists from the UC Museum of Paleontology, which runs the Understanding Evolution Web site (http://evolution.berkeley.edu), and an official from the National Science Foundation, who is named because the foundation provided more than $400,000 in public funding for the site.
The lawsuit is one of many skirmishes underway across the country over how evolution is taught in schools. Some anti-evolution efforts are being pressed by proponents of “intelligent design,” the idea that living organisms are so complex they must have been created by a higher intelligence.
But the Granite Bay, Calif., couple who brought the Web site suit, Jeanne Caldwell and her husband, Larry, who is representing her in the lawsuit, say they are not proponents of intelligent design. They object to the teaching of evolution as scientific fact.
“Yes, I’m a Christian,” said Jeanne Caldwell, “but I would not categorize myself as an ID proponent. I believe God created the world.”
The suit, which was filed last month, specifically objects to portions of the Understanding Evolution Web site that deal with the interplay of science and religion. For example, it challenges the site’s linking to doctrinal statements from a variety of religions to demonstrate that “most Christian and Jewish religious groups have no conflict with evolution.”
Cross-posted at The SoCal Law Blog
November 29th, 2005 at 8:38 am
With the proper understanding of science in general, the defendants, and many other people, would know that very little of science is taught (or known) as fact. Just like statistics, nothing in science will ever be 100% proven… the best we can hope for is 99.999%. That is the nature of science. Areas of science that aren’t fully understood currently are what drive science forward. Science will never be without theories, because that would be like saying all knowledge is known.
Common misconceptions about evolution include that humans are here “by chance” or that evolution attempts to explain the origin of life. The latter is not even within the boundaries of evolution. This misconception is even within the quote of one of the defendants,
“Yes, I’m a Christian,†said Jeanne Caldwell, “but I would not categorize myself as an ID proponent. I believe God created the world.â€Â
Suffice to say, evolution does not delve into the origins of life, including the planets and the rest of the universe. It is a historical explanation of the changes in species. The first is put to rest when it’s understood that evolution is not random. Natural selection involves some randomness (for instance, a volcano eruption whiping out an entire species), but the vast majority of changes brought about by evolution are delegated by our natural environment. Our natural environment, the Earth, is governed by physical functions, and none of them are random in the slightest.
While I would never step on anyone’s religious beliefs, ID and/or creationism can’t be taught in science because they are simply not scientific. It would be like forcing a Pastor state that evolution is an alternative to the Book of Genesis while preaching… ID/creationism and evolution are simply not interchangable.
The website that is being sued, http://evolution.berkley.edu, is being incredibly fair and objective. It is the absolute BEST website I’ve seen explaining evolution. Please read it. We don’t have to be at war here, that’s all the website is pointing out… sheesh.