Separation of Church and State: Flawed Logic Applied in the Courts

The first thing I want to make clear is that I do not agree with Creation Science because I believe that it is based upon some very flawed assumptions relating to the interpretion of Judeao-Christian Scripture (Genesis). The false assumption that I take issue with is that the earth was made in a literal 7 days, based upon 24 hour periods. The fact is that Genesis says no such thing. In other words, I have a genuine dislike of the literalist approach of fundamentalist Christians. I belong to the Roman Catholic Church, and when I reached high school science I was taught about evolution in a very natural way so that I could easily accept that Genesis contains God’s Truth yet at the same time appreciate that the “day” and “night” refer to the various ages through which the earth moved over time. Creation Science does not allow for such a belief or interpretation. Without studying in detail what is made available through the Intelligent Design courses, I cannot logically comment upon the content including any obvious flaws of the teaching materials. My aim is to point out that the decisions from the court cases that have been brought against the use of Creation Science in schools is in fact flawed and I believe it is damaging to not allow young people to study the two theories together so that they can see the flaws within each theory. Those decisions are also flawed because they are in fact entrenching a State Religion – Atheism – which goes against the original intention of the founding fathers of the USA.

The battle that has been raging in the various states, and in particular Louisiana indicates that there are some who are afraid of having their own ideas exposed to examination. The passing of legislation that will allow the use of extra materials is not such a bad thing as some are claiming. It is understandable that many seem to be paranoid about those who espouse Creation Science. However, rather than being afraid it would be a lot smarter to expose the flaws of the assumptions that are being used by the fundamentalists that espouse Creation Science. This can only be done in the classroom setting where pupils are in fact allowed to explore all of these theories. Darwin created the theory of Natural Selection – or the survival of the fittest. This is theory, it is not science, yet science or rather researchers have been working on proving the theory, even where the theory is flawed. There is nothing wrong in taking the two extremes and marrying them up in a more logical way.