In the News: Evolution Challenged in the Classroom?

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Evolution Challenged in the Classroom?

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The Ohio State Board of Education, on Dec. 10, 2002, adopted a new set of standards for their science curriculum which could allow for teaching alternate explanations about the origin and development of life on earth, beside evolution. It took the board 12 months to come up with a compromise statement that strikes a delicate balance between teaching evolution and teaching anything that is critical of the theory. And board members were quick to add a statement saying that they did not endorse "intelligent design"-- the idea that life is too complex to have developed by chance and must have been guided by an intelligent "higher power."

A committee appointed by the state Department of Education will begin writing a science curriculum based on the new standards this year. Board members admit that writing the new curriculum will probably be more difficult than writing the standards. Fifteen colleges have come out against the new standard, which allows concepts critical of the theory of evolution to be taught in the classroom.

Also this year, Texas will be ordering new biology textbooks. This summer, pro- and anti-evolution forces will hotly debate just what those textbooks say about teaching the origins of life. Then there's Kansas, which made headlines in 1999 by largely deleting evolution from its science standards. A state education board later restored teaching evolution, but board members opposed to evolution reclaimed several seats in the last election (http://www.cleveland.com).

God says in Romans 1:20-21 that the existence of God is obvious from looking at the creation, and that those who would deny God are "without excuse." King David of Israel marveled at how wonderfully designed we are, and said, "I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well" (Psalm 139:14).