Since 1925, the combatants have focused on the legal question: whether teaching creation science in public schools would violate the Constitutional law requiring Separation of State and Church. Separation of Church and State is not the primary reason why science teachers should object to teaching the Biblical creation story in their classes. They have a strong reason to object as educators. The science teacher is hired to teach good science, not religion. That is what they are trained to do. The beautiful creation story in the Bible is religion, not science. So it has no place in a science lesson because Genesis is not science.

            Before retirement from teaching, I taught mathematics, astronomy and physics in a well-known Midwest university. Besides being a teacher of science, I am also a Christian and love Genesis, chapter one; it is a magnificent religious view of the creation of the world by God. While teaching astronomy or physics I did not teach the Genesis story to my classes. I would have objected to any request to do so. Teaching Genesis as science is a part of the greater desire of some Christians to teach creation science in our public schools. Any scientist will tell you so-called Creation Science is not really science at all. The proposed Creation Science curriculum contains many false ideas motivated by their religion. A prominent example is the age of the earth question. It is well established scientifically that our earth is at least 4.5 billion years old and was not created in six days. One of the truths of Creation Science is that the earth is about 6000 years old; that is not true . You will not find that in the Bible anywhere and there is no scientific basis for their claim. It is a religious claim, not science. There are many such errors promulgated by teachers of so-called creation science contradicting real science. 

            When choosing the curriculum for science classes, teachers must consider what is the appropriate science and what is not, rather than legal problems involving State and Church. Most Christians and many news people do not seem to understand the real problem for educators, so they debate legal reasons for not teaching Genesis in public schools. So far as science teachers are concerned, legal arguments are irrelevant for them. What is real science is important.

            The legal experts argue against teaching any part of the Bible in public schools, but I think that is missing the point. I think every educated person in the USA should know what is in the Bible, whether he or she believes it or not. The Bible has played an important role in the history of our country. It has had a strong influence on the American way of thinking about ‘we the people’; who we are and why our country was created as a land of freedom and liberty. It was part of the education of most of our great thinkers and our founding fathers. Abe Lincoln was a student of the Bible and had read it many times. He knew it well. He has been quoted as saying on one occasion,

            Some understanding of the Bible is essential for understanding American history and our western European culture. The Bible does have relevance in connection with our history as a nation. Our cherished American beliefs are rooted in Biblical teachings. Our founding fathers were familiar with the Christian Bible. Our pledge of allegiance describes our country as “one nation under God.” It is important to understand that claim. However, don’t teach Genesis, Chapter 1 in science classes as science, because it is not. That is a different matter. Teaching the Bible is the job of teachers in the churches of our nation. Unfortunately, the churches have not done the job well.

            Too many Christians view those opposed to teaching the Bible in science classes, as atheists attacking the Bible and their religion. Not true . I am a Christian, not an atheist, and I oppose teaching the Genesis story in science classes in the public schools. I repeat. The creation story in Genesis is not science and for that reason alone should not be taught as science in public schools. It would be educationally unsound to teach Genesis as science. That is the crucial fact. Christians need to understand why this is true and why it does not invalidate the Bible. Educators must be concerned with what science is and what science isn’t, as an academic area. That is very important to science teachers.

            Some think we are teaching children that Genesis is not true , but it is not a question about what is true and what is not true about the world. Some have trouble grasping that, but it is important to understand. Let us use Evolution, a very controversial area of science, as an example. Do we teach Evolution because Darwin’s theory is true ? We hope so, but actually we don’t know yet. Scientists know the theory in it’s present form, is definitely not the last word on the subject. Theories come and go in the history of science. That is an important fact about science, a feature built into its very intellectual nature. Darwin may be incorrect but, Darwin’s theory is the best that science has to offer to explain certain facts of concern for biologists. So, that should be presented to students as the current state of our biological knowledge. Darwin’s theory may or may not be true but it is good science at this time while the creation story in our Bible is not science at all. 

            The creation story may be true as a religious truth, but there are many truths we do not teach in science classes. George Washington was the first president of our new country but we don’t teach that in science classes. I believe God exists, so that is truth to me but I would never teach that as truth in a science class. Any scientist, student of science or Christian, puzzled by these remarks needs to re-examine their ideas about science education and religion.

            So, how do we decide what to choose as science? To me, science is the activity of scientists and scientific knowledge is the fruit of the work of scientists. That is the proper content of science classes. Science is a discipline with guidelines and procedures we follow when working as a scientist. The roots of this style of logical, analytical thinking are found in ancient Greece as early as the 6^th century B.C. This thing we call scientific thinking has been refined and improved during its development over 2500 years of intellectual activity by some of our most brilliant thinkers: Aristotle and Plato, Copernicus and Kepler, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Einstein and Planck and thousands of others. The fruit of all of these centuries of activity we call scientific knowledge, the best of the theories and facts produced by scientists. This huge mass of facts and theories has been reviewed and criticized by thousands of researchers over the centuries. The best was kept while much scientific work was discarded eventually as errors were found.

            Science students must be taught about how scientists work, the knowledge that has been the results of their work, and how it was obtained. That is the goal of science educators. Other information or ideas from other sources, true or not, is not a part of science education. That includes the Biblical creation story. The creation story in the Bible may be true , but it is a religious theory, not science. The truth in Genesis should be taught in Christian churches by those religious teachers who believe and are trained to do that. It is a matter of the proper place and environment.

            We must remember most Greek science, brilliant in it’s day, is not accepted today as scientific truth, even though it was the best of science in it’s time, created by brilliant thinkers. Some of Greek thinking is still retained and taught as science today. The work of Archimedes is an example of that. Astronomy teachers today do not teach Ptolemy’s model of the solar system in classes today, even though it was great intellectual work in 200 AD.   Science teachers, long ago, replaced Ptolemy’s work by the better work of Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo. It is the job of a science teacher to present the best of scientific thinking, information and theories produced by scientists, past and present.  

            There are many theories, ideas and facts circulating in the world today. We sort and sift, looking for truths. Christians are concerned when it is said that big bang theories and Darwin’s theory are scientific and the Biblical account is not. A common, but erroneous idea, seems to be that scientific theories and facts are true and non-scientific theories and facts are not true . So we argue about what is true and what is not true . That is a mistake. Our best scientists do sometimes make mistakes and present as facts some that are not correct. Even Einstein, Newton and Galileo, three of our greatest scientific thinkers, did sometimes make errors. In time such errors are found and corrected. Most theories and other scientific claims are only temporary steps on the way to better, more accurate theories. Very few are true in any absolute sense. That is the way science develops and grows as our body of knowledge increases and improves in accuracy. We review and criticize the thinking and correct errors as science evolves. 

            So, we say, a fact or theory is scientific because the origin was scientific research, the best tool we have for determining the truth about the world around us. The Biblical creation story does have some truth to it but the truth we find there is not the result of any scientific investigation. The truths in Genesis are religious in nature and source, so they are not considered to be a part of scientific knowledge. Hence, not a part of science teaching.

            The creation story in Genesis is a valuable part of our Christian religious tradition as a statement about God, the creator of all things. But the creation story in Genesis is not science and should not be judged as such. No one was there to make observations of the event so there was no data to analyze and no theories to test. So it is not a product of accepted scientific investigation methods of any form. It is not even a product of the primitive attempts at science made by ancient Babylonians or Egyptians.   There is no indication that the Israelites, the source of the Biblical account, ever conducted scientific investigations. Many Christians believe we are claiming Genesis, and of course the whole Bible, is a lie when we say Genesis is not scientific and exclude the creation story from our science class. However, to say the Genesis account of creation is not science and not scientific, does not mean we think the beloved creation story is untrue , the Bible is in error and God does not exist. Some people will read all of that into the statement that the creation story is not science. But that is not the intent. Most atheists object to teaching any part of the Bible to school age children, because they don’t believe God exists. But many Christian educators who believe in God and love their Bible, also believe Genesis should not be taught in public schools.

            The problem here is the nature of truth. Any philosopher will tell you truth is not a simple matter. It must be judged within a context. Shakespeare’s great works were fictional, hence untrue , but much truth is found in his writings. The Genesis account is a poetic statement of some very important truths. I believe, and all Christians believe, God did create the world and every thing in it: animals, plants, human beings, the Sun, moon and stars. To us this is truth. I don’t believe the poetic account found in the Bible was intended as a point-by-point scientific account of the steps in the creation process. The composer of Genesis, Chapter 1, was a poet, a very good one, but not a scientist. His thinking was brilliant, but a different kind of Genius. Most Christians believe that work was revealed truth from God.

            The deep, profound truths about God we find in the Bible cannot be understood by atheists. I suppose that is why they are atheists. I know, from my own personal experience, in this matter of the Bible, belief had to precede understanding. Belief in God comes as a consequence of life experiences, not pure intellectual effort. Then Genesis, Chapter one, makes sense. The Bible truths transcend ordinary scientific truths, truths at a higher level. To attempt to reduce these great Spiritual truths to the level of scientific knowledge that can be understood through intellectual effort would diminish them. As a believer in God, also a believer in science, I ask that we never make that mistake as educators of the young by attempting such a thing. Let God be God.

            In conclusion, from the viewpoint of a scientist, students in a science class should be taught the best science we know; not history, economics, French or religion; even though there are truths there. The creation story in the Bible contains truths of a unique kind, but they are not scientific truths. These truths have no place in a science curriculum. The Biblical creation story is not science now, never was and never will be. It is much more than that. Thank God for that.

 

Recomended reading: A Matter of Faith.

That book discusses the apparent conflict between science and religion.  A copy can be purchased at Amazon

 

 

(Copyright 2012 Benjamin F. Plybon. All rights reserved.)