Dr Joseph Chuman

Dr. Joseph Chuman has been a professional Leader in the American Ethical Culture Movement, and a Visiting Professor of Religion at Columbia University in New York City. He spoke at the IHEU's Congress in India on 'Religion in America - a brief overview of some recent trends'.

Monkeys Vote on Evolution

By downgrading evolution and opening the door for creationism, some may argue that Kansas is merely acting in the spirit of tolerance. "Let all views be heard" might be the rallying cry of those who applaud this recent decision. To so conclude is a dangerous mistake. Far from treasuring a respect for intellectual diversity, the move by Kansas education officials and their lobbyists more closely resembles a leap into religious obscurantism engineered by home grown American ayatollahs.

'Creation Science' is a literal interpretation of Genesis disguised in language and argument to appear as a contending theory of the origin of the universe and the emergence of life, including the human species. A constant refrain of creationists is that evolution is merely a 'theory', not established fact, and consequently their theory deserves equal time. This assertion deliberately overlooks the reality that creationism is rooted in religious doctrine, and therefore immune to change when confronted with opposing evidence. Its truths ultimately are given, not discovered. Its claims are unalterable. Whatever it may be, creationism is not science. If it has a place in public school curricula it is in courses on 'comparative religious mythologies', not as a replacement for, nor alongside of evolutionary science.

The persistence of creationism is remarkable, and we do well to ask how it claims victories 140 years after Darwin's Origin of Species, and almost 75 years after the Scopes Trial. I see three forces at work.

From the middle of the nineteenth century until about thirty years ago, science wielded commanding authority. Modem geology, biology, physics and the social sciences came to maturity in the late nineteenth century. In this century, the fruits of science helped us achieve victory in war, launched us into space and created the technological marvels we enjoy today. Through the 1950s science was generally acclaimed as a benevolent genie creating an ever more bountiful future.

Yet, the hazards of nuclear power, growing ecological devastation and global problems still unsolved, have chastened science's utopian promises in the last few decades. Many now see science as a two-edged sword to be used with caution, its reputation tarnished. Science is often taken for granted or disparaged. Too easily forgotten is that we are a planet with now close to six billion mouths to feed, and scientific development still provides our best hope of meeting our global needs.

The loss of prestige, together with a complexity far beyond the understanding of non-specialists, has weakened science's ability to capture the public's imagination and assent as it once did. Scientific illiteracy is on the rise, and the action in Kansas will give state-sanctioned legitimacy to this dangerous trend. In the wake of its diminished authority, an intellectual vacuum has been created permitting pseudo-science, occultism and religion to provide explanations previously within the domain of science. Where science has retreated in the public mind, creationism has rushed in.

Multiculturalism is a welcome and necessary corrective for the exclusion of minorities into the mainstream of American life. But it does bring problems, among them the relativisation of knowledge.

Multiculturalism, especially as interpreted by postmodern thinkers, suggests that beliefs are powerfully shaped by the culture in which people are reared. All knowledge, according to this view, can only be subjective, and objectivity is a chimera. Indeed objectivity, such as science pursues, is understood as the creation of a distinctive cultural subgroup, in this case European males who flourished during the Enlightenment when the principles of modem science were being developed.

While this approach has overwhelmingly been rejected by those who work in the hard sciences, including geologists and evolutionary biologists, it has helped boost the authority of those grounding their belief in the soil of genuine cultural expression. The influence of such postmodern thinking, at a minimum has placed those who invoke objective principles, including scientists, on the defensive. The intellectual climate has been softened, and creationists have been able to take good advantage of it. It has empowered them to call for equal time in science curricula, or, as in Kansas, weaken the standing of evolution altogether.

We have no reason to doubt that a belief in the tenets of creationism are an authentic expression of the fundamentalist life and culture from which it derives. For the evangelical Christian it is apiece with a belief in the saving power of Jesus and the,

power of being 'born again'. Yet beliefs, however authentic and sincerely held, can claim no privileged ticket with which to enter the canons of scientific knowledge. For this we need the appeal to evidence and the successful testing of hypotheses. This creationism cannot do.

Americans are experiencing great anxiety as we approach the millennium. Concern about violence, the erosion of schools, and the perceived breakdown of moral values continue to compel masses of Americans to return to religion in search of solutions (see box). The forces drawing people back to religion, whether to traditional churches or private spiritual quest, has transformed how Americans have come to assess religion. Because religion is sought as the primal source of moral values, many Americans have adopted the Pollyannish view that religion can be nothing but good. A certain blindness has set in. Overlooked are the tremendous evils of which religion is capable, among them self-righteousness, divisiveness, intolerance, xenophobia and ultimately genocide. Not least among these is a penchant for obscurantism and ignorance. Today's crusaders for creationism, however contemporary their appearance and approach, join the benighted litany of religious theocrats who have thwarted intellectual progress through their unflinching and fearful commitment to dogma.

To understand the last of the above 3 reasons better, it helps to note that there exists a massive right-wing, Christian evangelical and fundamentalist movement in the United States. Until the mid-1970s the American fundamentalist movement was, politically speaking, a sleeping giant. Because of growing resentment over the political and cultural hegemony held by northern liberals, under the banner of first the Moral Majority, and in the last two decades, the Christian Coalition, millions of southern religious conservative Christians have become politically active. The Christian Coalition, with more than two million members, is perhaps the largest grass roots organisation in American history. It is well organised, highly financed, politically sophisticated, very powerful and very dangerous..

The fundamentalists are upset by liberalism and modernism inclusive of such phenomena as the empowerment of women, the loss of patriarchy, and a range of sexual issues, including abortion, gay rights, and teenage pregnancy. Moreover, the changing ethnic and racial character of the United States (we become increasingly a multi-cultural society) is very threatening to those Caucasians who feel a loss of power and control. The Christian right offers a sense of hierarchy, social order, patriarchy, stable families, dean values and the yen for a golden age, which never existed in America in the first place.

The political agenda of the Christian Right includes ending legalised abortion, establishing a balanced budget amendment, reducing taxes, reducing social welfare spending, increasing school choice, introducing Creationism into the school curriculum, opposition to the United Nations and the destruction of the separation of church and state. And for many, creating a Christian state. Such fundamentalists claim that by so acting they are supporting biblical values, though one would be hard-pressed to find these issues defended, or even mentioned in the Bible.

Through their organising ability, including sophisticated employment of the mass media, the Christian Right has been uncomfortably successful in altering the American landscape. Abortion clinics are becoming harder to find, school vouchers, which will undermine public education, are beginning to be accepted, and the separation of church and state is being significantly eroded. By having had a sympathetic president, Ronald Reagan, and allies on the Supreme Court, the Religious Right will prove to be a major force on the American political scene for at least several decades.

Since Pat Robertson was badly defeated in a bid for the presidency, the tactic of the Christian Right has shifted somewhat from work on the national level to the grass roots. Fundamentalists run candidates for school boards - and often win. A major strategy is to take over the Republican party. This has won them at least sympathetic members of Congress, and office holders on the state and local levels. In fact more respect and influence than any similar religious initiative in many generations. But there are signs that this approach is unravelling as there has emerged a divide in the Republican party over issues promoted by the Christian Right and the loyalty it demands. A backlash is in the making.

Though the fundamentalist Right will remain a potent force in American politics for the foreseeable future, the long range remains uncertain.

Secularism is singled out by the Christian Right as a major source of social and moral degeneration. How quickly we forget! While American society may be religious, our state is secular. Secular values reflect what is best, and noblest in the American identity. The secular spirit is reflected in our founding documents, in the rule of law, and in our public schools which are free and open to all. It is the role of the schools to educate from a secular perspective. They may teach about religion, but they may not promote the doctrines of religion or any specific religion. It is for this reason that the courts have recognised that 'creation science', which is extracted from The Book of Genesis, has no place in a public science curriculum.

Politicised creationists are uneasy with the secular character of public education. They would surely replace it with their own world-view founded on their particular understanding of Christian doctrine. Though it is unpleasant to countenance, American society is involved in a dash of cultures and values. The secular character of the American state, not to mention the virtues of secularism, needs its militant defenders. We are a nation founded on the separation of church and state - perhaps the greatest gift bequeathed by the Founding Fathers to the American people. It's a cornerstone of the freedom we appreciate as distinctively American. That freedom is sorely jeopardized by the Kansas School Board decision and the popular forces that stand behind it. Though on its surface an academic issue, the decision of the Kansas School Board reaches far deeper.