(Published in '99 even before Al Gore was announced as a presidential candidate on behalf of the Democratic Party)
Nitzan Horowitz, Haaretz
Washington. Al Gore, the leading Democratic candidate in the presidential race, is known for his love of science studies - biology, chemistry and physics. But even he, the man who seriously considers himself the inventor of the Internet, is afraid to take a clear position on the following question: should US public schools teach the theory of evolution, or perhaps inculcate the "theory of creation".
The battle to introduce religion into science classes in American schools has been going on for years. The fight has heated up in recent weeks, and also casts a shadow over the presidential elections, following the decision of the Kansas State Board of Education to reject evolution as a scientific principle. Despite appeals from educators and scientists, this month in Kansas, a new curriculum from kindergarten to the end of high school was established, which eliminates evolution as an explanation for the appearance of new species (such as the evolution of man from ape). However, the council permitted the teaching of "microevolution": changes that occur within a particular species. This is because all species were created, as such, by God.
The religious groups claim that evolution cannot be proven, and it contradicts the Holy Scriptures. "Teaching evolution misleads students," says Tom Willis, director of the Creation Studies Association, which helped draft the new rules in Kansas. "You can't go to the lab or the field and create the first fish."
In response, the chancellors of Kansas' six public universities warned that the new curriculum would return Kansas to the previous century. The governor of Kansas also warned the board of education not to adopt the new standard. Now he is working on dispersion. The decision in Kansas is a historic victory for conservatives, after previous failed attempts to repeal evolution in Alabama, Arizona, Georgia and Nebraska. In the early 87s, the Republicans passed laws in Arkansas and Louisiana prohibiting the schools there from teaching evolution, unless "creation science" lessons are given at the same time. A federal judge in Arkansas overturned the law, ruling that it violated the principles of the constitution regarding the separation of religion and state. It was determined that "creation science" is not a valid science. In 'XNUMX, the Federal Supreme Court in Washington ruled that US public schools are not allowed to teach creation science, and overturned the law in Louisiana.
Following the change in Kansas, the issue immediately entered the electoral system. He embarrasses the candidates, especially Gore. At first the vice president said that he supported the study of evolution. Then he claimed that it was a decision "at the local level". Finally he stated that he supports the studies of creation on the side of evolution. When it became clear to him that this position was against the decision of the Supreme Court, Gore said that he supports the study of creation only in a certain context, such as in religion class. Even so, Gore still refuses to condemn the board's decision in Kansas. Many Gore supporters in the scientific community feel betrayed. "Politics made him lose his mind," said one of them. Others point to the reality in America: 44 percent of US residents, according to a recent survey, believe in the religious principles of creation. About 40 percent more believe in "divine evolution" - the idea that God guided the evolution that led to the emergence of man for millions of years. Only 10 percent of Americans hold the scientific principles of evolution.
George Bush Jr. drew the obvious political conclusion. "I believe that children should be exposed to different theories of how the world began," declared the Republican candidate and received applause. "The attitude in Israel depends on the stream of education. The chapter on evolution is one of the subjects of choice in matriculation studies in biology in the state education, but according to the biology coordinator at New High School in Tel Aviv, Shola Doron, it is not very popular in schools in Israel.
Naturally, this subject is not particularly popular in religious state education, but in this current, evolution is not considered a derogatory word, as in the ultra-Orthodox education currents. According to Mati Dagan, who heads the state religious education, human development is simply studied within a time frame of 5,000 years - since the creation of the world. The issue of the origin of man from the ape is not discussed.
Jeff Dadik, a religious doctoral student from the Weizmann Institute who specializes in the study of fossils, has no problem with the subject. He hopes that the curriculum he authored, called "From Dinosaurs to Darwin - Evolution in the Time Dimension", will also be taught in religious schools in the future. In his opinion, it is possible to reconcile the approaches. The new program intended for high school students was studied in 5 experimental schools this year, and next year it will be studied in about 10 more schools. According to him, one teacher from the religious state education studied with him, but the principal of her school did not approve the issue in the end.
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