Evangelical Christians - ID (a/k/a Creationism)

Though the US is a representative democracy, not a theocracy, this has not prevented the religious among us, specifically the "evangelical" or "fundamentalist" "christians" from trying to force their beliefs onto everyone. You don't hear or think about In Allah We Trust (national motto 1956, on paper money 1957) or that we're "one nation, under Brahman, indivisible" (added to pledge 1954). Limitations on personal freedoms (bodily autonomy from 2011), who you can love (an abomination only to the biblical O.T. god; no other 'religion' has anything to say about homosexuality AFAIK), even attitudes about owning people(!) have all been defended by verses (real and imagined) in 'the bible' by "christians".

So who are these "christians" and what do they really want? We know they want even more privilege than they already have. They want public education money to be shared with private religious schools. They want public schools to teach their creation doctrine as fact. They've successfully staffed (stuffed?) numerous school boards across the country with their advocates. They've kept public school students ignorant of science throughout our history. Most of us have heard of the 'Scopes Monkey Trial' in Dayton, Tennessee in June, 1925. It was illegal there to teach evolution in public schools since earlier that year. Clarence Darrow defended the teacher, John Scopes. It was actually a publicity stunt on the part of the town of Dayton to increase tourism, and challenge the recent legislation. An interesting story. You'd think that would be enough to separate bible teachings from public school curriculum, but it wasn't. Several states tried "don't teach evolution" and "equal time for bible story" laws over the next several years. The Supreme Court, or jurisdictional federal courts, have declared such laws unconstitutional as late as 1987. The church is constantly attempting to receive public money to support the church schools. "Christians" have attempted to rebrand their creation story from "creation science" (it's not science) to "design theory" or "intelligent design" (a MS Word replace function hiccup clearly showed this one-for-one substitution in the text) to remove the obvious association with the church. "Irreducible complexity" was part of the intelligent design argument. This is covered in the five year plan discussed in the Wedge Document, mentioned below. A Dover, Pennsylvania statute requiring the teaching of intelligent design was declared unconstitutional by the Federal District Court in December, 2005. The Kitzmiller decision should have clarified the matter, but again, the "christians" continued trying to "win" more special rights for themselves.

A "science text book" called Of Pandas and People was almost approved in Baltimore just a few years ago. It was published in 1989 with a second edition in 1993, as a "science supplement". It was roundly rejected as not scientifically accurate in 2008 and re-visited in 2016. Proponents of the book have been complaining with every setback they're dealt, trying claims from censorship to persecution (notice the loaded language in the linked piece). 

The long term strategy of these religious fanatics was outlined in their Wedge Document in early 2000. Their ultimate plan was to "overthrow materialism and its cultural legacies" (by getting god back into public schools, among other things). This "christian nationalist" movement is not new; it even seemed to be gaining ground for a while. The phrase "academic freedom" was used for a while to get some bills passed in Louisiana (2008) and Tennessee (2012). These bills "allow" the teachers "academic freedom" to criticize scientific theory, or to not teach it all. I don't understand the point of "academic standards" that can be bypassed or ignored at will by the teachers.  

Under the current administration and in these days of "alternative facts" it seems some have been emboldened to try again. A piece recently published (3 November 2020) in the National Law Review discusses some of the problems that will come with an uneducated populace. We are in the middle of a global pandemic now. How will ill-educated teens become scientists and researchers to defeat the next bacteria or virus that comes along? How will they address the need for clean energy or greater food production? How can the general public be expected to follow health guidelines if all they've ever learned is "God did it"? How will they be able to tell when anyone is trying to deceive them about anything, if they never learn critical thinking skills? 

Get higher math and science education into our schools. Get incompetent teachers and interfering school board members out of the education system. A troubling number of teachers report "avoidance" of or sending "mixed messages" to their students in biology classes covering the origins of humans as this June, 2020 abstract describes. Get "religion" out of our laws altogether. We, humans, decided at least 15,000 years ago that murdering a neighbor was a bad idea, all by ourselves. The wind god, the volcano god, the rain god did not help us decide this. We would have outgrown this childish god dependency long ago had an early church organization not acquired an army. Together we can make our country be great for all (not only for some).