Creation mythology

National | Defenders of Darwinism resort to suppressing data and teaching outright falsehoods | Nancy R. Pearcey

What makes science superior to other forms of knowledge, we're told, is that it is self-correcting. But that's not the way science is taught in public schools-as Roger DeHart discovered when he tried to teach his students about recent corrections to Neo-Darwinian theory.

A biology teacher at Burlington-Edison High School outside Seattle, Wash., Mr. DeHart had taught the evidence for and against evolution for 10 years. He had also taught about the alternative theory of intelligent design, using the supplemental textbook Of Pandas and People. With his boyish face and engaging brown eyes, Mr. DeHart was a popular and effective teacher, staging lively classroom debates to help students think independently.

But two years ago, following a student complaint, the ACLU started intimidating the school board with threats of a costly lawsuit. Critics accused Mr. DeHart of teaching creation, though students testified that he did not talk about God or religion in class. Indeed, he presented the issues so objectively, students couldn't even tell what his own position was. Yet in 1998 a new superintendent ordered Mr. DeHart to cease and desist from teaching students about intelligent design; he could, however, still talk about problems in Neo-Darwinism.