"social Darwinism" has nothing to do with Darwin's theory of evolution.
COLUMBIA --- The South Carolina Education Board approved a biology textbook Wednesday for public schools, despite questions from critics worried about how the book teaches evolution.
The board voted 9-7 to approve the textbook's latest edition, which can be used in ninth- and 10th-grade biology classrooms. Science teachers from across the state erupted in applause after the vote.
Board member Charles McKinney argued that the origin of life is an incomplete mystery and said the book presents evolution as fact rather than theory.
He asked the board to "carefully weigh the impact that distorted science opinion presented as scientific truth in adopted text will have upon youth." He said evolution was used by Nazi Germany and other totalitarian states as an excuse to kill millions of people.
"I need to assure that neo-Darwinism is not allowed to project lies that could once again allow the emergence of social Darwinism," Mr. McKinney said.
The former teacher said teaching evolution doesn't bother him, as long as students are taught that it's an incomplete science. He said he realizes creationism can't be taught, because the courts have ruled against it.
The book's co-author Ken Miller disputed the criticisms and said the updated book's section on evolution is unchanged from the textbook already used in South Carolina and all 49 other states.
Mr. Miller challenged the board to find a single reference to evolution as law or fact rather than theory. No one could.
Mr. Miller called it absurd and insulting to blame the theory of evolution for the deaths of hundreds of millions of people. Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin were driven by racism, anti-Semitism and socialist utopianism, not scientific theory on the origin of the species, he said.
"It's almost shameful to me that we're spending so much time questioning whether evolution should be taught in school in 2008," said board member Trip DuBard of Florence.
"I thought we were beyond that. If you can't support teaching science to kids, something else is going on."
Several board members called it embarrassing that so many science specialists had to come to the meeting to defend a textbook. They also argued that rejecting the book would send a message to teachers that their expertise isn't wanted.
The textbook was given top ratings last year by a panel of 11 South Carolina teachers.
In South Carolina, the state pays for textbooks and the state Education Board approves which can be used in classrooms after a panel review.
The board approved other biology textbooks in December, but postponed discussion on Mr. Miller's because Mr. McKinney wanted to review the complaints.
Comments
"social Darwinism" has nothing to do with Darwin's theory of evolution.
While Darwin may not have intended his research to be used in such a manner, his assertions regarding "survival of the fittest" have been adopted by racists, neo-Nazis, and other supremists to justify their belief that some classes of people are not worth as much as others. In that sense, yes, Darwin's theory of evolution is the framework for a whole host of ideas that run contrary to the Biblical notion that all are created in the image of God and have equal value. The Darwinian theory of macroevolution has gaping holes in it and that is what the diehard secularists will not acknowledge in the textbooks. With other theories in various disciplines, it is the practice to list both strengths and weaknesses, but not with evolution. It has become a religion in and of itself.
Nice to see the American Taliban lose this round.
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