My Letter to the Kansas School Board

[ttraub]

October 28, 2005

To: pplamann@ksde.org
Subject: Science Education and the Future of the United States

Dear sir or madam,

I am writing to express my shock and distress at the recent actions of your Board regarding science education in your state. The United States is the world's leader in science but many other countries are catching up, and some of these countries are not friendly to the American ideals of freedom of speech and religion, such as for example the dictatorships of the Middle East and east Asia.

The future of the United States is dependent on our continued free inquiry into the nature of life and matter. Evolutionary theory is well supported and reproducible in any laboratory in the world. It is due to the humility of science that it is still called a theory. "Intelligent Design", by contrast, is a completely unsupported hypothesis. By targeting an accepted theory that is based on centuries of scholarship and evidence, you are attacking science at its core and, therefore, the American way of life.

It is well known that you have a fundamentalist Christian constituency that is attempting to impose its literal interpretation of the Bible upon your children. However it should be kept in mind that your agency is not responsible for promoting any particular religious group's agenda. Many Christians in Kansas surely do not support this agenda, and surely the Jews and other religious minorities feel similarly.

You should keep in mind that even if you and other education boards around the country were to succeed at watering down science with religious interpretations (which, you should take note, violates the Constitution's clearly mandated separation of Church and State), the net result will be a diminished role and respect for science in American society, with the result that the enemies of Christianity--China, the Moslems, and other cultural groups--will prevail in the great economic and technological competition of the 21st Century. The United States will become a weak has-been backwater country much like Iran and other ideology-driven regimes. Christianity itself will recede and die as stronger cultures become predominant.

The immediate effect of your actions, which will probably be felt regardless of the outcome of this current affair, is that Christianity will get a bad name. Fundamentalism has long been tolerated in the United States and there is a rich tradition of revivalism and a strong respect for the spiritual music and faith that have been engendered by our strong protection of people's freedom to worship. But by attacking science, you are surrendering to the naked prejudice and ignorance that is the dangerous side effect of fundamentalism. Fundamentalist Christians will come to be seen not as people of enlightened faith but as ignorant fools, much like the fundamentalist Moslems who preach hatred and death from their pulpits around the Middle East. Thinking people of all faiths will shun you. It will become embarrassing to admit in public that one is Christian.

Please consider these arguments in the spirit they are offered and do not go down this path of violating the Constitution.

Sincerely yours,

Terry Traub