Scientist Dismayed by Creationist Tactics

by Paul R. Kopenkoskey

Scientist Dismayed by Creationist Tactics
Saturday, July 21, 2007
By Paul R. Kopenkoskey
The Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS—Wesley Elsberry couldn’t shake off the dismay he felt four years ago while touring a museum dedicated to the belief in a literal six-day account of creation.

Around him were murals, dioramas and color photographs that the Institute for Creation Research’s Museum of Creation and Earth History in Santee, Calif., had on display depicting a supernatural explanation for Earth’s origins, he said.

But Elsberry, former information project director for the National Center for Science Education in Oakland, Calif., had a different take.

“There was just a sense of dismay that these folks are putting this much effort into all of this, and it’s really just full of error,” he said during a recent meeting of the Freethought Association of West Michigan. “It’s such a waste of effort.

“Intelligent design advocates believe discrediting biological evolution will lead to people rejecting Darwin’s natural theory of selection, said Elsberry, a Michigan State University visiting research associate.

“If they can denigrate evolutionary biology, then you must accept a creator,” he said. “They simply cannot see past their narrow, sectarian view of Scripture.”

Finding a way

Elsberry said intelligent design proponents continue to find new ways to interject a religious-based theory of life’s origins into public school science classrooms. He said those efforts include inserting intelligent design curriculum in philosophy classes and morphing the name of their movement from creationism to scientific creationism to intelligent design.

A 2005 court ruling that teaching of intelligent design in a Pennsylvania school district was unconstitutional has only stoked advocates’ determination, Elsberry said.

Intelligent design costly

Scientists and educators must be on the vanguard of what Elsberry termed “The 15,000 Front War,” named for the estimated number of schools districts that are vulnerable to state-sanctioned proselytizing in classrooms.

The educational fallout is too great a price to pay if students are not taught credible science, said Elsberry.

“Competition between the U.S. and the rest of world is in biotechnology,” he said.

“Anti-evolutionists aren’t helping with that. Something occurs with intelligent design that confuses students with pseudo-science. We should not let them go unaccountable.”