For Time magazine's Person of the Year, Frans de Waal of Emory University has nominated “the brave biology teachers of this nation who teach evolution despite the opposition they encounter.” In the November 26, 2007, issue, he claimed, "Without evolution, there is no biology; without biology, there is no medicine," a statement reminiscent of evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky's well-known essay "Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution" (The American Biology Teacher, March 1973).
But what is this opposition these teachers are so bravely withstanding? Almost no one in formal creation science organizations in America is trying to completely eradicate the teaching of Darwin’s theory of macroevolution in taxpayer-paid public schools. Instead, creationists and freethinkers seek a balanced science curriculum, in which the serious scientific flaws associated with evolutionary theory are included, and/or a non-atheism-based origins alternative is presented side-by-side with evolution.
Not surprisingly, many scientists and educators are opposed to even allowing this—resulting in a teaching environment that is tantamount to indoctrination, not education. They are aware that if evolution’s flaws are allowed to be aired, students would soon understand that the fossil record and genetics do not support Darwin’s theory and would look elsewhere for an explanation of origins. Is it any wonder that, for example, the proposed Florida science standards, released this October in the Orlando Sentinel, state that evolution must be taught? Evolution is the only "scientific theory" that needs laws to protect it!
To make his case for the importance of teaching evolution, Waal appealed to nothing less than students' need to be "on level footing with the rest of the world, where evolutionary theory is uncontroversial”—a classic case of relying on what is popularly accepted to the exclusion of evidence and logic. As Waal stated, it does take bravery to stand up for truth in the face of opposition. But the truth of the origins of the universe and all it contains cannot be found in evolution. We salute the many creationist teachers and scientists who work every day to make known the accuracy and relevance of the biblical revelation of our Creator.
