EDITORIAL
Reactionaries 6, Darwin 4
There's no doubt that when the Kansas Board of Education in
Topeka, Kan., voted 6-to-4 to eliminate the teaching of
evolution as an underlying principle of biology, they struck a
reactionary blow against scientific education.
So-called Creationism, which the board wants its educators
to teach as an alternate theory of the development of human and
other life, has nothing to do with science. It is a story, a
myth. It explains nothing of the continued development of life
forms that goes on today. It explains nothing of the historical
record of life left as fossils or the current all-too-rapid
changes in microscopic life that sometimes threaten human
health.
The Kansas board should consider that the Christian myth of
creation is not the only one human societies have come up with.
Any fair study of creation stories should include those of all
the different peoples on the earth. They would provide a rich
and much broader view of humanity--though not of scientific
method. But this ecumenical approach would be too accepting of
other peoples for the reactionaries pushing Creationism on
students in the U.S.
Evolution, on the other hand, provides a framework for
evaluating the extensive data about the existence of different
life forms throughout millions, even billions of years. It is a
scientific theory that has proved extremely useful in
explaining both history and contemporary changes in living
matter. Like all scientific theory--and this one is relatively
well established--it can only be rationally challenged by new
facts that contradict its model, and then it should be replaced
by a better scientific theory.
Marxists, who hold a materialist world view, always choose
fact over myth. But for us, the Kansas board's decision, made
in 1999--that's 150 years after Darwin published "The Origin of
Species"--raises another question. Especially if this backward
movement is not quickly reversed, or is extended to the
half-dozen other states where scientific education is also
under attack.
Does the Kansas decision tell us something about the
dynamics of 21st century capitalism?
In the mid-19th century competitive capitalism was in the
midst of tremendous growth. The rapid change in technology and
growth of productive forces were conquering the world. And
creating an intellectual climate that allowed Darwin both to
spend years studying species and categorizing them and then
publicizing his theory. Not that the 19th century know-nothings
or the British bishops made it easy for Darwin. But a few
centuries earlier scientists with theories like evolution would
have wound up hanging by their thumbs in some monastery's
dungeon until they recanted. Look at Galileo.
Capitalism needed science and the scientific method for its
own development 150 years ago. Now, in the most technologically
developed country on earth, we have to view this reactionary
move in education as another sign of decadence. Even as
technology continues to develop under the ownership of the
corporate monopolies, the imperialist stage of capitalism
fosters the most reactionary and know-nothing ideologies.
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