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"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1).

You might remember the Scope’s Monkey trial back in the 1920s in Tennessee. During that trial, evolutionists challenged a school district to teach not only creationism but also evolution. Throughout the rest of the 20^th Century, the theory of evolution became the dominant scientific view and creationism has been ridiculed, and because of the separation of church and state, effectively eliminated from all teaching situations in elementary, secondary and college schools. Now a new idea has come along and the powers that be in the scientific community refuse to consider it worth teaching.

That new idea is called intelligent design. Now I’m no scientist so this a very basic understanding of this idea. It says that the universe has intelligent design behind it. We would agree. Some conclude that means God, others don’t know. But it is worthy of consideration, one would think. Not according to the scientific powers. Evolution is the only theory to be taught. There are several reasons for this.

One goes back to the church-state issue. Barry Lynn, who is a minister in the very liberal United Church of Christ, argues that it should not be taught because it introduces the idea of God into the public schools and that is illegal. In a recent article (Houston Chronicle, 2/13/05) he made several points in support of his position. One, fundamentalists are trying to push God on people. That means Bible believers. Mr. Lynn is one who rejects many aspects of scripture as coming from God, hence the disagreement. He says that "Conservative religious activists have been unable to ban the teaching of evolution outright or give ‘equal time’ to creationism in public schools." That is because Mr. Lynn and his group, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, have used the courts and like minded judges to support their views.

Another argument he makes is that anyone who believes in creationism is ignorant of science and that no responsible scientist believes in creationism. That means that we are ignorant and that those of the Intelligent Design Movement are not responsible. This is not an uncommon view from the elite. A reporter for the Washington Post stated that Bible believers are ignorant, poor and easily led. In the recent election, the idea of values became a prominent reason for the winning party and the other party was left in the dark as to what that meant and means. Mr. Lynn might be surprised that many scientists who began studying the universe several centuries ago were Bible believers and God fearers. And before making a claim that no reputable scientist doesn’t believe, he might want to research that; the figure that comes to mind is somewhere around forty percent.

I was under the impression that scientists would examine the evidence and draw conclusions from it. However, evolution is more than science. It has become a philosophy, even a religion. It has some basic beliefs. One is the survival of the fittest. From Charles Darwin’s idea Fredrick Nietszche expanded this to the idea of the will of power, that is, the strongest win. The German schools picked this up and that gave us the Master Race of Nazism. Any who did not belong to that race were inferior and needed to be dealt with which led to the concentration camps, experiments on people, and the gas chambers. Many today would reject such an attitude, or so we would think. Yet another huge debate of the last election was stem cell research, especially on embryos.

Following on that idea comes the idea that man is an animal and as such are equal to dogs and cats and birds and every other animal and fish. Some have equated Thanksgiving with the holocaust because millions of turkeys give their all for us. Others oppose hunting, wearing of fur coats and of even calling pets pets. They should be companions. The other extreme is that if man is an animal, then treat him as such. Child abuse and sexual slavery, spouse abuse, and aged abuse are all prevalent in our society.

That leads to the third tenet of evolutionary philosophy, man is an accident. As such, we can eliminate accidents through abortion and euthanasia. If they are inconvenient then abort them or euthanize them in their old age. Peter Singer has gone so far as to suggest that a new born child who is unwanted, diseased, or handicapped be killed by his parents up to one month after birth.

Why are they afraid of God? That is what it boils down to isn’t it? They are afraid of God because He presents a different view of humankind. We are created in His image and are highly valued. He wants us to live in a holy way in His presence. The Bible gives us the standards by which to live, what is good and right and beneficial. We see every child as valuable, even if they are handicapped. Medical science has given us the sonogram. We can look into the womb and see a child develop and even know the sex before birth. Surgeons can now operate on babies before birth and allow the process to continue until a healthy child is born.

The conflict between evolution and God is who rules. Those who support evolution want to control things and want no one telling them what is right or wrong. Anything goes and we are back to Nazism, though they would be offended if that was suggested to them. Others do not want children to learn of God because it would challenge their views and opinions and power. If God is taught in public, or the Ten Commandments are found in a public place, that challenges the anything goes philosophy and religion.

This will be an ongoing challenge for us. At times it will be frustrating. We must reason carefully as we are challenged by various philosophies that effect us. The Intelligent Design movement offers one such effort. Hopefully they will write in ways that the layman can understand.

George B. Mearns