U.S. News and World Report on Evolution

U.S. News and World Report has a forum on the teaching of evolution in the public schools and invites your comments. I certainly invite you to read the comments. It is an interesting commentary on our "educated" society. Compare and contrast this:

Evolution is being taught as dogma to protect the Atheist religion from the obvious facts of science. As your article points out, a Christian can be a Christian if Evolution is proved. An Atheist cannot remain an Atheist if Darwin is disproved. I can begin to understand your fear.

We now have the Scopes Monkey Trials in reverse. Christians merely want to believe what the facts of science teach. We can see more and more clearly that the facts of science do not teach Evolution. Darwin was smart for 150 years ago, but recent discoveries have left him and his disciples behind. Let go of your stranglehold on our children and let them observe, experiment and Reason! Let them follow where the facts lead them.

with this:

Creationism, in all its various guises, has no scientific merit whatsoever and so should be barred from public school science classes. Creationists have another alternative however. Creationism could be legally taught in a comparative religion/philosophy course in any public school. Creationists have never availed themselves of this opportunity and the reason they have not is instructive: They would have to share the stage with other religions and with non-religious philosophical systems, a prospect they find to be intolerable. Moreover, such a course would almost certainly be an elective. This will not do. They must have no competition and it must be in a class that all students must take. No more clear evidence of their proselytory intent is needed.

Mr. Morris complains that since a majority of Americans believe in creation, that alone is reason to teach it. Rubbish! Science does not function on majority rule, but on facts. Moreover, public opinion that arises from ignorance, whatever the subject being considered, should not be the basis for any action. That Mr. Morris is all too willing to use ignorance as a weapon in his evangelical arsenal speaks volumes about both him and the ideas he espouses. The facts are incontrovertibly against creation and equally incontrovertibly in support of evolution. This is no impediment to Mr. Morris. He trots out all of the usual (and fully discredited) creationist arguments.

A plurality of ideas and then some.