Evolution in Kansas Part 1

By 史蒂夫 奥托

A recent letter writer to The Wichita Eagle claimed a survey found that only 39 percent of people believe in evolution, with 25 percent claiming they don’t believe in evolution. That may be true, but evolution is the most agreed on theory by all major scientists. It is unfortunate that so many people refuse to believe scientific fact over religious mythology, but that seems to be the case. Kansas has had a terrible time jumping back and forth with its school board unable to decide whether to accept science or mythology to be taught in public schools..
Members of the religious right won control of the Kansas State Board of Education in the 2004 election. They had been voted out in the prior election after they embarrassed the state by removing requirements for teaching evolution in Kansas public schools, in 1999. After their 2004 victory, they plan to renew their attacks on Charles Darwin’s theory.[1]
Once again, Steve Abrams, an extreme right-wing Christian fundamentalist had been elected by the board as the chairperson. He was largely responsible for removing the evolution requirements the first time, in August of 1999. The Kansas school board tossed out the requirements for the teaching evolution in Kansas public schools. That action brought the attention of just about all the nation’s news media and even some foreign press were watching.[2] Some states, such as Alabama, now require stickers on textbooks that label evolution a “controversial theory.”[3]
Vicki Frost, was a political Christian right-wing activist, fighting the teaching of evolution in her local Hawkins County School, in Tennessee. She has stated openly that she believes the Bible is absolutely true and that God created the world in six days.[4]
Life on earth began at least 3.5 billion years ago.[5] The evidence to this is overwhelming. There is no way all the extinct animals, whose fossils we’ve found, could have existed at once, just 20,000 years or even 200,000 years ago. That’s just not logical. Anyone who says it is needs to do the math. It doesn’t add up.
Some creationists claim that the universe is only about 20,000 years old. The Bible said God made light on the second day:
“In the beginning God created the heaven and he earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”[6]
And yet we can see the light from quasars which are over a billion light years away. I once heard a creationist explain, while at a forum, that God created the light from far away stars so humans could see them. That’s not science. It is mythology.
Creationists claim that evolution can’t be duplicated in a lab experiment. Christian Scientist author Henry Morris wrote:
“In this chapter and the next we shall summarize the evidence against evolution by showing, first, that there is no evidence of evolution occurring at present and second, that thee is no evidence that evolution has occurred in the past.”[7]
They ignore the signs of evolution can be seen today. A salamander called a Congo-eel has four tiny legs that are useless to the animal. The Congo-eel had evolved into a serpent shaped animal that doesn’t need its legs any more.[8] Millions of years ago, the legs were as useful as on any other salamander. A million years from now they will be completely gone. That’s evidence of evolution in the present.
There is also plenty of evidence of past evolution. Morris focuses several pages to the ancient idea that one species can evolve into a new one. He obviously scoffs at such an idea.[9] By 2004 scientist were beginning to find fossils of dinosaurs in the process of evolving into birds. Feathered and winged dinosaurs were found in China’s Liaoning province in the early part of 2000.[10] This is just one of many examples of past evolution and it demonstrates how a modern species can evolve from an extinct one.
[1] “Fair warning: It’s the 2004 Weepers,” The Wichita Eagle, (1 January 2005) vol. 133 no. 1), p. 7A.
[2] For example see David L. Marcus, “Charles Darwin gets thrown out of school,” U.S. News & World Report, (30 August 1999) vol. 127 no. 8, p. 32.
[3] U.S. News & World Report, (30 August 1999) p. 32.
[4] Stephen Bates, Battle Ground, One Mother’s Crusade, the Religious Right, and the Struggle for Our Schools, (An Owl Book, New York, 1993) pp. 16 – 17.
[5] Albert Towle, Modern Biology (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., Austin, 1991) p. 5.
[6] Holy Bible, (Genesis 1:1 - 3).
[7] Henry M. Morris, The Twilight of Evolution, (Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1988) p. 29.
[8] Herbert S. Zim and Hobart M. Smith, Reptiles And Amphibians, A Guide To Familiar American Species, (Golden Press, New York, 1956) p. 139.
[9] Morris, pp. 75 – 77, 47.
[10] Michael D. Lemonick, “Dinosaur Tales, Time, (25 October 2004) vol. 164 no. 17, pp. 74 – 75.


The Kinks - Apeman 1970