27 August 2005

The consequences of creationism

It appears that yet another creationism-related lawsuit is in the works. This time, the venue is in California, and it is the Creationists who are doing the suing. Apparently, the Association of Christian Schools International and Calvary Chapel Christian School of Murietta are no longer satisfied with being able to teach their students creationism instead of real biology. Now, they also want to make sure that their students will not have to suffer the consequences of this decision, and they are suing for that "right".

The University of California System, quite reasonably, requires that the students that they accept have a certain educational background. Several courses, including biology, offered by Calvary Chapel were determined to be insufficient to meet the UC standards. According to the LA Times article cited above, UC directed Calvary Chapel to instead, "submit for UC approval a secular science curriculum with a text and course outline that addresses course content/knowledge generally accepted in the scientific community." Typically, the creationists don't see this as a university excercising it's duty to ensure that its students are properly prepared for admission. Instead, they see it as yet more evidence of the anti-Christian "bias" that they see anytime they do not get things their own way. From the LA Times article:

"It appears that the UC system is attempting to secularize Christian schools and prevent them from teaching from a world Christian view," said Patrick H. Tyler, a lawyer with Advocates for Faith and Freedom, which is assisting the plaintiffs.
...
Bird said the schools have no objection to teaching evolution alongside creationism but consider the UC regulations a violation of their rights. "And a threat to one religion is a threat to all," he added.
That is an interesting take on the situation, but one that is not reality-based. The UC system is not expressing an opinion on whether or not the creationists should be permitted to mis-educate their children. They are simply declining to consider such courses as having been an acceptable science education. The creationists do not have to expose their children to the evils of evolution if they do not want to. They just have to recognize that this decision has consequences.

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