Statute Attacks All of Science

It is most important that the U.S.  Supreme Court affirm the decision  of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the  Fifth Circuit, which threw out a  Louisiana statute mandating the teaching of "creation science." That statute would require that in the public schools of Louisiana the teaching of certain parts of science (which concern "origins" and thus appear to conflict with the claims of particular religious sects) would be selected for special pejorative treatment and would have

Written byMurray Gell-mann
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It is most important that the U.S. Supreme Court affirm the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which threw out a Louisiana statute mandating the teaching of "creation science." That statute would require that in the public schools of Louisiana the teaching of certain parts of science (which concern "origins" and thus appear to conflict with the claims of particular religious sects) would be selected for special pejorative treatment and would have to be "balanced" by the teaching of something called "creation science." It is shown in our brief that this expression can mean only one thing, namely a pseudo-science based on the literal interpretation of certain Bible stories, and preaching that the universe and the Earth are both young (thousands instead of billions of years old), that animals and plants were created in immutable "kinds," that fossils are to be explained by a universal ...

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