Legal Group: Park Service May Face Litigation If Creationist Book Moved
by Jody Brown
January 15, 2004
(AgapePress) - Controversy over a book about a flood has generated another type of deluge -- thousands of e-mails to the National Park Service.The book Grand Canyon: A Different View is a compilation of breathtaking views of the Canyon and essays written by scientists from the fields of geology, paleontology, biochemistry, physics, and geophysics and by theologians who hold to the "young earth" view of the origins of the universe. Part of that view, held by creation scientists and a growing number of secular geologists, maintains that the Grand Canyon was formed by a lot of water over a few thousand years -- not by the slow erosion of the Colorado River over millions of years.
The book, compiled by Tom Vail -- a veteran tour guide of the Canyon -- was drawn into controversy recently when a group of prominent evolutionists called for it to be removed from the park's bookstores because they considered it too "religious." Now, according to reports from Associated Press, the book will likely remain on sale in Canyon bookstores -- but will probably be stocked in the "cultural" or "inspirational" section instead of the "science" section, where it had been located. Park Service spokesman David Barna tells AP that would be a "reasonable" solution.
"That's probably where we're going to end up," Barna says. "I don't expect to see the Park Service banning any books any time soon. Our bookstores are of limited size, so we don't offer and carry everything, but certainly this is a book that people are interested in -- and we respect that."
But in a letter to the Department of the Interior last week, the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund -- which is representing Vail in the threatened censorship -- said such a remedy would be unconstitutional. ADF stated that "to either relocate Mr. Vail's book to a different section in the Canyon bookstores or remove it altogether ... would lead to a patent violation of the United States Constitution."
The legal group explains that just because the contributors' views are informed by both theology and science, it does not diminish the constitutional protection to which they are entitled. "The opinions expressed in this book cannot be dismissed simply as the fanciful bemusing of amateur scientists presenting novel theories," ADF says. "On the contrary, the contributors are well-trained scientists presenting a legitimate, albeit minority, scientific theory."
And while those writers' views are obviously rejected by those scientists calling for the book's removal, "difference of opinion among scientists ... is grossly insufficient justification to censor the book and would expose the [National Park Service] to almost certain legal liability," the legal group says.
According to Barna, the Park Service has received "several thousand" e-mails about the controversy. He says about half of those messages are from people "who support the beliefs of the book." The other half, he says, oppose the book's presence in the park because they consider it "pseudo-science" or because it is a "religious book."
"Part of the controversy is that this book purports to be a scientific text," Barna says. "We don't have to treat it that way because its conclusions and the premise it's based on has been determined by the Supreme Court that that is not science. It is a point of view, it is a belief, and we respect that -- and we can offer those books for sale."
But the NPS spokesman says strict church-state separationists want all religion purged from the national parks. He says that is not possible. "Like it or not, religion has played a big part in the formation of American history," he says, "and our job in the Park Service is not just these natural resource sites [like the Grand Canyon] -- it's also [about] 200 cultural sites nationwide."
The controversy does not seem to have discouraged sales of the book. According to ADF, the Park Service contacted Vail on Tuesday -- to order 64 more copies of the book.
Associated Press contributed to this story.
