Attorney Regrets Georgia School Board's Decision to Settle With Darwinists
by Jim Brown
December 27, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A constitutional attorney is expressing disappointment over a Georgia school district's decision to drop its efforts to expose students to the debate surrounding Darwinian evolution. The Cobb County School Board has abandoned its fight for a warning sticker in its biology textbooks that called evolution "a theory, not a fact." In addition, the Cobb County School District's warning stickers stated that the material on evolution contained in the science textbooks "should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered." But despite what many supporters considered the accuracy and reasonableness of the stickers, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit on behalf of some local parents, arguing that the evolution disclaimer violated the so-called "separation of church and state," because the warning -- according to the plaintiffs' pretrial brief -- "singles out one scientific theory for disfavored treatment and supports religious theories."
Recently the Cobb County School Board settled the lawsuit and agreed not to edit materials on evolution in school textbooks. But Brian Fahling, senior litigation counsel at the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy (AFA Law Center), says he wishes the board had chosen to stay the course and fight to keep the stickers.
Fahling acknowledges that a number of factors can influence a school district's decision to cave in to pro-Darwinist pressure in a situation like this, including fiscal considerations and even "just a weariness that sets in," along with concerns over the fact that taxpayer dollars are having to be spent to defend the district's position.
Many times, he contends, school officials begin to ask themselves why they don't "just fold up the tent and go home," and that, unfortunately, is what happened in the case of the Cobb County School Board's decision to settle.
"Of course, I think that it's a disservice to the community overall," the AFA Law Center spokesman observes. "Evolution stands out alone as the only area of science that is absolutely cordoned off from any criticism," he says; "there is a great wall around it and they simply do not admit any dissenting voices."
However, Fahling points out, "that [wall] is beginning to crumble a little bit, because inside the camp of Darwin, there is tremendous dissent." So, even though he feels the Cobb County case is further evidence of the "oppressive" attitude the academic community has toward opponents of Darwinian evolution, the pro-family attorney says evolutionary theory is "in tatters" right now.
And that is one reason why Fahling feels the Cobb County School Board's settlement is by no means a death knell for intelligent design theory in schools. Nor should the Georgia district's decision discourage others, he insists, from standing up for the idea that evolution ought to be subjected to critical examination in the classroom.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
