Darwin Who?

To the fundamentalists of this world, Charles Darwin's Origin of Species is little more than a fashionable theory. The literal truth on the origin appeared in Genesis: after filling the seas with great whales and creeping things, God created, in his own image, man. Despite more than a century of scientific backing for Darwin's theory of evolution--despite the victory of Darwinism in the famous Scopes "monkey trial" of 1925--the argument was still going on last week in California.

Since 1969, fundamentalists have been encouraged by Dr. John Ford, a San Diego physician and vice president of the state board of education, who has campaigned for mention of the biblical version of creation in all science textbooks. Evolution, said Ford, "should not be accepted as fact without alluding to creationism, which is felt to be sound by many scientists." That year, the board went along, issuing revised guidelines that urged the inclusion of both "theories." The guidelines were optional, however, and no major publisher adopted them. This year, after Dr. Ford raised the issue again, a state textbook commission suggested a compromise. It did not propose the teaching of "creationism," but it did propose that evolution be taught as theory, not fact. The conservatives object, for example, to phrases like this: "It is known that life began in the seas." The compromise would make a change: "Most scientists believe that life may have begun in the seas."

As the decision time neared, 19 California Nobel prizewinners (including Willard F. Libby, Glenn T. Seaborg, Harold C. Urey and Linus Pauling) wrote the board in protest. In the letter, drafted by Arthur Kornberg, professor of biochemistry at Stanford's School of Medicine, the laureates said that the concessions were unacceptable.

"Conditional statements are appropriate," the letter continued, "when multiple theories have been proposed and none of these can be eliminated by existing scientific evidence. No alternative 1 to the evolutionary theory gives an equally satisfactory explanation of the biological facts." Kornberg later said:

"We don't want to become the laughingstock of the civilized world."

Nonetheless, when the nine-man board met last week, it approved the concessions. Although fundamentalists were unable to force through a resolution requiring the teaching of biblical creation, their influence was strong enough to require that all statements on Darwin be sedulously qualified. Further, the board reserved the right to review editorial changes, and named an ad hoc commission to work with publishers on mandatory textual changes. Regardless of what the Nobel laureates might think, Associate Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Clarence Hall said that "California has adopted the best set of science materials available."

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