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Science journalist Denyse O'Leary believes Canadian advocates of the theory of evolution are attempting to "import a controversy" by claiming, as the Toronto Star reported, that God-centred instruction on the origins of life is "creeping into this country's public school science classes and it's up to parents to do something about it."
According to the Star, biologist Brian Alters, director of the Evolution Education Research Centre at McGill University, contends that teachers are bowing to pressure from parents who want their children to be taught either creationism or intelligent design.
He said "informal research" shows that about one-third of science teachers report feeling this pressure, and that most respond by avoiding altogether any mention of either evolution or creationism. And that, in his view, undermines scientific education by making it seem that both are of equal merit.
Compared to the United States, where the ongoing debate over creationism versus evolution is out in the open, Alters believes that here in Canada - as the Star phrased it - "the encroachment of creationism is much more stealth."
"If you know you are going to get a lot of flak, there are ways to dance around it," Alter said.
But O'Leary counters that the real problem in Canadian schools is that students are exposed to nothing but evolution. "[Alter] and his colleagues are essentially importing a controversy that doesn't exist here," she said.
O'Leary added: "He needs to find examples of fundamentalist teachers promoting their ideas in the classroom. That will get him funding."
One year ago, as the Montreal Gazette reported at the time, the federal Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council denied Alter's application for a $40,000 grant to study how the growing popularity of intelligent design south of the border is eroding the acceptance of evolutionary science in Canada.
The panel that reviewed the request said Alter had failed to provide "adequate justification for the assumption in the proposal that the theory of evolution, and not intelligent design theory, was correct."
In 2005, Alters was a key witness on behalf of parents in Pennsylvania who had sued their local school board over a policy that required biology teachers to tell Grade 9 students that evolution "was not a fact" and that there are other theories including intelligent design. That policy was ruled unconstitutional and was quickly rescinded.
Copyright Today's Family News, a division of Focus on the Family. Used by Permission
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