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Quebec Quells Creation

By Emil Silvestru and Richard Fangrad

The louder a baby cries the more attention it gets. That is apparently an evolutionary advantage. So Pierre Daoust with the Quebec Ministry of Education decided to make a lot of noise about ‘unlicensed Christian evangelical schools’ in the Outaouais region not teaching Darwinian evolution (or sex education, a code for divorcing sexual activity from morality).1

After all, not allowing Darwinian evolutionary advantages to be used is a crime! And just as with many babies, the cry is only to get attention, not that something bad really happened.

Photo by Steve Cardno

Peppered moths

The dark and light peppered moths are taught in school science classes as evidence for evolution but, even if this classic story had not come unstuck, it was at best only an example of natural selection, not evolution.

In the headlines, the press, a disciplined soldier of evolutionary/humanist thinking, presented a massively distorted reality, leaving the public with the impression that those evangelical schools do not teach Darwinian evolution as the provincial curricula requires, choosing instead to teach creation. The strategy of headlines telling a different (sometimes opposing) story from the contents of the article is frequently used nowadays and seems to rely on the fact that many readers only browse through headlines and do not read the articles. This mantra has been obsessively repeated by the US media in the case of the Dover trial and in previous cases involving intelligent design and school curricula.

Do Quebec Christian schools omit evolutionary teaching?

Christians, according to the Bible, are to respect the authorities (Romans 13), except where they command something contrary to God’s law (Acts 5:29). The evangelical schools involved in this case do teach Darwinian evolution, but they also offer creation, as an alternative explanation, which Alan Buchanan, former Quebec public school teacher calls, ‘a better theory’. For the last 18 years this curriculum has been reviewed and approved by the Ministry of Education. By being exposed to both sides of the argument, students at these schools are actually better educated than those in government schools.

What’s the real issue?

Since the schools in question do teach evolution the real issue is the teaching of creation. It is easy to evoke an emotional response by targeting schools that teach creation. The article, originally in the Ottawa Citizen, was then picked up by the Globe and Mail. Comments on their website from the public are typical of most evolutionists/humanists who do not bother to examine the science that supports Biblical creation. Sample comments include:

‘Hard to believe that some of our schools want to keep children ignorant. The empirical evidence that the evolution theory has amassed over the years cannot be ignored.’

‘Children exposed to such arrant nonsense will be crippled, intellectually, when it comes to understanding and dealing with the real world. Evolution is as close to fact as any scientific knowledge can be.’

‘That evolution has happened and is happening is not a theory, but a fact that can be shown in every research lab nowadays.’ (but see Chapter 1 of Refuting Evolution)

‘I’m a Christian and I’m a believer in evolution.’ (See: 10 dangers of theistic evolution. and: ‘The horse and the tractor—Why God and evolution don’t mix’ and our FAQ section: Creation Compromises.)

‘If these people manage to expunge evidence of evolution, how long will it be before the planet Earth is once again declared as the centre of the universe and how long before some rabid irrationalists insist that the government declares that the earth is FLAT?’ (See Who invented the flat earth? and Is the ’erets (earth) flat?)

From these comments it should be clear that Christians need to become equipped to give reasons for their faith (1 Peter 3:15) and to demolish contrary arguments (2 Corinthians 10:4–5). Then they need to engage people with the kind of information that CMI produces. ‘Lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.’ (John 4:35)

What should be taught?

We at CMI believe that since evolution is a very popular theory, students, especially Christians, should thoroughly understand evolution as it is taught today. However, students also need to hear about its unsurpassable difficulties; i.e. evolution needs to be taught ‘warts and all’. They need to understand that evolution from ‘molecules to man’ is a speculative hypothesis, not a proven fact. Even in the public science classroom it is only fair to students that they be exposed to alternative explanations. In this way students are not only trained in thinking critically about various paradigms, but also given the opportunity to choose for themsleves. Unfortunately evolutionists don’t like that because it might lead students to disbelieve in evolution as evolution defender Eugenie Scott admits.

CMI speaking tours aim to restore the authority of the Bible from its first book and equip Christians with information that they can use to firmly but gently challenge those who do not believe the Bible.

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Published: 3 November 2006