WELCOME TO THE DARK AGES

In his recent book on the Scottish Enlightenment James Buchan writes of Edinburgh in the early eighteenth century, "Men and women were coming to suspect that knowledge acquired through skepticism might be more useful in this world below than knowledge 'revealed' by scripture." It is a painful thought that in the United States in the twenty-first century we might be turning away from the world of the Enlightenment which inspired the Founding Fathers. Of all the thoughts provoked by [Anatol] Lieven's book ["America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism"] this is the most disturbing, both for America and for the world. Since religious freedom and popular elections are both sacrosanct rights of the American people, it is a particularly delicate one. Is it possible that America could eventually vote to go back on the Enlightenment?

Might be turning away? Is it possible? Eventually? So politely put. How about, with Georgie Boy elected to the White House last November, is it a done deal?

It sure seems so. Look no further than "Evolution Takes A Back Seat in U.S. Classes," which appeared earlier this week in the Science section of The New York Times.

In [school] districts around the country, even when evolution is in the curriculum it may not be in the classroom, according to researchers who follow the issue.

Teaching guides and textbooks may meet the approval of biologists, but superintendents or principals discourage teachers from discussing it. Or teachers themselves avoid the topic, fearing protests from fundamentalists in their communities.

Dr. John Frandsen, a retired zoologist and former chairman of the committee on science and public policy of the Alabama Academy of Science, told reporter Cornelia Dean this fear made it impossible to say precisely how many teachers avoid the topic. But he believed the practice of avoiding the topic was widespread, particularly in districts where many people adhere to fundamentalist faiths.

"You can imagine how difficult it would be to teach evolution as the standards prescribe in ever so many little towns, not only in Alabama but in the rest of the South, the Midwest -- all over," Dr. Frandsen told her.

Dean points out that a 2001 survey by the National Science Foundation found that just 53 percent of Americans agreed with the statement "human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals," despite the fact that there is "no credible scientific challenge to the idea that all living things evolved from common ancestors, that evolution on earth has been going on for billions of years and that evolution can be and has been tested and confirmed by the methods of science."

Believe it or not, this was regarded as "good news to the foundation" because "it was the first time one of its regular surveys showed a majority of Americans had accepted the idea."

According to the foundation report, polls consistently show that a plurality of Americans believe that God created humans in their present form about 10,000 years ago, and about two-thirds believe that this belief should be taught along with evolution in public schools.

If that doesn't astonish you, how about this?

These findings set the United States apart from all other industrialized nations, said Dr. Jon Miller, director of the Center for Biomedical Communications at Northwestern University, who has studied public attitudes toward science. ... In other industrialized countries, Dr. Miller said, 80 percent or more typically accept evolution, most of the others say they are not sure and very few people reject the idea outright.

Or this, in this morning's Times editorial about Dean's report, "Afraid to Discuss Evolution":

In some areas of the country, many biology teachers are themselves believers in creationism. A 1998 doctoral dissertation found that 24 percent of the biology teachers sampled in Louisiana said that creationism had a scientific foundation and that 17 percent were not sure. Several surveys have shown that many teachers give at least some instructional time to creationism or intelligent design out of a sense of fairness.

And the news only gets worse. Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, told Dean that the teaching of evolution was portrayed not as scientific instruction but as "an assault of the secular elite on the values of God-fearing people." Consequently, the politicians are afraid to touch the issue.

Furthermore, Dean reports, "scriptural literalists are moving beyond evolution to challenge the teaching of geology and physics on issues like the age of the earth and the origin of the universe," according to Dr. Miller, and "they have now decided the Big Bang has to be wrong. There are now a lot of people who are insisting that that be called only a theory without evidence and so on ...."

Who said you can't turn back the clock?