 TLANTA, Jan. 13 - A federal judge in Georgia has ruled that schools in Cobb County must remove from science textbooks stickers that say "evolution is a theory, not a fact" that should be "approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered."
OK, here is what I think. Although what the sticker placed in the texts by the district says is basically true, what the judge who ordered the stickers removed (overturning a lower court's ruling) concluded basically makes sense: that any informed and reasonable person who reads the sticker knows the controversy behind the sticker, and therefore would only see it as an endorsement of a perticular religious belief. Now, that being said, I think the school district could have been smarter when placing their qualifier in the science textbook. What they had said in the sticker is basically true about all non-empirically testable scientific theories. They are just theories and not all people in the field buy the whole theory. Now it has to be said that there is a lot of strong consensus in the scientific community, even Christians in the sciences, on the current theory of human evolution. Still, if you applied the sentiment of the Cobb-county sticker more widely and said, that all accepted theories of any science or discipline are the products of ultimately limited human observation, then perhaps this lawsuit might not have been so necessary.
No that's not it. What actually needs to take place is this. The Christian leaders address their congregations and remind them that Christians who are mature and grounded in their faith--a faith that is not based in a theory of origins but rather on historical events surrounding the person of Jesus of Nazareth--are not shaken by scientific theories about the origins of species. Nor are they bound to holding one worldview of origins. Nor do they confine themselves to only one possible faithful reading of the Genesis text.
Somehow I made it through public school and the whole evolution/creationism controversy and all with my faith intact. and somehow I think it had to do with someone, whether it was parents or intelligent chuch leaders, helping me think for myself, and showing me that I could have confidence in what I believed, even if faced with apparently conflicting information (the conflict is not really there by the way).
So to the Christians in Cobb county, I encourage you...your God is bigger than textbooks, science, your church, your pastor, and even your own understanding. He even is sovereign over this particular court decision. And He is confident enough in His own truth, that which He has revealed and that which He yet hasn't, that He really doesn't need us fighting His battles for Him, or better yet presuming to know what His battles are. He always wins. His winning just rarely looks like we expect it to look.
6:14:23 PM 
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Published: January 14, 2005
