ACLU Position Statement on "Creation-science"



Note: This statement will be included in the forthcoming second edition of
Voices for Evolution, a publication of the National Center for Science
Education. Page citations refer to that publication.


For seventy-five years, the American Civil Liberties Union has been

dedicated to upholding First Amendment protections of civil liberties.

Consistent with the requirements of the Establishment Clause, the ACLU

policy on religion in public schools states that "...any program of

religious indoctrination -- direct or indirect -- in the public schools or

by use of public resources is a violation of the constitutional principle

of separation of church and state and must be opposed...."  In 1980, the

Board of Directors further clarified this policy by stating, "ACLU also

opposes the inculcation of religious doctrines even if they are presented

as alternatives to scientific theories."  "Creation science" in all its

guises, for example "abrupt appearance theory"  or "intelligent design

theory", is just such religious doctrine.



Among the problems "creation-science"  creates in the academic environment

is the foreclosure of scientific inquiry.  The unifying principle of

"creationism" is not the law of nature, but divinity.  A divine

explanation of natural data is not subject to experiment, it cannot be

proved untrue, it cannot be disputed by any human means.  Creationism

necessarily rests on the unobservable; it can exist only in the ambiance

of faith.  Faith -- belief that does not rest on logic or on evidence --

has no role in scientific inquiry.



The constitutional defect of any law or policy requiring the teaching of

creationism, or of "evidence against evolution," is not that it requires

instruction about facts which coincide with a religious belief, but that

it requires instruction in one religious belief as the unifying

explanation of facts.  This unifying concept is not a secular topic such

as biology, chemistry, art, phonics, or literature which is familiar to

the elementary and secondary school curricula.  Instead, teachers are

required to identify, organize, or teach facts and inferences supporting a

specific belief - " special creation" . To require public schools to

marshal "evidences" and "inferences" in service of one religious belief,

or to impose an embargo on a scientific theory that Fundamentalists

dislike, is not to use religious works "for the teaching of secular

subjects," (Abington School Dist. v. Schempp), but to place "the power,

prestige and financial support of government...behind a particular

religious belief" (Engel v. Vitale) The year-by-year, school-by-school,

and teacher-by-teacher decision-making on whether and how to imbue

"creationism" into the sciences and humanities promises continuing anguish

in the educational community and assures inordinate involvement of

religious groups in the affairs of government.



In our society, government is not permitted to instruct a child in

religion, because it is not the government's job to promote a religious

form of truth.  No provision of the Constitution so firmly assures the

essential freedom of the individual as does the Establishment Clause.  The

provision recognizes that choices about the ultimate meaning of life must

be made in the private recesses of the conscience and not in the earthly

controversies of political power.  Were every person in this country of

the same faith, the Establishment Clause would serve as a powerful

expression that humans must decide their relationship to God, not at the

bidding of the state, but at the calling of the soul.  That we are a

nation of many religions does not alter this basic function of the Clause,

it only enhances the need for vigilance against state manipulation of

belief.



Vigilance requires firm and consistent opposition to every effort to use

the nation's schools to teach any biblical text, including Genesis, as

literal truth, either directly or disguised as "alternative" science.  To

reject creationism as science is to defend the most basic principles of

academic integrity and religious liberty.



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