Re: Final Textbook Insert

Allan Harvey (aharvey@boulder.nist.gov)
Mon, 01 Dec 1997 14:11:55 -0700

At 04:12 PM 12/1/97 -0400, David Campbell wrote:

> Most
>textbooks I've seen claim that evolution supports atheistic (or possibly
>deistic) worldviews; this is neither true nor science.

Is this really true of TEXTBOOKS (as opposed to popularizers like Sagan
and Dawkins)?

I haven't seen any (high school or college) biology textbook in a long
time, but do they really say things that amount to "people used to think
some God created all these things, but now we know evolution did it and
God is nowhere in the picture"? If so, then there is a big problem,
though the Alabama inserts don't strike me as a good solution.

I would have expected the textbooks to say that evolution happened and
describe the mechanisms (perhaps with inadequate supporting evidence, but
that's another issue) and to stay away from metaphysical claims.

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