"Scopes II" (2005)

The charade of hearings scheduled by critics of evolution on the Kansas Board of Education has driven scientists to threaten to opt out. As tempting as that may be, the public needs scientists present to defend their work. Sometimes even unfair fights are worth joining, even if the outcome isn't promising.

Scheduled for May, the courtroom-style hearings will allow Kansans to opine to the state board about teaching evolution and intelligent design, the latest version of religious theories of creation, in the public-school science classrooms.

Some science teachers already liken the hearings to the 1925 Scopes “Monkey Trial” where a teacher was prosecuted for teaching evolution.

The board's majority defends the hearings as a way to settle the controversy raging in Kansas over the teaching of evolution.

Sure. Most likely the hearings will further fuel that controversy by injecting religion into science education. They will give the board's conservative majority a smokescreen for revising state science standards to include religious philosophy over the objections of scientists. The board is working on new standards that specify what students should learn.

Harry McDonald, a former science teacher in Blue Valley who is a leading critic of the hearings, says the board's mission “is to hold a kangaroo court where they can claim that science has failed, thus justifying the vote they will take.” His group, Kansas Citizens for Science, is asking scientists and science teachers to ignore the hearings.

It's understandable, but worrisome, counsel. It's a kangaroo court indeed. Or maybe a monkey trial. Either way, students stand to lose if no one speaks up on behalf of science.