Ethics Newsline®

WASHINGTON
Two of the world’s leading scientific organizations last week independently called on educators and learning centers to withstand pressure from religious groups that would censor the teaching of evolution.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest organization of scientists, last week urged science centers and museums to not water down their displays to accommodate religious theories.

The organization’s letter follows a report that a large number of IMAX theaters, which typically are housed within science centers, have refused to book a movie that touches on evolution and the Big Bang because such views contradict the beliefs of religious audiences, reported NASA’s news outlet, Space.com.

“The desire not to antagonize audiences and to avoid negative business outcomes is entirely understandable,” American Association for the Advancement of Science CEO Alan Leshner wrote.

“Yet, the suppression of scientifically accurate information as a response to those with differing perspectives … threatens both the integrity of science and the broader public education to which we all are committed. It is also objectionable to many stakeholders — including many with strong religious convictions — who understand that religion and science are not in opposition,” he added.

Leshner’s letter follows a similar March 4 missive from National Academy of Sciences chief Bruce Alberts, who called on the Academy’s members to rebuff pressure from religious groups opposed to evolution.

Alberts’s letter cited a survey taken by the congressionally chartered National Academy of Sciences, which found that 30 percent of science teachers saying they “feel pushed to de-emphasize or omit evolution or evolution-related topics from their curriculum.”

A growing number of school districts across the United States are debating or encouraging the instruction of “intelligent design,” a theory akin to Creationism that supposes divine invention, not evolution, gave birth to humans in their present form.

Intelligent design advocate Stephen Meyer of the Seattle-based Discovery Institute last week dismissed Alberts’s concerns as “panic among the official spokesmen for science,” reported USA Today.