Text Book Calls Creationism a Biblical Myth

Now here’s the shoe on the other foot.

A text book approved for use by the Knoxville Tennessee school board describes Creationism as a “Biblical Myth.”

This has at least one parent up in arms and the man has demanded that the book be banned. So far at least the school board has pretty much ignored him. Fox News, on the other hand, provided him a soapbox to stand on. You’d think there might be a few more important things for Fox to focus on wouldn’t you?

So what’s the deal here? Now a “myth” need not be false but I think most people would interpret the text as stating that the bible account is untrue. The domino effect is once you declare Genesis wrong, then the bible is not inerrant and therefore the bible is not the word of god.

This implication directly contradicts conservative fundamentalist Christian teaching. The fact that it happens to be accurate, and Christians have their heads up their asses, is irrelevant.

It’s irrelevant because the Constitution requires the state to be NEUTRAL with respect to religion. Not only can’t the state promote religion it can’t be hostile to it either. One can imply that Genesis is allegorical by stating the facts and conclusions of science about the age of the universe or evolution but the state is prohibited from deciding which religious tenets are true and which are false.

As crazy as it sounds, the text book has stepped over the line and the “Biblical Myth” claim should be removed in the next revision. Banning the book is a bit much. Christians are always ready to ban books they don’t like which is why they cannot be trusted to uphold democracy.