Creationism - National Center for Science Education
Creationism - National Center for Science Education
Creationism - National Center for Science Education
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Cali<strong>for</strong>nia Public Schools (Segraves and Sumrall, undated). They decided to focus on<br />
evolution, reasoning that it was irreligious and hence fostered atheism, and thus illegally<br />
and unconstitutionally violated the rights of Christian schoolchildren. Sumrall contacted<br />
her old teacher, Lammerts, who was then planning the Creation Research Society, <strong>for</strong><br />
scientific advice with which to counter evolution.<br />
After seeing Lang’s Bible-<strong>Science</strong> Newsletter, Sumrall and Segraves were active<br />
in the founding of the Bible-<strong>Science</strong> Association; they also founded the Southern<br />
Cali<strong>for</strong>nia BSA branch and organized creation science seminars. In 1963 they also<br />
appeared be<strong>for</strong>e the Cali<strong>for</strong>nia State Board of <strong>Education</strong> to pursue their demands that<br />
Christian children not be indoctrinated with evolution in public schools. Rather than<br />
insisting that evolution be excluded (the 1968 Supreme Court Epperson decision was to<br />
finally end all such legislation), they urged that evolution be labeled a theory rather than a<br />
fact, which the Board agreed to, and then <strong>for</strong> inclusion of creationism in the science<br />
textbooks, which they did not.<br />
By 1969, with the addition of several members appointed by Governor Reagan,<br />
the Board was considerably more conservative. The State Superintendent of Public<br />
Instruction, Max Rafferty, actively encouraged fundamentalist and creationist demands,<br />
and had been in contact with Sumrall and Segraves since 1963. In 1969 Rafferty wrote,<br />
in the Cali<strong>for</strong>nia Dept. of <strong>Education</strong> booklet Guidelines <strong>for</strong> Moral Instruction in<br />
Cali<strong>for</strong>nia Schools:<br />
The teaching of evolution as a part of the religion of Humanism...is yet another area of concern... If the<br />
origins of man were taught from the point of view of both evolutionists and creationists, the purpose of<br />
education would be satisfied. By concentrating on only one theory and ignoring others, it is tantamount to<br />
indoctrination in one special religious viewpoint. [Quoted in J.A. Moore 1974:177]<br />
Meanwhile, the State Advisory Committee on <strong>Science</strong> <strong>Education</strong>, which included<br />
distinguished scientists such as Jacob Bronowski, issued a very different set of<br />
guidelines, the <strong>Science</strong> Framework <strong>for</strong> Cali<strong>for</strong>nia Public Schools. Many Board of<br />
<strong>Education</strong> members objected to these curriculum guidelines—in particular to two<br />
paragraphs about evolution. Board members who objected included two Mormons (one<br />
was Rafferty’s personal physician), one Seventh-day Adventist, the president of<br />
Pasadena’s Fuller Theological Seminary, and a Baptist. Thomas Harvard, Rafferty’s<br />
Mormon physician, and John Ford, the Adventist, got the Board to hold a public hearing.<br />
The creationists wanted to scrap the entire <strong>Science</strong> Framework as hopelessly evolutionist.<br />
However, at the hearing, Vernon Grose, a consulting aerospace engineer, Pentecostalist,<br />
ASA member and creationist, presented the creationist lobbyists with a written statement,<br />
which could be inserted into the Framework, calling <strong>for</strong> inclusion of creationism when<br />
evolution is taught. This surprise recommendation was adopted, and the Framework,<br />
with Grose’s two added paragraphs, passed unanimously. The scientists who wrote the<br />
Framework were horrified, and publicly repudiated the changes. The Board allowed<br />
them only to insert a disclaimer into the Framework.<br />
Textbook publishers seemed more than willing to present creationism alongside<br />
evolution in order to con<strong>for</strong>m to the new Cali<strong>for</strong>nia guidelines. According to J.A. Moore<br />
(1974:181), Junji Kumamoto, a UC Riverside chemist and the only professional scientist<br />
on the curriculum commission during these years, struggled single-handedly to keep<br />
creationism out of textbooks. In 1972, prior to final textbook adoptions, a public hearing