Sir, - Your article "For God and Ulster" on Protestant Evangelism in Northern Ireland (Weekend, April 17th) interested me, a Catholic, not so much by raising fears for my eternal soul, but for making it plain to me that much work remains to be done in my chosen field of science education. For I am an example of that not-so-endangered species - a teacher of Leaving Certificate biology. Pastor David McConaghie's views on evolution were certain to catch my attention - specifically, "I don't hold with the scientific argument for evolution. I don't object to evolution being taught in schools, but creationism should also be taught."
I teach in a community school in Dublin, not in rural Alabama or Tennessee, but I have recently been asked to give class time to a discussion on "other interpretations" of the origin of the Earth and the life upon it. The current atmosphere of political correctness may make it unfashionable to say, but it remains indelibly true that the literal interpretation of Genesis spoken of by Pastor McConaghie and his spiritual fellow-travellers is irrational and unscientific. Why then should it merit "equal time" in the classroom?
That it may be unjust to denigrate another's religion is patently recognisable. In theory I would always agree with that point of view - I don't expect my opinions to influence that which someone else believes. This tolerance is at the heart of our democratic society, indeed, of modern Western civilisation. It represents the ultimate triumph of the sacrifices that have punctuated this convulsive 20th century.
But this argument now enters a domain not of pure belief. When adherents to a particular sect set about a process of influencing what goes on in a science classroom, I object most wholeheartedly. If I believed with an evangelical fervour that the world was flat, it still would not merit the serious attention of science, since the process of science easily disproves such an interpretation of reality. So it is with the modern sciences of geology, palaeontology, zoology, biochemistry and anthropology among others, all in step with a weight of evidence behind them supporting our modern scientific explanation of the Earth's formation, and the evolution of the life upon it. That all of this endeavour can be negated by a skewed interpretation of divine fiat is eloquent testimony to the depth of the irrationality held as religious truth by some of these groups.
I was invited lately to attend a seminar given by the "Answers in Genesis" organisation, which, as the name suggests, finds its entire truth in that venerable text. What I witnessed was a little worrying. Beliefs that seem somehow in context with the poor and uneducated people of Dayton, Tennessee in the 1920s struck me as anachronistic and dangerous in the capital city of the Celtic Tiger. The audience of about 400 sat through an entertaining three hours of a slick and humorous presentation. This was marketing with all the power of the Holy Spirit. The scientist in me railed at the twisting of fact, the disingenuous editing of quotes from Richard Dawkins and Carl Sagan, the total lack of "equal time" for rational debate on the issues raised. I didn't complain - it was not a forum to register complaint, just as the science classroom is not a forum to proselytise.
I welcome no input from these groups into our educational system. The 1987 US Supreme Court decision of Edwards vs Aguillard ended the Christian fundamentalist drive to have "creationism" taught as an alternative view to the modern scientific one in American public schools, but that nation's constitution guarantees Thomas Jefferson's "wall between church and state". Our schools are administered largely under the aegis of religious organisations, or at least by boards of management committed to a religious ethos. It is my fear that these sects will seek access to such a broader platform in the current and admirable climate of growing religious tolerance and understanding brought about by recent political developments.
But believers in a literal interpretation of Genesis are ultimately not about tolerance, and this is what is most threatening. They are about right and wrong and in their cosmogeny modern science is just plain wrong. - Yours, etc.,
Brendan O'Donoghue, LLewllyn Lawn, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.