An editorial that appeared in The Marietta Daily Journal stated, “Judge [Clarence] Cooper’s ruling does not mean there is no God, or that one cannot believe in some combination of both evolution and God, or that after having learned the basics of evolution theory, that Cobb students cannot then choose to believe instead in creationism.” Students can believe anything they want, but they are being taught, in terms of logical extension, that there is no God. The ruling by Cooper means that public schools are officially atheistic. The science curriculum states that there is no scientific evidence for intelligent design. Teachers cannot teach to the contrary or they will be in violation of the law.
The editors at the MDJ are proposing that parents can teach the “fantasy” of creation in their homes and their churches, but when it comes to government-mandated education, students must be taught “the truth.” The truth is, given Judge Cooper’s ruling, there is no God. You can dance around this any way you want, but God is out and chance, randomness, and purposelessness are in. Kids aren’t stupid. They know they’re being taught that God had no hand in making them or this world.
Judge Cooper is disturbed by the idea that the people who wanted the sticker put on the biology textbooks were motivated by religious assumptions. Not only are God, prayer, and Intelligent Design outlawed, but religious motives are also forbidden. So much of the history of scientific discovery would have to be rewritten if this premise were carried out consistently. The entire public school curriculum has been secularized.
Students go to their history class and hopefully learn that through the reading of the Declaration of Independence that they are “endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights.” But given Judge Cooper’s ruling, will history teachers be forced to deny this basic tenet of the Declaration? Maybe teachers will be required to say, “Well, these eighteenth-century patriots were people of a scientifically backward time. Yes, they believed that they were created by God, but today we know better.” Of course, by teaching such absurdities, the teacher would be undercutting the very foundation of American government and make the principles of the Declaration null and void. The argument of the advocates of independence was that governments do not convey rights. That’s God’s jurisdiction. Governments must protect what only God can give. With the creator God, so are our rights.
Since science has demonstrated that there is no creator, and there’s no debate about it, then where do our rights come from? The only other option, beyond pure anarchy, is the State. What happens if the State determines it no longer wants to allow you to have a right that it graciously granted to you? Read a little further in your history textbooks and learn what happens when “scientific reason” becomes society’s new god. The bloody French Revolution and the rise of Marxism in the Russian Revolution may give you some idea where we might be headed.