On the fundamental issues of the theory of evolution, such as the facts
of common descent and natural selection, there is no scientific
controversy. The "teach the controversy" campaign is an attempt to get
pseudoscience taught in classrooms. Lessons about the sociological
issues of the evolution-creation controversy may be appropriate in
history or other nonscience classes.
If the object is to keep bad science from the classroom, the same
standards should be applied to the counterarguments from creationists,
which are all bad science.
There are controversies over details of evolutionary theory, such as
the relative contributions of sympatric versus allopatric speciation.
These controversies require a great deal of background in biology even
to understand what they are about. They should not be taught to
beginning students. They should be taught to graduate-level students
in biology, and they are.
Evolution is almost certainly the most hated scientific theory in
history. Many people think it threatens morals,
civilization, and their very souls, and virtually
nobody wants it to be true. Starting from the first day that Origin
of Species was published, it has faced constant challenges from some
of the most powerful politicians and religious leaders, not to mention
incessant disapproval and attacks from the general public. The only
thing evolution has going for it is the evidence. If that evidence
were not extremely strong, evolution would have been torn to
irreparable shreds decades ago.
Like all theories, evolution is subject to scientific attack, too.
Achieving a major revision of established theory is something that many
scientists dream of. Plus, many scientists feel the same emotional
opposition to it that so many non-scientists do. If a credible
alternative to evolution appeared, biologists would race to publish it.
Indeed, scientists have made some significant revisions of details to
the theory of evolution, but there has been no such race to overthrow
the basic theory.
The theory of evolution is stronger than ever, accepted around the
world without a hint of informed scientific challenge to the basic
theory. The controversy surrounding evolution has made it one of the
most scrutinized theories of all time, and evolution has withstood that
scrutiny with flying colors.
Should teaching the controversy be expanded to include so-called
alternatives to evolution? There are many mutually
contradictory creationist positions, with disagreement on such
fundamental issues as how old the universe is and which religion's book
best describes the creator. Since the basis for creationism is its
emotional religious appeal, and since such attraction varies between
cultures and individuals, creationism will always be hopelessly
controversial. Surely any lesson on the controversy should include the
whole controversy.
