GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL -- Educationally speaking

Kansas is reevaluating whether it will continue its ban on teaching

about evolution. A similar issue has members of our local community at

odds.

The constant controversy over whether science classes should teach

creationism as well as the theory of evolution is reminiscent of another

time in history.

At that time, philosophers were held in great prestige, and philosophy

professors were paid 10 times more than mathematics professors.

There were two views of the universe. One was accepted as correct. The

church and government allowed it to be taught. Books could be written

about it. The public was allowed to learn and think about it. It was

considered the view of the Holy Scripture, and it had to be followed in

deed and thought.

A second theory to explain the placement and movement of the universe

had been around for about 90 years but had been condemned. It was not in

keeping with the Holy Scripture. To believe in such a theory was heresy.

To teach or write about the theory brought punishment both in life and

after death.

But one man was a great mathematician and he refined an instrument

that allowed him, and others of his time, to observe the heavenly bodies.

With that instrument -- a telescope -- he could see sunspots. The problem

was that sunspots could not exist according to the accepted facts of the

day and the religious teachings. But there they were.

By tracking sunspots, the condemned theory made more sense than the

accepted facts of that time. The sunspots suggested to this man that the

sun was the center of the solar system and the Earth moved around it.

Because Galileo had been prohibited from teaching or defending the

condemned theory of Copernicus, he spent 10 years writing a dialogue in

which various characters in his book argued the particulars of these two

theories about the movement of the heavenly bodies. No conclusions were

drawn.

Galileo spent the next three years having his book reviewed and seeing

it censured before it was approved and could be published. After its

first printing, he was brought before the Inquisition. He was questioned

about whether he believed that the Earth revolved around the sun, in

opposition to the scriptures and God. He was censured. The book was

prohibited for the next 200 years.

Today, the struggles involved in devising experiments and collecting

and disseminating evidence to prove or disprove the Copernican theory

have been forgotten.

Who among us would suggest that our schoolchildren must be taught an

alternate theory that the Earth doesn’t move and the sun and planets

revolve around it? Is there anyone who believes that their faith is

threatened because schools teach the latest scientific evidence about

astronomy?

When Galileo saw sunspots, his faith was not deterred. Why do we think

that students who learn about evolution are at risk? Is it any wonder why

there is a lack of science teachers when we subject them to scrutiny for

teaching that there is scientific evidence for the theory of evolution?

I hope our teachers are busy preparing the next Galileos -- students

who will observe, experiment, question and hypothesize.

* GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL is a Costa Mesa resident. Her column is

published Tuesdays. She may be reached by e-mail at o7 ggsesq@aol.com

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