I have been very concerned for some time about the intrusion of fundamentalist religious beliefs into biology education at all levels. The most notorious infraction has been in the science-based teaching of evolution. I would like to share some of my experiences with this issue.

Flashback to the 1980s. In the late 1980s, Joe McInerney, then director of the BSCS, asked me (as a coauthor of the BSCS Green Version, 1987, 1992) to accompany him to Austin, Texas, to testify to the Texas Legislative Subcommittee on Education for the textbook’s position on teaching evolution to high school students. We were each allowed to speak for about a minute and took the standard science-based position on the evolutionary timeline and the importance of teaching evolution as a major conceptual theme in biology. Abruptly, another person asked to be recognized. The presider, evidently recognizing that person, said, “Yes, Mr. Gabler.”...

You do not currently have access to this content.