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Highlands Today

Teaching Evolution

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Dale L. Gillis

Published: February 6, 2008

Bill Dailey takes a dim view of teaching evolution in his letter of Jan. 15. He cites a 1914 book as evidence that evolution has been taught since then, with little to show for it. If he had bothered to look up evolution in the World Book Encyclopedia he would have found," Few public schoo1s 'included' evolution in the biology curricula for many years after the [Scopes]_trial."

Under Creationism, World Book says, "In the 1960s, more public schools began to teach evolution." However, there have been strong creationist efforts to derail teaching of evolution since then. What do creationists have to offer? Some put forward the Glen Rose footprints as evidence that humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time. These are supposedly fossilized footprints in solidified mud, found on the banks of the Paluxy River in Texas, near the town of Glen Rose.

The most prominent creationist organization in the world is the Institute of Creations Research, ICR, whose president is John Morris. After spending years studying the Glen Rose footprints, Morris wrote a book on them, "Tracking Those Incredible Dinosaurs, and the People Who Knew Them." This Creationist book was published in 1980. However, in 1985 it was withdrawn. When John Morris took over as president of ICR in 1996, he stated that the evidence for the reality of human footprints alongside dinosaur tracks was "at best, ambiguous and unrisable." Since then, ICR's voluminous output of articles contains no mention of them.

Other creationist institutions, such as the Museum of Earth History, continues to make use of the Glen Rose footprints, having no other evidence.

You might suppose that creationists think the dinosaurs drowned in the flood. Actually, ICR is looking for dinosaurs in the Congo and in other places. Apparently Noah had dinosaurs on the Ark!

Dale L. Gillis
Sebring

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