First of all it is necessary to mention, that the creation / evolution debate is the matter of expressing the religious beliefs: one represents the theistic model, the opposite – atheistic. The fact is that, all democratic states provide the freedom of religious conviction, and it is ridiculous to subject the evolution / creation debate to censorship. Actually, the Christianity does not maintain any discussions, in spite of the fact, that the truth often may be found in the discussion:
Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will (2 Timothy 2:23).
The evolutionists, in their turn, prefer discussing, and proving their righteousness, as discussing fully corresponds to the origin of the evolution theory, and the principles of natural selection:
Today, many religious denominations accept that biological evolution has produced the diversity of living things over billions of years of Earth’s history. Many have issued statements observing that evolution and the tenets of their faiths are compatible. Scientists and theologians have written eloquently about their awe and wonder at the history of the universe and of life on this planet, explaining that they see no conflict between their faith in God and the evidence for evolution. Religious denominations that do not accept the occurrence of evolution tend to be those that believe in strictly literal interpretations of religious texts (National Academy of Sciences, 2008).
The fact is that, the evolution / creation controversy is the matter of debates since the appearance of the evolution theory by Darwin. Finally, the theory of Creationism was widely accepted in the United States, but there was no essential resistance to the evolutionism. Some evangelists aimed to combine evolution and creation, by stating, that the evolution was the God’s will, and it was the essential part of creating the human by God (Jacobson, 1999).
The censorship of this matter is not intentional, but it happens so, libraries and research centers mainly possess the literature on evolution, as this matter is more discussed, and more books are issued on this topic. As for the creationism literature, it is not so numerous, as people who trust in the theory of creation do not need any confirmations.
Creationists strongly feel, that their position is not politically or even legally defended. In spite of the fact, that the creationism was widely accepted as the central theory in the USA, the freedom of religious belief has vanished this priority, and the evolutionists started their attacks in literature and mass media.
Actually, it should be stated, that the evolution – creation debate is not the matter of censorship, until it violates the freedom of thought, the freedom of worship and religious conviction, and, primarily, until it harms the human dignity. From the point of view of human dignity, it is necessary to emphasize, that the creationism theory states, that human takes the origin from God, while the evolutionists insist on the origin from apes. Actually, the concept of this theory harms the human dignity, in comparison with the creationism.
The seriousness of the matter of censorship is indicated by the fact, that the US educational program entails the innovative methodologies for teaching the matters of the Creationism and Evolution concepts. First of all it is forbidden to give preference to any of the concepts, as different student may give preference to any of these theories, and the preference to the opposite concept would violate outrage the religious beliefs of some people. Instead, it is allowed to engage the student into discussions. The strong points of the discussions entail the fact, that discussions encourage the thinking process, it is featured by the increased retention (up to 75 percent), in comparison with simple narrating (20 percent). The only weak point of the discussions, is that it may reason the personal abuse and offence on the grounds of extremely opposite view of the discussion partakers. The censorship issues start acting from this point, as the abuse should not be allowed. (Sturm, 2002)
In conclusion, it is necessary to emphasize, that the key matter, that may be censored in the evolution / creation discussion is the personal abuse that may arise among the opponents. As for the points of view, that these concepts maintain, the freedom of thought, religious conviction and worship defends both from censorship. On the other hand, it should be argued, that the creationist literature is not so numerous in comparison with the evolutionist, consequently the evolution theory is wider supported then the creation one.
References
- Benen, Steve. “Evolution Evasion.” Church & State. 1999: 4.
- Jacobson, John E. “The Creation and Evolution of an Elementary Field-Based Reading Course: A Professor’s Perspective.” Education 119.3 (1999): 408.
- National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine. Science, Evolution, and Creationism National Academies Press publishing, 2008
- Sturm, S. P., Creationism, Censorship, and Academic Freedom Science, Technology, & Human Values, 2002 Sage Publications, Inc..
- Smout, Kary Doyle. The Creation/Evolution Controversy: A Battle for Cultural Power. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998.