November 2000 Edition THE BACK PAGE Creationism Versus Physical
Science By Stephen G. Brush Last year, some scientists were
surprised to learn from press reports that the Kansas State
Board of Education voted to remove Big Bang cosmology, as well
as biological evolution, from the required public school
curriculum. This should be a wake-up call to alert everyone that
all of science education is threatened by the political power of
Creationism, even if the latest Kansas election result leads to
a reversal of the 1999 decision. It may seem odd that religious
fundamentalists would attack the Big Bang theory, since only a
few years ago a number of popular books praised that theory as
being favorable to religion: if scientists declared they could
never know what happened before the Big Bang, this seemed to
leave plenty of room for theologians to fill the gap. But
Creationists refuse to consider any metaphorical interpretation
of the book of Genesis. In particular, "Young Earth Creationism"
(YEC) insists that the en