The Daily Background

Oh man, you gotta check this out, it’s simply unbelievable. An environmental nonprofit, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility sent out a press release which made its way to me the other day. Listen to this:

Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees.

Bad enough, but get this-

Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah’s flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

What? Apparently when a book called “Grand Canyon: A Different View” was published in late 2003, which claimed that the canyon’s creation was not natural and was instead molded by the hands of God, a Park superintendent protested its release. However, President Bush’s appointees stepped in and said they would do an investigation at a higher level. Turns out they never did anything though, and allowed the book to be sold at national park bookstores. The press release continues:

… both law and park policies make it clear that the park bookstores are more like schoolrooms rather than libraries. As such, materials are only to reflect the highest quality science and are supposed to closely support approved interpretive themes. Moreover, unlike a library the approval process is very selective. Records released to PEER show that during 2003, Grand Canyon officials rejected 22 books and other products for bookstore placement while approving only one new sale item — the creationist book.

Phew. This is pretty outrageous. The book has includes quotes like this one:

The Bible says that the evidence of God’s existence is seen in the things that He has made, and I confirm that in my studies as a scientist.

That’s from a guy named Andrew Snelling, a geologist who works with something called The Institute for Creation Research (ICR). Is this some sort of scientific organization? Not quite- accoriding to UC Berkley, which referrs to the ICR as a “roadblock” to (real) science, “[ICR] organizes Back to Genesis revivals sponsored by local churches, during which ICR faculty lecture for one to three days, promoting both the theology and the “science” of creation science.”

Filed under: War on Science, Z-TDB Blog