Creationism shouldn’t be accredited

Liberty University, an accredited institution founded in 1971 by Jerry Falwell, was recently reported in the Lynchburg News Advance to be teaching creationism as truth and evolution as false.

While universities across the world celebrated our current understanding of evolution with the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth last week, Liberty was participating in anti-evolution events to mark the date. One, for example, was called “Answers for Racism: Darwin and Evolution’s Racist Roots.”

It is, presumably, the goal of universities like Liberty to churn out students trained to fight tooth-and-nail against the scientific progress that has been made over the past centuries. Liberty University boasts programs in biology, education and even law, yet students also take a required class in creation studies, in which they are encouraged to use their knowledge to stifle evolution once they graduate.

Their fight is futile – while creationists assert claims, scientists test them, and it is undeniable that evolution by natural selection explains the means by which the diversity of life on Earth came to be. But fight they will, as evidenced by the goal of Liberty to produce future teachers, scientists and lawyers to take on the like of “evolutionists” on all fronts. 

And while there is no good argument against evolution, the products of a Liberty “education” will go on pushing for teaching creationism in schools and universities.

Liberty University is a problem and if we don’t see that, people everywhere who understand and accept evolution are at fault. We must understand the creationist arguments and why they are false in order to frame the debate as it should be – not a pitting of religion against science, but an issue of public education and trust in the reliability of science. 

Religion and evolution are not incompatible. In Western countries outside the United States, evolution is accepted by a majority of citizens, religious and not. For various reasons, the United States is unique in the Western world in its widespread rejection of evolution – especially by the religious.

This is mostly due to the way the debate has been framed from both sides: “It’s God or evolution.” It’s time to realize that religious belief can include acceptance of evolution – it has happened in other countries, and it can happen here.

But right now we have a big, ugly problem on our hands: Liberty University is handing out education degrees to future teachers. These teachers will be the ones telling students that evolution is false.

This can’t happen – Liberty University should not be accredited until it accepts the standards set by the scientific community. Revoking their accreditation is one of the first steps in strengthening the public’s trust in science, by showing a resounding consensus in our community of educators, religious or not.