Ignoring recommendations by its own senior scientist to withdraw approval for a creationist book now being sold in park facilities, the National Park Service appears to be supporting religious doctrine over sound science, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
"Based on our review, we recommend that the book not be sold in park bookstores because the book purports to be science when it is not, and its sale in the park bookstores directly conflicts with the Service's statutory mandate to promote the use of sound science in all its programs, including public education," states a January 25 memo sent by David Shaver, the Chief of the Park Service's Geologic Resources Division, to Headquarters.[1]
Last summer the Park Service initially approved Grand Canyon: A Different View, by Tom Vail, for sale in park bookstores and museums one week after NPS Deputy Director Donald Murphy ordered the Grand Canyon Park to return three bronze plaques bearing biblical verses to the public viewing areas in the Canyon's South Rim.[2]
The "appropriateness" of offering a book claiming that the Grand Canyon developed on a biblical rather than an evolutionary time scale was questioned by the Grand Canyon National Park superintendent in August.
Ignoring the controversy, top leadership of the Park Service has approved hundreds more copies of the book, is offering it for sale on the Grand Canyon Association's website as "natural history," blocked publication of guidance for park rangers and other interpretative staff that labeled creationism as lacking any scientific basis, and refused requests by the Grand Canyon superintendent, agency geologists and others for a ruling on whether the book violates Park Service rules.[3]
"In order to avoid offending Christian fundamentalists, the National Park Service has been forced to adopt a position of geological agnosticism," said PEER Executive Director Jeff Runch. "On the same basis that public schools do not approve creationist books as science textbooks, the National Park Service has no business promoting Christian ideology masquerading as science."
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Email the Director of the Park Service and sign a petition with PEER.
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SOURCES:
[1] United States Department of Interior Memorandum.
[2] PEER press release, Feb. 26, 2004.
[3] Ibid.
