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By Hart Van Denburg in Education

Fri., Nov. 20 2009 @ 6:47AM

Some University of Minnesota students found themselves amid the culture wars the other day when a group of conservative evangelical Christians peppered the Minneapolis campus with about 1,000 copies of Charles Darwin's "The Origin of the Species," -- with a twist. When students opened the book they found a 50-page introduction attacking its findings.

The Minnesota Daily traced the book back to a California organization called Living Waters. Its founder, Ray Comfort, published the doctored version of Darwin's groundbreaking work on evolutionary biology.

Comfort, like many evangelicals, wants faith-based creationism taught alongside fact-based science on college campuses, and he's spoken widely about using his version of Darwin's book to challenge college professors and curriculums. He says more than 20,000 copies of the book have been sold.

University of Minnesota, Morris, biology professor PZ Myers calls Comfort's troops "creationist goons," and the book a "butchered version of Darwin's Origin, with big chunks cut out of it, and a deeply stupid introduction slapped on. What next? Will he decide to put out a special creationist edition of Relativity: The Special and General Theory with the math chopped out and his own clueless introduction that calls it all bunk?"

We weren't familiar with Living Waters, but one of its leading members is actor Kirk Cameron, who played the role of Michael Seaver in the ABC sitcom Growing Pains. He went on to establish a new career as an evangelical author and speaker -- a long way from trading lines with Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, Tracey Gold and Jeremy Miller.

Tags: Charles Darwin, creationsim, evolution, PZ Myers, Ray Comfort

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2 comment(s) / Post a Comment

Andrew Jagunich says:

There have already been court rulings regarding the teaching of creationism/Intelligent Design in high schools that doing so violates the establishment clause, since the "designer" used to explain it all is simply God dressed up in jargon. That's not the only reason teaching "alternatives" to evolution is a non-starter - good luck getting any professor of biology to throw his or her PhD in the trash bin, and good luck as all the medical and biotech companies flee to places where real science is part of a basic educatio.

Posted On: Friday, Nov. 20 2009 @ 8:22AM

SWEJ says:

What a sad and desperate publicity stunt.

I think the only attention we should pay to "banannaman" and his sidekick "kirk-o-duck" is in ridicule and mocking their foolish antics.

And focusing on some intelligent conversation instead.

Posted On: Friday, Nov. 20 2009 @ 1:32PM