David Appell points to some depressing news about how our government deals with science.
In August 2003, the Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent tried to block the sale of a book in National Park Service stores. The book claims that the Grand Canyon formed in Noah’s Flood. No vague ambiguity of the sort you hear from Intelligent Design folks–just hard-core young Earth creationism, claiming that the planet is only a few thousand years old. The folks at National Park Service headquarters stopped the administrator from pulling the book. Geologists cried foul, and NPS promised to review the situation. Meanwhile, the book remained for sale at NPS stores.
And then months passed with nothing. Today a public employees activist group that first publicized this sorry situation announced that it has documents showing that the administration has decided to let the book stay. In fact, there wasn’t even any review.
I haven’t seen any news pieces yet on this shamefulness, nor have I seen any statement from the National Park Service. From the information we have at hand at the moment, there’s only one good conclusion to draw: your government is indifferent to even the most basic facts of science. If it doesn’t care about something as well-established as the age of the Earth, you have to wonder what other science it is willing to ignore.
Originally published October 13, 2004. Copyright 2004 Carl Zimmer.