Aish HaTorah's Rabbi Yakov Salomon has made a short flash video on creationism in the classroom. His basic thesis is as follows:
- "Evolutionists" only allow one way of teaching – Darwinian evolution.
- "Creationists" are flexible – teach evolution and other opinions like creationism side-by-side.
- "Evolutionists" hold creationism in the classroom is unconstitutional.
- "Benjamin Franklin" wrote in the Declaration of Independence that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights …" (He actually garbles the quote. See the video.) "Is the Declaration of Independence unconstitutional?" Rabbi Salomon asks.
Of course, Rabbi Salomon is very poorly informed (or he's lying – take your pick). In order:
- Scientists will allow any scientific, peer-reviewed theory to be taught as science.
- Creationism and Intellegent Design are not peer-reviewed because they are not science.
- Scientists hold Creationism is a religious teaching and not science, and therefore cannot be taught as science. (It could be taught in a compararative religion class, though.)
- Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration, not Benjamin Franklin. The Declaration is not now, nor was it at the time of its signing, science, and no one is attempting to have it taught in the classroom as such.
Stupidity and deceit seem to be dominating the outreach business in this post-Rabbi Slifkin ban era.