TEACHING EVOLUTION

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLVI, Issue 10456, 24 July 1925, Page 5

TEACHING EVOLUTION

A QUESTION FOR CONGRESS. SCIENCE AND THE SCRIPTURES. (Per Preoo .association—Copyright.) WASHINGTON, July'32.. The treasury officials have been ordered by the local Court to show cause -why the salaries of school officers here should not be withheld because of the .-teaching of scientific doctrines which.are alleged to reflect on .the Bible. The suit was brought by Lauren Wittner, taxpayer., under the provisions (of the District of Columbia -Appropriation Bill, providing that no salary shall be paid any superintendent who permits, or .any teacher who teaches, disrespect of the Bible. Wittner :asserts .that ithe teachings of the approved text-books, taken literally, conflict >with Scriptural rteacL

f A later message states that a test suit .to restrain the authorities from teaching .evolution and other sciences in public -schools in .the district of Columbia, has 'been filed :by Lauren WittneTj Government clerk. The rsuit involves all the unheard evidence in the Scopes .trial and seeks io jpreyent the payment of teachers' salaries under the clause .of .the Appropriation Bill, passed by Congress, stating that no part of the funds should be used ito .teach (dis-respect-ior the Bible. The petition contends .that biology denies the Biblical story of the origin of man and teaches disintegration of organic 'bodies after death, whereas the Bible says all will rise on the. Judgment Day. It also jefutes the Biblical statement that man is the perfect physical image of God. it alleges that chemistry ' -teaches that one elemental matter cannot be chjainged' into another., whereas the-Bible asays Christ made wine from water, God made man from .the dust ( of the earth, and turned Lot's wife into •a. pillar of salt. It.alleges that physics teaches that the rainbow iis the natural reflection light rays on water in clouds, whexe;as the Bible sifates that God made the .rainbow as a promise to Noah that no .flood would again I kill all life'. It alleges that ;astronomy shows that ffche sun is the centre of the solar sys- < tem around which the earth revolves, whereas the Bible states that the earth was created four days before the sun, and that the sun, moon, and stars travel round the eaattn. It alleges that philology shows that language and speech ore the gradual ©utgrowth of thought, whereas the Bible teaches that the earth had one language until God confounded man's speech in the Tower of Babel. Witi/Der brought the suit as a taxpayer of the district.. He said: "I am «o.the .side of Science, I have filed the suit to'Jetermine what Congress really meant Jby a ' restrictive clause.' "