Creation and the Candidates!

Discover where the U.S. presidential candidates stand on Creation/Evolution

Note: This is for information purposes only. No particular political party or candidate is being promoted.

Late last month (27 February), Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes spoke at the University of Virginia and declared his support for teaching creation in public schools. On the same day, at a Northern Virginia high school, he also stated that evolution “masquerades as science,” and is taught in a “dogmatic fashion” (from a C-SPAN audio clip).

Although AiG is not necessarily in favor of mandating that teachers must teach both creation and evolution (we believe they already have the academic freedom to do so), other presidential candidates have been speaking out on creation/evolution in public schools. (By the way, Dr. Gary Parker of Answers in Genesis was interviewed by Mr. Keyes on his national talk-show program more than a year ago, where Mr. Keyes revealed his creationist beliefs.)

George W. Bush on November 3 (according to Reuters news) said that he thinks schools should teach “different forms of how the world was formed,” with evolution taught alongside creation. This echoes the same sentiments he expressed in late August after the state school board of Kansas came under fire for mildly de-emphasizing the teaching of evolution in its state schools. Bush said then: “I believe children ought to be exposed to different theories about how the world started.” A Bush spokeswoman, Mendy Tucker, was quoted by Reuters as saying Bush “believes both creationism and evolution ought to be taught. He believes it is a question for states and local school boards to decide, but he believes both ought to be taught.”

We are attempting to research any firm opinion that may have been expressed by the other major Republican candidate, Senator John McCain. Back in August (according to Reuters), he took no particular position on creation versus evolution, but said that the decision of what to teach in schools should be left to local authorities.

On the Democratic side of the presidential race, Vice-president Al Gore—who has actually written in favor of evolutionary ideas (see his book “Earth in the Balance”)—at one time said that local authorities have the right to teach creation, according to spokesman Alejandro Cabrera (Reuters, August 26). Cabrera continued: “Localities should be free to decide to teach creationism as well.” Mr. Gore later in the week shifted his position to say that creationism could be taught in the context of religion classes, not science classes (according to “Education Week,” September 8, 1999). Then a spokesperson said that Mr. Gore believed that the Kansas decision was “a mistake, and he opposes it” (according to a humanist Web site).

We are still researching the views of Senator Bill Bradley, the other major Democratic contender, but it appears that he is a very strong supporter of teaching evolution in schools.

On the Reform ticket, Pat Buchanan is reported to support the idea that children should be taught that the universe was created by God, but he left the door open to “theistic evolution” when he told Reuters in a telephone interview: “What I do object to is to teach Darwin's theory of evolution of human beings from animals without divine intervention.” Apparently, Mr. Buchanan believes that students should be taught a third view of origins: that God could have used evolution to bring about the higher forms of life (i.e., the so-called “compromise view” of theistic evolution).

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