Living Witness(112)

“Because science disproves their religion,” Miss Marbledale said. “I’ve been a practicing Methodist for over sixty years, and evolution presents no challenge to my religion at all. But science is important and the scientific method is important. It doesn’t solve everything, and it isn’t the only thing people need in their lives, but it’s important. Antibiotics, heart transplants, even central heating and safe refrigeration for foods, we can’t do without it. And science is the project of trying to find natural explanations for natural phenomenon. That’s what distinguishes it from everything that came before. And if we don’t teach that, if we teach children that it’s all right to go back to the fifteenth century and look for supernatural causes instead of natural ones, we might as well fold up our tents and go back to the desert to eat locusts and honey. Of Pandas and People should not be in our school library because the things it says are lies. And evolution should be taught in our biology classes because evolution is true. And that ought to be enough of a reason for anybody.”





2




Back out at the front of the school, Gregor Demarkian looked around again and again at the skeleton of the new school building. He was carrying a little stack of books Miss Marbledale had given him, all hardbacks. She seemed to have dozens of copies of each one in boxes all around her office. There was Mark Isaak’s The Counter-Creationism Handbook. There was Tim Berra’s Evolution and the Myth of Creationism. There was Donald R. Prothero’s Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters, sitting on top.

“That’s the best book out there for a popular audience that not only lays out the evidence from the fossil record, but directly counters Creationism and Intelligent Design,” Miss Marbledale said. “I just wish it would come out in paperback. You have no idea how much it cost me to get all these in hardcover. And I give them to everybody. I even tried to give them to Franklin Hale and Alice McGuffie, but they ran, true to form. They wouldn’t even take copies for the sake of being polite. And that’s the enemy, Mr. Demarkian, and it really is an enemy. That small-minded, smug pride in being ignorant. I have no idea what Creationists are like outside of Snow Hill, or what the Intelligent Design people are like when they’re attached to those big national think tanks, but the simple fact of the matter is that here, on the ground, what you have are two kinds of people who want Intelligent Design. First are the people who just don’t know much about evolution. Second are the people who don’t want to know, because they’ve made up their minds, and they won’t let you confuse them with facts. And those second kind of people are the ones who run for school board.”

Gregor looked up at the new school building yet again, and then got into the car next to Eddie Block. Eddie started up the engine and turned up the heat right away. Gregor was grateful. He never understood why March had to be so cold, when it was supposed to be the start of spring.

Gregor had put the books on the floor at his feet. He caught Eddie Block eying them.

“Well,” he said. “Have you read any of these? Miss Marbledale was your teacher, wasn’t she?”

“Miss Marbledale was everybody’s teacher,” Eddie Block said. “No, I haven’t read those books.”

“Did you listen to what she said?”

“Sure I listened to what she said. Everybody listens to Miss Marbledale. She’s the kind of person people listen to.”

Gregor was going to point out that, technically, she was Dr. Marbledale, but he didn’t. She hadn’t used the title, for whatever reason. He waited while Eddie backed up and got them turned around, pointing to the way out. Then he said, “So, what about it? Are you like Gary Albright? Do you think the Intelligent Design people ought to get to put their book in the library?”

“Maybe,” Eddie said.

“Maybe?”

Eddie looked uncomfortable. “Here’s the thing,” he said. “It’s a book in a library. I mean, I know it’s the school library, but still. A couple of years ago, Henry threatened us with a lawsuit—”

“Another one?”

“Yeah,” Eddie said. “Henry likes to sue the town. Anyway, there was this book by this guy, Sam Something. The End of Faith. We got it in to the library and then Alice complained, because Alice complains. Henry likes to file lawsuits and Alice likes to complain. Anyway, she complained and the librarians put it behind the desk so that people could only get it if they asked for it, and Henry tried to sue the town because he said putting it back there like that where people had to ask for it would discourage people from reading it, because they might be embarrassed to ask for it and have everybody know they were taking it out when this is such a fundamentalist town. You got that?”