Mirsky on rafting with NCSE, continued

One of the 2014 boats running Lava Falls

In a column published in the November 2016 issue of Scientific American, Steve Mirsky continues to relate his excursion through the Grand Canyon with NCSE.

It was, Mirsky jokes, "a trip intelligently designed to include discussions of how scientists see the canyon's formations as billions of years of history written in rock versus how Young Earth creationists see the canyon as evidence for Noah's flood a week ago Thursday. Okay, I'm just kidding. What they believe is that the flood in question happened some 4,400 years ago and produced the geology and fossils of the canyon. Now I'm not kidding."

Noting that young-earth creationists have a constitutional right to reject science's deliverances on the age of the earth and the Grand Canyon, Mirsky concludes, "But as numerous trial verdicts have agreed, that same amendment prohibits the short version of history — and its antievolution corollaries — from being taught in public schools as science. Creationism in biology classes would make our educational system the way I was in the canyon — all wet."

By the way, NCSE is still accepting reservations for the next excursion to the Grand Canyon, June 29 through July 7, 2017.