Editor:

I am at least as sick as any Los Alamite of the endless stream of letters from John Baumgardner, but John is not just a harmless religious zealot. He and his cohort are attempting to gain sufficient political power to impose their narrow, rigid system of beliefs on all of us and our children. He has managed to get appointed to the committee that is writing the new educational performance standards for New Mexico. If you value true intellectual freedom, do not let the fundamentalists take charge.

John is not interested in supporting objective truth. I direct your attention to the web site for the Institute for Creation Research, http://www.icr.org. John is an "adjunct faculty" member of the institute's graduate school. Let's quote from its web site. The ICR "has a unique statement of faith for its faculty and students, incorporating most of the basic Christian doctrines in a creationist framework." And John subscribes to that statement of "faith." Some of the tenets are the following.

1. The Bible is "free from error of any sort, scientific and historical as well as moral and theological." 2. "All things in the universe were created and made by God in the six literal days of the creation week described in Genesis 1:1-2:3, and confirmed in Exodus 20:8-11. The creation record is factual, historical, and perspicuous: thus all theories of origins or development which involve evolution in any form are false." 3. "The first human beings, Adam and Eve, were specially created by God, and all other men and women are their descendants. In Adam, mankind was instructed to exercise "dominion" over all other created organisms, and over the earth itself (an implicit commission for true science, technology, commerce, fine art, and education) [part of the quote]." 4. "The Biblical record of primeval earth history in Genesis I-II is fully historical and perspicuous, including -- the worldwide cataclysmic deluge in the days of Noah, the post-diluvian renewal of man's commission to subdue the earth (now augmented by -- human government) and the origin of nations and languages at the tower of Babel."

I submit that this is not science: This is religion. And that would be just fine, but the people who subscribe to this kind of "science" cannot just be happy enjoying the freedom to believe as they want. They want to make you believe their way. They will spend as much time as necessary writing standards for you. They will legislate your behavior into their mold. They will circumscribe your field of inquiry (e.g., stem-cell research, research involving clones, etc.). What may be best for the population of the earth is not important to these "soldiers for God": They want to control your beliefs and minds. Do you want them educating your children? If you do not believe as they do, get politically active. Write letters?

R. N. Rogers