Posted by Jonathan Adler:
PEER Overstates "Faith-based Park" Problem:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_01_14-2007_01_20.shtml#1169226983
[1]Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) is "a
national non-profit alliance of local, state and federal scientists,
law enforcement officers, land managers and other professionals
dedicated to upholding environmental laws and values." Among other
things, PEER serves as the voice of government employees who object to
"anti-environmental" policies and practices within government
agencies.
One of PEER's campaigns is challenging "[2]Faith-based Parks."
Specifically, PEER is concerned that the Bush Administration has
pushed the National Park Service to reject scientific analysis and
explanations in an effort to cater to religious fundamentalists. Among
other things, PEER claimed that the Bush Administration was pressuring
NPS employees to accomodate creationist explanations of the Grand
Canyon's history, and tell the public that the canyon in thousands,
rather than millions, of years old. PEER claimed in a press release
that:
Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official
estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to
pressure from Bush administration appointees.
The charge is plausible -- after all, one administration employee
[3]sought to edit NASA's website so as to protect religious
sensibilities -- and, if true, quite objectionable. The problem, [4]as
the Skeptic Society's Michael Shermer documents, PEER's central claim
does not pan out. It is true that one of the books the NPS offers for
sale at the Grand Canyon National Park's bookstore is a creationist
account of the Canyon's history. Yet this book is sold in the
"inspiration" section of the bookstore, along with Native American
creation myths and other spiritual materials. It is not sold or
represented as a scientific account, nor have NPS employees ever been
instructed to give anything other than a scientific explanation for
the Grand Canyon's age and history.
After extensively researching PEER's claims -- and forcing a partial
retraction -- Shermer is understandably distraught (in part because
[5]he initially cited PEER's charge uncritically). Perhaps the NPS
shouldn't sell the offending book in its book stores, but this is
hardly proves PEER's initial claims. As Shermer explains, the
controversy over selling creationist books "is an old one now, and
completely irrelevant to the claim that NPS employees are withholding
information about the age of the canyon, and/or are being pressured to
do so by Bush administration appointees." PEER's claims to the
contrary -- and protracted efforts to defend the charge and deflect
Shermer's inquiries -- were an "egregious display of poor judgment and
unethical behavior," Shermer concludes. In the end, it seems that
PEER's hostility to the Bush Administration caused it to overstate the
facts. There are enough examples of political manipulation of
scientific claims without the need for PEER or others to invent new
ones.
References
1. http://www.peer.org/
2. http://www.peer.org/campaigns/publiclands/faith-based/index.php
3.
http://cosmicvariance.com/2006/02/04/administration-official-big-bang-is-just-a-theory/
4. http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/07-01-17.html
5. http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/07-01-10.html
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