Park Service breaks its own rules to approve creationist Grand Canyon text

Park Service breaks its own rules to approve creationist Grand Canyon text

Michael Roston
Published: Friday January 26, 2007

The National Park Service, the federal agency that oversees national parks, has courted controversy by approving a text that uses creationism to describe the origins of the Grand Canyon. An article at Reason magazine now reveals that the service has likely violated its own rules in approving the book for sale.

Ronald Bailey, Reason's science correspondent, points to National Park Service Director's Order #6, which states: "The interpretive and educational treatment used to explain the natural processes and history of the Earth must be based on the best scientific evidence available, as found in scholarly sources that have stood the test of scientific peer review and criticism.... Interpretive and educational programs must refrain from appearing to endorse religious beliefs explaining natural processes."

Following from this directive, Bailey notes that in the year the Park Service approved Grand Canyon: A Different View (2003), which says that the canyon was created during the Biblical Flood 4,500 years ago, 23 other books were rejected for sale in the park's bookstores. With this in mind, he argues, "The existence of a formal approval process that is not based on just commercial calculation implies that the mission of park affiliated bookstores is primarily to educate visitors about the Grand Canyon. By approving this book, it would seem that the NPS is violating Director's Order #6 against 'appearing to endorse religious beliefs explaining natural processes.'"

At the same time, Bailey reveals that some details of the press release from the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), which first publicized the creationist book, were incorrect. Park rangers were permitted to tell visitors how old the Canyon is, and regularly do so.

Bailey's full article can be read at the this link on Reason's website.

An earlier article.

This is sick and sad... We have to get conservatives out of the government.