National Park Service Now Distancing Itself from Creationist Book It Approved

[kskiska]

Evolving Grand Canyon Position Leaves Unanswered Questions

The National Park Service insists that it does not teach creationism or endorse the view that the Grand Canyon is the product of Noah's Flood, according to a new agency public statement posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Despite this statement, the agency will continue selling a book making those "Young Earth" claims about the origin of the canyon - a book that top agency officials approved over the objections of its own park superintendent.

In a statement issued by the National Park Service (NPS) Chief of Public Affairs, David Barna, on January 4th, the agency contends that park rangers have been instructed to "use the following explanation for the age of the geologic features at Grand Canyon…The principal consensus among geologists is that the Colorado River basin has developed in the past 40 million years and that the Grand Canyon itself is probably less than five to six million years old."

The statement adds, "Since 2003 the park bookstore has been selling a book that gives a Creationist view of the formation of the Grand Canyon, claiming that the canyon is less than six thousand years old…We do not use the Creationist text in our teaching nor do we endorse its content."

While this is the first time that the Park Service has gone on record distancing itself from the book, Grand Canyon: A Different View by Tom Vail, on sale in park bookstores, the Barna statement does not explain:

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http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_49447.shtml

[endarkenment]

1. THEN WHY DO THEY SELL IT AT THEIR BOOKSTORE?

This is such bullshit.

[jody]

2. Ok to sell if it's clearly labeled "FICTION". n/t

[endarkenment]

3. Actually no it isn't.

This is not a general purpose bookstore. It is a selection of books - books selected by the park service itself - to provide informational material about the grand canyon. Bullshit is not informational material.

[jody]

5. Actually yes it is. The book store in question has several fiction books. n/t

[Tempest]

6. They have to

The Employees union is saying they don't support it.

They don't have control over the sale of the book.

[endarkenment]

12. Well that is the point the NPS does.

So to be clear: why is the park service putting this religious tract posing as science in their bookstores?

[Quantess]

11. I think, because they are required to.

The Park people don't necessarily like what's dictated to them by the Feds.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. the head (?) of the forest service was on CSpan a year or two ago

she answered my call in (one of the few calls ever to make it) and I began questioning her about the big ditch. she denied that any creationist books were available; she denied that there was a plaque from those morons; she denied that workers were given instructions to avoid honest science answers. I told her of my own trip there and that each of her statements were demonstrably false. They hung up on me.

[Earth_First]

7. I'm really glad to hear this... eom

[Throwing Stones]

8. Wow

I read about this issue quite a while ago, but it's scary to now see the agency trying to work rovian like doublespeak about the "book". Has this kind of lying been completely institutionalized into all levels of government? Is this new, or have mid level beauracrats always been so blatantly self-serving?

[Hekate]

9. It is new; but they're not "self" serving, they're serving W's religous base as ordered to

This is the scariest administration in US history. Depending on which department Bush's hacks are in, they serve his corporate masters, his military masters, or his religious base. He has FEMA-ized them all.

These people have absolutely no compunction about lying to the rest of us, as they believe the end justifies the means -- always. I don't think we've seen corruption of government on this scale before in our history.

Hekate

[goforit]

10. Yes, then why is the book there? Separation of church and state? Where?

Lynn Chenny changing history across the US in Schools and National institutions
behind close doors is out of control!!!

[brooklynite]

13. Why doesn't someone write a book...

...claiming that the canyon was created by UFO crash, and the survivors became the first humans? Then insist that the bookstore sell that as well. It's just as plausible a theory.