Baptism in Broad-Mindedness: Saving Future Teachers from Creationism‪.‬

THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN creationists and upholders of science is largely a war of words. Yet it is in many ways an unequal contest. Creationists have a quiver full of misleading quotes, soaring oratorical rockets, and cannonades of pseudofacts, outlandish promises, and dreadful threats. Science advocates too often come to the fray armed with a wagonload of complicated ideas, bound in knotty jargon and dragged to the lines by lead-footed prose and clunky equations. As the philosopher Dale Beyerstein has observed, "The creationist knows that his or her dogmatic assertions will appear to the lay audience as straightforward, no-nonsense presentations of the facts; in contrast, the scientific opponent will appear obfuscating and evasive." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]