Biology curriculum

Regarding “A battle over creationism, creative thinking” (Page A4, Thursday), while the Trump Administration provides “alternative facts,” the Texas State Board of Education offers “alternative meanings.” Language that appears to support critical thinking actually promotes rigid dogma. They say that students should “evaluate the scientific explanations” for biological complexity, the origin of life, and the fossil record. Sounds great! Who could oppose the objective evaluation of scientific claims? But the language is code. Just as “family values” is code for “anti-gay,” so the call for evaluation of scientific explanations is code for the indoctrination of creationism.

Creationism is the opposite of critical thinking. Creationists know exactly where they are going to wind up before they start. They begin with the Bible, interpreted as a science textbook, and that is where they finish.

Critical thinking follows Socrates’ dictum to “follow the argument wherever it leads.” Creationism just wants you to believe without questioning, and so it has no place in a school curriculum.

Keith M. Parsons, Friendswood economic opportunities and education for those most vulnerable to exploitation, including refugees, migrants, women, children and indigenous people.

Ask Congress and the Trump administration to protect funding of our international humanitarian and poverty-reducing assistance, which makes up less than 1 percent of federal spending. Programs supported through this funding, which have always received bipartisan support, have made tremendous progress against global poverty in recent decades.

Pope Francis has said human trafficking is a “crime against humanity” and “should be eradicated from the earth.” I think that those of any faith would agree with him. Many look to the United States for encouragement, for inspiration and for help. Let us work together to keep the spotlight shining on this worldwide problem until it is eliminated. Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, Archdiocese of

Galveston-Houston; Rabbi David Lyon, Congregation Beth Israel; The Rt. Rev. C. Andrew Doyle, Episcopal Diocese of Texas; The Rt. Rev. Jeff Fisher, Suffragan Bishop Episcopal

Diocese of Texas; Bishop Michael Rinehart, Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; the Rev. John Ogletree, First Metropolitan Church;

The Metropolitan Organization