PHOENIX —Baptist Press reports that officials at the Grand Canyon National Park have ordered additional copies of "Grand Canyon: A Different View” for sale despite the strong opposition from the various science organizations.
The book which contains photos and essays that advocate creation science has brought big controversy between Christian and secular scientist groups because the book claims the Grand Canyon was formed as a result of the great flood of Genesis and is therefore only a few thousand years old
"It's amazing to me that this little book has created so much commotion," Tom Vail, the compiler of the book, who represents Canyon Ministries, said. "It's unfortunate that this book, which was aimed at presenting a creationist point of view in laymen's terms and how the Grand Canyon [supports] that, has become essentially a legal issue."
Vail's book has been targeted by numerous secular scientists who have asked the National Park Services (NPS) to remove the volume from the bookstores' inventories.
Many leaders from several science organizations such as the Paleontological Society, American Geophysical Union, and Geological Society of American have sent a letter asking to remove the book from the park.
The letter stated: "The book aggressively attacks modern science and broadly accepted interpretations of the geologic history of the Grand Canyon.’
Even though the 17 contributors of the book out of 23 are scientists from prestigious universities such as Harvard and Princeton, "Because the view [of these contributors] disagrees with evolutionary geologists, there's a small number of people who have turned this into a legal issue," Vail observed.
Elaine Sevy, a spokesperson of NPS policy office, seemed more supportive of the books. "Now that the book has become quite popular, we don't want to remove it," Sevy explained, confirming that e-mails received on the issue have been about "50-50," with approximately half supportive of the book and half opposed to it. Also she thinks local governments and schools don’t review every single book in the libraries they operate.
NPS is still in the process of coming up with a policy to guide personnel through out the park system on similar issues, Sevy said.
