Steve Mirsky gets creative with textbook stickers in his AntiGravity column in the February 2005 issue of Scientific American magazine:
… As this issue of Scientific American went to press, a federal judge in Atlanta was in the process of deciding whether biology textbooks in the county could continue to sport a warning sticker that read: "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered."
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But why pick on evolution in the first place when there’s so much to be offended by in virtually any science class? … Here are some suggestions:
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Sticker in Our Solar System: "… Some people think the sun and other planets go around the earth. You’ll have a much easier time with the math if you just let everybody go around the sun, trust me."
Sticker in Physics for Freshmen: "We know that a lot of what’s in this book is wrong, and with any luck they’ll eventually find out that even more of it is wrong. But it’s not so far off, it took some real geniuses to get us this close, and it’s way better than nothing."
The judge later ruled that such stickers constituted an impermissible endorsement of religion. He noted that, while the stickers had the secular purpose of promoting critical thinking, the history of their adoption "communicates to those who endorse evolution that they are political outsiders, while the Sticker communicates to the Christian fundamentalists and creationists who pushed for a disclaimer that they are political insiders." The school board announced it would appeal the ruling.
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