My Half-Page Thesis
A recent Gallup Poll shows about 53% of Americans reject the theory of evolution as the explanation for the origin of humans. Instead, they believe God created humans at one time as is, the survey showed. About 31% of respondents said they believe humans evolved, but God guided the process.
Only 1.2% said they believe the scientific theory of evolution and God had no part.
And yet that’s what the schools teach our children for the better part of 12 years. They cater to the 1.2% and it makes the 53% mad.
But it’s not the schools’ job to teach my child religion; that privilege belongs to me and my community of believers.
So what should the schools tell children when they study the origins of life? “Go ask your Mom”? “We don’t know”?
I’m no theology graduate so don’t look to me for fancy ideas or theories that will make your head hurt to think about. And so far I’ve kept one (very small) step ahead of my girls’ questions, with only the occasional “I don’t know, let’s find out”.
The girls were both taught the big bang theory in school but neither of them believe it. Little princess says “this can’t ALL be an accident.” And yet they will argue to the death over some punctuation that their English teacher said was proper.
In conclusion, I believe that if the schools were to teach religion, children would no longer believe that God made the Sun & Moon, heavens and earth, grass and plants, nor animals and mankind. And I could get away with putting semi colons anywhere I pleased; without an argument from the children.
posted by The Teller | 3:47 PM
2 Comments:
The whole evolution thing baffles me. It strikes me as very similar to the way churches jump on some trendy trend, invest a lot of money and credibility and when it proves to be a bomb, they've got face to save and finances invested, and investors vested, funding, and reputations. ramble ramble. The science world is the same way, and if one is to read actual scientific dialogue, from actual scientists he finds that those numbers may very well represent the science community themselves, not just the American public. It seems that the only ones who don't have the news that Evolution is nothing more than someone's "could have been" theory are the educators.
I never felt conflict being taught the big bang at school and creation at home. I think this was an important disconnect for my age. But as I've grown older, not many new questions have formed in my head concerning such things. I do have some theories about how we cease to find the classroom relevant or practical because of these experiences,(both info and pedagogy). I know I'm rambling, but I have to wonder. How long can an educational system survive when we are taught something and then walk out the door and experience something totally other than what we've been taught?
Hmm...I think religion should be taught in schools, so long as all religions are taught comparatively, or so long as the student has the option of not taking said class. Why force a student to take a view that is purely based on faith and might not reflect the student's faith?
Evolution, on the other hand, is a scientific theory that has been shown to be a useful model for describing all sorts of practical biological processes. It has practical applications and a use. Science is not there to tell us "why things are" (that's the business of religion), but "how things are", and to do so in such a way that such "rules" (i.e. theories) and "conventions" (i.e. scientific method) allow us to predict future physical behavior and phenomena (how else can we predict whether a building will fall down under snow loads or not? By using the laws that were proposed as theories of physics!). Evolution is no different. It tells you (proposes a mechanism for) how organisms changed over a period of thousands of years, via minute genetic changes, and this can be observed in a matter hours by looking at a few generations of offspring of the drosophila melangoaster fruit flies, for instance. So to say "you don't believe in evolution" is akin to saying "I don't believe 2+2=4". You may not believe it, but no doubt the fact that 2+2 = 4 makes it useful for you to figure out the tip for your evening dinner at the local restaurant. As to why 2+2 = 4 and not 5, well then, that you can ask your God, but also remember, that your God is not necessarily the same as mine, and in a public school, it won't be the same as some other child's.
That is why religion should be taught separate from public schools. So that people can choose which religious education to follow in complete freedom and not be obligated to listen to doctrines they may not believe in, cannot be proven, or that may offend their own religious views.
Science, on the other hand, is a necessary practical set of knowledge and rules and conventions that encourage and allow critical and analytical thought and provides a set of fundamental models to predict future behavior of physical, chemical, and biological phenomena based on past and current observations. We cannot afford not to teach that in the schools.
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