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I apologize if there's already a thread for this, but I checked twice and didn't see anything that was specifically for it. I'm actually surprised there's no thread for talking about this one, so lets get it started.
In recent years, this topic is coming up again. For a long time, people were okay with just evolution being taught in schools, but in the last five years, there seems to be a huge resurgence pushing for creationism to work its way into the classroom.
So, as you may have already guessed, this topic is to discuss the ever present questions: Should creationism be taught in school? and Should creationism be taught in science class?
As appears standard for this sort of thing, I'll go ahead and give my perspective on it first...
Personally, I think our schools are doing children a disservice in lacking any sort of education on religion. Works of literature are rife with religious reference (Final Fantasy is a fantastic example, containing Ifrit, Tiamat, Titan, Fenrir, Shiva, Gilgamesh, Eden and the list goes on forever), and without a full, well rounded education in religion, these references lose all of their deep, valuable meaning. I would like to see a class at below college level that teaches a bit about the various religions in the world (Christianity included).
Now, on to what this has to do with my thoughts on creationism in school. Creationism, intelligent design, whatever you call it, is not science. By definition, a scientific theory takes a large body of information concerning a general topic, and looks at how the information is interrelated, coming to a conclusion about how that phenomena works. (quick side note: evolution is a fact, it has been observed: how and why it works is the theory) Creationism, in all of its guises, pretends to be a theory, but does not fit the definition. A theory works from information towards a conclusion, creationism takes a conclusion and forces the information to correspond to it. So, creationism is not science, it is purely religion. If the information had led to the conclusion of a creator of life, it would be one thing, but at current, the only way to get that is to assume a creator and mold the information to that end.
It is worth noting that evolution does not attempt to explain how life originated (science has a lot of ideas on that one, but there's no generally accepted theory on that one as of yet), nor does it attempt to explain how the universe came to be (talk to Stephen Hawking if you're interested in that one). These are both things that creationism addresses, but oddly enough it does not address how species change and become other species, which is something we know that happens and the theory of evolution attempts to explain. The two aren't even talking about the same thing. No wonder there's so much confusion.
So, as I said, creationism is not science, but in fact religion. It is a creation myth attempting to explain how the universe came to be. We should teach it in schools, but we should teach it alongside other creation myths, such as: the myth of Pangu, the myth of Izanagi, the Voluspa, and the list goes on for quite a ways. Creationism is no less valid and no more valid than any other religious creation myth, and should be given equal time to all of them.
To sum it up, creationism should be taught in schools, but like all other religious creation myths, it has no place in a science class.
What do all of you think, and, most importantly, why?
In recent years, this topic is coming up again. For a long time, people were okay with just evolution being taught in schools, but in the last five years, there seems to be a huge resurgence pushing for creationism to work its way into the classroom.
So, as you may have already guessed, this topic is to discuss the ever present questions: Should creationism be taught in school? and Should creationism be taught in science class?
As appears standard for this sort of thing, I'll go ahead and give my perspective on it first...
Personally, I think our schools are doing children a disservice in lacking any sort of education on religion. Works of literature are rife with religious reference (Final Fantasy is a fantastic example, containing Ifrit, Tiamat, Titan, Fenrir, Shiva, Gilgamesh, Eden and the list goes on forever), and without a full, well rounded education in religion, these references lose all of their deep, valuable meaning. I would like to see a class at below college level that teaches a bit about the various religions in the world (Christianity included).
Now, on to what this has to do with my thoughts on creationism in school. Creationism, intelligent design, whatever you call it, is not science. By definition, a scientific theory takes a large body of information concerning a general topic, and looks at how the information is interrelated, coming to a conclusion about how that phenomena works. (quick side note: evolution is a fact, it has been observed: how and why it works is the theory) Creationism, in all of its guises, pretends to be a theory, but does not fit the definition. A theory works from information towards a conclusion, creationism takes a conclusion and forces the information to correspond to it. So, creationism is not science, it is purely religion. If the information had led to the conclusion of a creator of life, it would be one thing, but at current, the only way to get that is to assume a creator and mold the information to that end.
It is worth noting that evolution does not attempt to explain how life originated (science has a lot of ideas on that one, but there's no generally accepted theory on that one as of yet), nor does it attempt to explain how the universe came to be (talk to Stephen Hawking if you're interested in that one). These are both things that creationism addresses, but oddly enough it does not address how species change and become other species, which is something we know that happens and the theory of evolution attempts to explain. The two aren't even talking about the same thing. No wonder there's so much confusion.
So, as I said, creationism is not science, but in fact religion. It is a creation myth attempting to explain how the universe came to be. We should teach it in schools, but we should teach it alongside other creation myths, such as: the myth of Pangu, the myth of Izanagi, the Voluspa, and the list goes on for quite a ways. Creationism is no less valid and no more valid than any other religious creation myth, and should be given equal time to all of them.
To sum it up, creationism should be taught in schools, but like all other religious creation myths, it has no place in a science class.
What do all of you think, and, most importantly, why?
Putting the view in an eight/nine year old that you have to be removed because your parents would rather you didn't take Communion instilled a rather... negative view of the part of religion in schools for a few years.