Thread: Creationism in Schools
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Old 10-29-2007, 04:27 AM   #2 (permalink)
hkbajwa
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Quote:
Originally Posted by boomboy92 View Post
Hey all you creationists out there, you argue that creationism has scientific merit and should be taught along side the theory of evolution in schools, correct? You say that we should teach both theories and allow kids to choose between the two. What about the thousands of other creation stories? Almost every religion has their own. Do they have scientific merit? Why don't we teach them? If we say ok, we are allowing the Christian creation story but not the stories for other religions, wouldn't that be promoting a singular religion and therefore go against the principles of church and state? Your argument to teach both would have much more merit if you did not exclude other versions of the story. By trying to teach one creation story as fact and excluding others, you are merely setting yourselves up for failure under the principles of church and state.
Boomboy makes a good point.

If schools were to teach creationism, then what creationist myth should be taught. Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Aboriginal, Oriental???

Apart from the obvious difficulty in choosing which particular myth to teach, i have another major concern.

I see no harm in airing and discussing the theory that human creation is a result of some basic intelligence that pushes evolution/creation in a particular direction. However i have a big problem with the moral, divine and theological absolutes that invariably follow creationism.

If a curriculum could discuss evolution as a result of creative intelligence, then we actually have a valid debate going on. The observable science of evolution would be put in context of a greater philosophical question. I think children would benefit from that.

However to present a choice to children that says " either we evolved from a primordial soup OR God made little figurines and breathed life into them".. well that does not teach them ANYTHING. In fact it is rather confusing, because you are presenting two choices that cannot be compared.

Saying that the human genome has evolved from XYZ is one thing.. Saying that GOd created us without actually explaining the science or the mechanics of that creation is at best indoctrination, and at worst plain stupid.

My point is that creationism does explain the question asked.. the question that evolution answers is HOW mankind came about.. creationism doesn't do that in any other way than saying God did magic and man was made. The former gives some sort of hypothesis ( with associated scientific facts), the latter just states a completely unverifiable belief.
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