Quote:
|
Originally Posted by elf
(maybe I'm being thickheaded)
|
No, not at all. I’m just not explaining it very well. The root of the issue is what is appropriate to be taught in school. In the U.S., it is generally accepted that religious ideals are not to be taught in public schools. Most would group creationism into this category. What I have tried to show is that the argument that most people use to keep such theories out of public classrooms is not valid; such theories are not un-testable… they are just very simplistic.
I was also attempting to show that there is no difference in believing in creationism on religious grounds and believing in evolution because it is accepted; the two paths are the same. For most people, creationism is easy to reject as a plausible theory of human existence; evolution is much more difficult to reject, perhaps because it is more complicated, or possibly, because it is a better description of reality.
When we dismiss ideas out of hand without attempting to validate them, we are engaging in the exact same behavior that religious fundamentalists do. I do not see the harm in teaching creationism. If a student cannot reject it on his or her own, how does not teaching it improve the situation?