Should evolution be taught in schools?

[IronParrot]

This follows upon a comment in the "History, your opinion" thread, which I figured would probably lead to a tangent completely irrelevant to the French and American Revolutions, so I thought it warranted its own thread.

Well, the question lies above. Should evolution be taught in schools?

My concise answer (as I don't have time to fully elaborate tonight) is a resounding "yes", combined with a bit of confoundment at why anybody with a solid knowledge of what evolution actually is could possibly answer "no".

Really, I don't quite understand why this is even an issue to begin with. I think the root of the problem is that people who have limited knowledge of the entire subject of evolutionary biology immediately dismiss it as being some kind of antithesis to the Book of Genesis or whatever other creationistic belief/superstition you want to cite here. That notion is, of course, incorrect.

Evolutionary biology is, quite simply, a process. The study of genetics, even at a very macroscopic level, is practically a necessity for anyone who plans to extend biology into further studies or profession, be it either research or practice. Now, I didn't ever specialize in biology and haven't taken any of it since the tenth grade, but it's evident that the entire argument against it - at the level that's taught in schools, nay, at the level that's understandable in schools - is completely founded on Socratic-Platonic views of everything in the universe as a variation on some sort of ideal, divine model. Which, by the way, is a completely philosophical argument with no empirical support.

Somehow, I have a sneaking suspicion that if the Bible said that God made the sky blue, there would be a fierce fundamentalist opposition to the teaching of the atmospheric scattering of sunlight in high school physics.

Have I opened a can of worms here? And more importantly, will that can of worms adapt to its surroundings as they breed?

[crickhollow]

*chuckles* You have indeed opened a can of worms, my friend

And more importantly, will that can of worms adapt to its surroundings as they breed?

and thatwill remain to be seen.

To start off, I'm a Christian (I hope there isn't any doubt about that), but I do believe that evolution should be taught in the classroom. What teachers ought to make sure they put across to their students, is that theory that has yet to be proven. Perhaps the lecture/class should come with the disclaimer, "we believe this because no one has come up with anything better."

Personally, I believe in creation, but I'm not naive enough to suggest that teaching creation theory in a public school is ever going to happen.
I would like to see a class taught where the two views are compared and contrasted. Alas, all of my teachers at the State college I attended for two years would go nowhere near creation, and the Christian teachers that I have now won't touch evolution with a "39 and a half foot pole", to quote the venerable DR. Suess.

[BeardofPants]

Crickhollow:

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaver...437/theory.htm


Yes, I think it *should* be taught. As should a comparative ideologies class.

[mirrille]

Originally posted by crickhollow
What teachers ought to make sure they put across to their students, is that theory that has yet to be proven. Perhaps the lecture/class should come with the disclaimer, "we believe this because no one has come up with anything better."

Theory my left foot! It's an observable phenomenon. I've played with it in my bacteriology labs. Nice short reproductive cycles let us "watch" it happen. It has huge biological significance, not to mention clinical implications, such as antibiotic resistance and being a big reason why no one has been able to design an AIDS vaccine yet.
I propose that scientists stay out of our Sunday schools if these quasi-scientists will stay out of our science classes and labs. They aren't speaking the same language anyways. Best to keep them 2 sword-lengths apart, as it were.

[Arathorn]

Originally posted by BeardofPants
Crickhollow:

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaver...437/theory.htm


Yes, I think it *should* be taught. As should a comparative ideologies class.

I agree. Did you mean to include religion in when you mean ideologies? I'd be very much in favor of that.

Schools should show us all the possible ways we can look at the world and leave it to us to choose or not choose. As long as we are well informed and not say "WITCHCRAFT!" "BLASPHEMY!" at every other idea we don't understand.

BTW, I still choose to be part of the Catholic tradition. It's just a matter of learning to make an educated choice (only you can tell yourself this, IMO) which teachings to take symbolically. Oops, went on a tangent there again...

[BeardofPants]

Yes, I was bracketing religion under "ideologies", as well as political systems, and stuff.

[katya]

I don't think science or evolution should be taught in schools because I am bad at it and think it is boring. And my teacher is a pirate. Seriously yeah though I thnk we should be taught about all different things. Obviously though if you do teach it it is important to say that it is a theory, and so is all science in my twisted world but that's just me. I don't personally have a problem with evolution being taught but some people might... but I think that I definately agree with letting people see all the possibilities and choosing for themselves. Otherwise we all become ignorant or the world. (which as far as a lot of science goes (like the life cycle of moss) i wouldnt mind but oh well) It is way to early for me to be trying to think. So let's just stick with the original theory that we should not teach science because it bores me into a freakin coma. Seriously dude my teacher is a pirate. And a really boring pirate.

[Lizra]

Yes, Of course!

[Sween]

A better question is should elgion be taugh in school seeing as it has no proven basic and causes all the suffering in the world

[Draken]

Originally posted by crickhollow
*chuckles* You have indeed opened a can of worms, my friend and thatwill remain to be seen.

To start off, I'm a Christian (I hope there isn't any doubt about that), but I do believe that evolution should be taught in the classroom. What teachers ought to make sure they put across to their students, is that theory that has yet to be proven. Perhaps the lecture/class should come with the disclaimer, "we believe this because no one has come up with anything better."

I doubt any real scientist would claim anything different of ANY theory - though hopefully he/she would would emphasise the balance of evidence rather than "belief".

[Arathorn]

Originally posted by Sween
A better question is should elgion be taugh in school seeing as it has no proven basic and causes all the suffering in the world

I think different religions should be taught as well; at least to give a basic understanding of what and how people of those beliefs generally think. It is part of the culture as politics, economic, sociology, and technology are. It is much better than just putting on blinders and earplugs and bunching all people who have a religion together and generalizing.

What I'm saying is that it should be taught for knowledge's sake and not for people to start worshiping. If they want to learn more, someone could offer an elective. If they want to worship, then that's the time they should go to the churches, mosques, synagogues, or groups who would provide that need.

[crickhollow]

Originally posted by mirrille
Theory my left foot! It's an observable phenomenon. I've played with it in my bacteriology labs. Nice short reproductive cycles let us "watch" it happen. It has huge biological significance, not to mention clinical implications, such as antibiotic resistance and being a big reason why no one has been able to design an AIDS vaccine yet.
I propose that scientists stay out of our Sunday schools if these quasi-scientists will stay out of our science classes and labs. They aren't speaking the same language anyways. Best to keep them 2 sword-lengths apart, as it were.

I have no problem with micro-evolution, I was referring to macro evolution.

[Coney]

Originally posted by Arathorn
What I'm saying is that it should be taught for knowledge's sake and not for people to start worshiping. If they want to learn more, someone could offer an elective. If they want to worship, then that's the time they should go to the churches, mosques, synagogues, or groups who would provide that need.

Definitly. At my school (Church of England based school) we were forced to pray, sing hymns etc etc and all it acheived was to give us one-sided view of world religion, it was pathetic and not one of the 50 or so of my school companions I am still friends with is a practicing christian..........all it left us with was a feeling of disdain after so many years of having christianity force-fed to us (although it did raise a good classroom debate about genocide. If the Bible is to believed as truth then Adolf Hitler did not commit the greatest act of genocide in history, God did, with the Great Flood. Not surprisingly the teacher soon brought this debate to a halt )

As for Evolution, I think it should be stressed as a theory but emphasis should be given as to the actual scientific facts that belief, and research, in the theory has proven.

Faith, or the rejection of Faith, is a purely personal decision and IMO should not encouraged in the school system.......a recent argument in the UK about the schools resoponsibilty to encourage religious commitment in the young erupted when a school had more pupils whose culture followed the Hindu religion than the previous Christian majority, the Hindu parents (rightly IMO) argued that as their children were the majority in the school then the tradition of christian prayers and hymns should be replaced with Hindu ones. Luckily the authorities took the sensible option and banned all compulsory worship in the school, a tred being followed throughout the UK.

If we are to treat anything that contradicts (or even proves against) the bible as a theory then where will it end? Should we still teach that the world is round as a theory? ............then again the Flat Earth Society has been growing in popularity lately

Science and religion have long battled against each other but the Pope said on evolution that "it's more than just a theory" and Einstein conceded that "eventually you must look to God for the answers".

[Lief Erikson]

Good post, Coney.

Contrary to those Sunday School teachers, I think that things like God's destruction with the Flood should be discussed, for people to get a better understanding. God wouldn't want someone to simply accept what he does because they have to, I'm certain that he would prefer them to understand it and know that he is just.

And if things are found in science that are contradictory to Christian beliefs, then I simply think that Christians should gain a good grounding in those fields and start trying to find out whether the error is in science or in the Bible, and they should look hard, and from all angles. Evading the question isn't going to make it go away; it's simply going to make Christians look stupid.

Compulsory worship . . . I doubt that you'll find anyone here who thinks that that should exist.

[Rían]

Wow, you just pushed one of my buttons! By all means, let's discuss it (politely, of course which doesn't mean being a silly doormat caving into other people's opinions, it just means not insulting people when that has nothing to do with the topic being discussed)

Go crickhollow! I will have to be content with a short post for now, I'll post longer when I get a chance over the next few days to put together a thoughtful reply, but I agree - since when did the word "theory" deserve to get dropped from "theory of evolution"? Did a heavenly stamp of approval float down from above? but wait, there is no intelligent being above! (I assume we are discussing the theory of evolution without "intelligent design" behind it, as opposed to the offshoot idea of the theory of evolution with an intelligent being giving little gentle nudges to things at critical points. Or do you people want to discuss both?)

Anyway, this should be interesting and fun! See you all soon

[azalea]

I am a Christian, but I think it would be silly NOT to teach evolution in science classes. You're in a public school; there would be no justification for not teaching it. It's SCIENCE.
But I do think it should be adjusted for different age levels. Teaching first graders about it would be confusing. I would just teach about adaptations, etc. Then, by middle school you can bring in more in depth info., and so on through high school. If a parent objects so strongly, that student should be allowed to take a science class besides biology to earn a science credit (anatomy or chemistry or something).

There is one ideology I believe it is a teacher's duty to teach in a public school in the U.S.: democracy. Students need to know how our government works. They need to know what it means to be a citizen here. In the upper grades, of course, you would teach about political systems in other countries.

I think it would be nice to offer a comparative religion class in high schools. I think that understanding different religions helps people to understand the world better. And it would help in history studies. You really can't thoroughly teach about a time or country without bringing the peoples' religious beliefs into it.

[Earniel]

I think evolution should be taught at schools. I admit it still has some grey areas but it helps (well at least for me) to understand how this world works. The religious side is taught in religionclasses (well at least at the catholic school I went to) so I think it's not only fair that students learn the scientific side of it as well. Let them decide for themselves which they believe but at least they should get the choice.

On a side note, I think it's interesting to teach something about the other religions as well. I had a few lessons on islam, boedhism and jewish religion the last year of highschool and I found that rather enlighting.

[sun-star]

I have to agree with you all and say evolution should be taught in schools. It's a widely accepted theory today and informs not just science but literature as well, and students need to know something about it. It is as important to understand this viewpoint as to learn about other religions - all part of understanding where other people derive their beliefs and opinions from. Even if you disagree with the theory, you need to understand what it's about to form a coherent argument, don't you?

The only unhelpful thing, as other people have said, is when it's taught as 'the only truth'. When I learnt it in school (as a Christian) I didn't have a problem with it, but my Christian friend had some more trouble - mainly because of the attitude of her teachers, which could be summarised: "Evolution is what all intelligent scientists now believe. A long time ago, when people were less clever than we are, they believed God made the world, but we know better than that!". Not exactly sensitive

[Lief Erikson]

Well then, I think we're all in agreement. Basically everyone says that it should be taught in schools, and everyone who doesn't only believe in evolution, but also believes in some other religion, emphasizes that it should be taught as a theory. Now, unless someone turns up with an opposing point of view, we might want to change the subject. Genocide, anyone? I'm speaking of the biblical genocides or seeming injustices done by God, although it can be about other historical genocides as well, and the reasons for them.

Either that, or some other topic, or we can continue this nice happy continuous agreement.

[katya]

Happy agreement is nice. It helps calm my poor brain. But it's not so interesting. So sure let's talk about genocide. By the way my post from before is edited now.