7 School Board candidates would oppose teaching creationism

Stillwater Gazette ^ | 10/28/03 | Greg Huff

[Dales]

Two hints:

1) This would also be a very bad thread to engage in flamewarring or flamebaiting.

2) It would also be wrong to try to guess my stance from me posting this article.

[William McKinley]

I don't get not teaching creationism. Now, I may be biased because I am religious, but doesn't it just make sense to teach it based on how much of our population believes it? How are we supposed to function as a nation if half the people aren't taught what the other half believe, at least enough to understand the way they think and where they are coming from?

My kids attend private Christian school. I would be upset if they didn't learn the theory of evolution...as a theory.

[BenLurkin]

What is wrong with questioning evolution's veracity?

Isn't the search for truth inimical to lock step acceptance of dogma?

[Nataku X]

Good, because it is a theory...

[PatrickHenry]

PING. [This ping list is for the evolution side of evolution threads, and sometimes for other science topics. FReepmail me to be added or dropped.]

[PatrickHenry]

Related article from another thread: Physics Nobelist takes stand on evolution.

[Dimensio]

I don't get not teaching creationism.

Which creation myth should be taught, and in what context -- apart from science, since religious stories don't belong in scientific discussion -- should it be taught?

[Dimensio]

What is wrong with questioning evolution's veracity?

Questioning evolution's veracity is not the same as teaching creationism.

[William McKinley]

I might not have the answers to those questions. But I do know that the wrong answers to those questions are "it should not be taught at all" and "in no context at all".

[CobaltBlue]

I was doing some research earlier today trying to find statistics on evolution/creationism and religion.

One of the things that I determined is that the pollsters for the most part don't play fair when they set up the polls.

People in general want the education system to be fair, to present all sides of a debate when all sides have a more or less equal shot at being true. They don't like authority figures playing "hide the ball" or mistreating valid points of view just because the people who have those points of view aren't also authority figures.

But if you turn the polls around, they don't want their kids being taught non-science.

It's a fascinating problem, especially since the extremes on both sides DO play fast and loose, aka "hide the ball." Made worse because both extremes say, "moi?"

[Dales]

Aaaarrrrrrrgggggghhhhh!

I don't want to get sucked into the discussion...don't want to...must resist. But dagnabit, I have a weakspot for polls. Blast you!

You are absolutely right about the way that bias can be introduced into opinion polls by the way the question is phrased. It happens all the time, in polls of every variety.

[CobaltBlue]

I didn't really have much more to say about the polls - they were just weird - especially the way that different groups would spin the data on the exact same polls.

Just another version of Mark Twain's "lies, damn lies, and statistics." Like we're too stupid to notice.

[jennyp]

I don't get not teaching creationism. Now, I may be biased because I am religious, but doesn't it just make sense to teach it based on how much of our population believes it?

Not in science class, no! Science classes should be teaching kids what the consensus view of working scientists is. And that's evolution, overwhelmingly.

How are we supposed to function as a nation if half the people aren't taught what the other half believe, at least enough to understand the way they think and where they are coming from?

I don't see anything wrong with that. But the underlying debate in the school boards across the country is more what the official curricula and textbooks will be. That's quite different than discussing a fringe theory in class when a student asks about it.

I think a good analogy is discussing astrology in astronomy class. Should astrology be included in the textbooks? Hardly. (Except to point out why it can't be right.) Or discussing Communism in economics class. Sure, it's historically important, but should the textbooks describe it neutrally, as in "here's another theory that some economists hold"? I would hope not!

Well, intellectually & professionally, creationism is just as far from the consensus view of science as those two. I say HS science classes should treat it with the same amount of deference. (Ditto for undergrad college courses.)

Now, in upper level college classes, it might be different. I wouldn't mind seeing a graduate level seminar in ID, if a professor wanted to teach one. Colleges seem to be the place where any damfool idea can get a respectful hearing. :-)

[Bob J]

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[CobaltBlue]

I think it's unfair to analogize from Marx to theories of Intelligent Design. Yes, ID hasn't advanced very far since Thomas Aquinas, back in the Middle Ages.

Yet - science can't rule God out, by definition. True science cannot measure God, thus, must be agnostic when it comes to God. So, depending on the curriculum, there is a place for that to be said.

[BiffWondercat]

Thanks for the ping. I probably won't bother to contribute as this will probably digress into a flame war that gets the thread pulled. That kinda tends to piss me off when that happens.

[PatrickHenry]

Well, hang around. You might be surprised.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!