"I credit the majority of American children have a basic knowledge of the creation story..."Some people think that man evolved, biologically, from other primates."
You need a scorecard. Can't tell the players without a scorecard.
My mother went to Catholic schools from 1917 to 1931, back in the day, and the nuns and priests taught her that the creation stories in Genesis are to be understood as allegories, not literal history, and that there is no conflict between the fossil record and Catholicism.
Atheists and believers are natural antagonists, as are evolution proponents and Biblical literalists.
However, it is not the case (as you seem to think) that all believers are natural antagonists of evolution proponents.
I have no problem with the application of scientific methods to the fossil record, or to most conclusions drawn as a result. I do have a problem with teaching young people that the fossil record demonstrates that there is no God.
Since the odds of atheists refraining from communicating that to their students are, for all practical purposes, zero, I'd like to see students exposed to the countervailing notion that many intelligent, educated, and sane people believe in God.
And that wouldn't take more than a few seconds a semester.
The only reason I can see for insisting on a hermetic seal on the classroom to prevent that from happening is that atheists want the opposition silenced.
This is true.
My mother went to Catholic schools from 1917 to 1931....
My father was orphaned at 3 years old and raised by Aunt's on his Catholic mothers side. When he left Indiana at 14 in the 1930's he also left religion. OTOH, he was the most moral man I ever knew. He died when I was 17. My mother, a Scottish Presbyterian was more sceptic than saint. I attended a Lutheran Church with my parents friends on occasion. I did and do, however, play the bagpipe and have been in many houses of worship and have heard many a sermon. I have played "Amazing Grace" more times than I have witnessed such behavior by believers. Grace and humility may be Christian ideals, but they are not Christian habits.
Atheists and believers are natural antagonists, as are evolution proponents and Biblical literalist.
I don't think that there are "atheists". Everyone believes in something that cannot be proven. The "Godless" communists believed in a religion that masqueraded as reasoned economics. It was nothing of the sort.. It was paganism with the state as its god.
However, it is not the case (as you seem to think) that all believers are natural antagonists of evolution proponents.
I agree. I know believers that consider evolution to be the present state of human biological knowledge and nothing more. I include myself in this group.
I do have a problem with teaching young people that the fossil record demonstrates that there is no God.
So do I. The existence of God, pro or con, is not the perview of an evolutionary biology class. The mention of "God", in the affirmative or negative, would be in the wrong venue. Any science teacher who would say; "This proves there is no God", to a class, has an agenda.
Since the odds of atheists refraining from communicating that to their students are, for all practical purposes, zero,..
Likewise for the Fundamentalists.
The only reason I can see for insisting on a hermetic seal on the classroom to prevent that from happening is that atheists want the opposition silenced.
No. You are more than free to teach Creationism/ID in your house of worship but not in the public school house. The latter is mandatory and there must be standards, the former is voluntary and free to teach that the Earth is flat.