[Amelia]

It’s really very simple. If a student signs up to take a course in biology, that student is there to learn what biologists think.

Any dispruptive behavior is cheating the other students of what they came for. Tuning out means only cheating oneself of learning the basics, even if only to better oppose it later when educated and knowledgable.

Exactly. From the article:

“Faith is not based on science,” Mr. Campbell said. “And science is not based on faith. I don’t expect you to ‘believe’ the scientific explanation of evolution that we’re going to talk about over the next few weeks.”

“But I do,” he added, “expect you to understand it.”

[GodGunsGuts]

We don’t expect them to ‘believe’ the Creation/ID argument either. Present both sides of the debate, or present none at all.

[ari-freedom]

Evolution is not based on science. It is an unfalsifiable conjecture, like astrology. Que sera, sera.

[elpadre]

It’s really very simple. If a student signs up to take a course in biology, that student is there to learn what biologists think.”

Any science course that does not explore all possibilities on any of the topics is doing a disservice to the student and to science. That’s what good science is all about.

[FFranco]

From the article:

“Faith is not based on science,” Mr. Campbell said. “And science is not based on faith. I don’t expect you to ‘believe’ the scientific explanation of evolution that we’re going to talk about over the next few weeks.” “But I do,” he added, “expect you to understand it.”

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This is a reasonable position. (Which is why some may have a problem with it.)

When I taught history, from time to time a student would declare something like this: "The Egyptians didn't build the pyramids, the flying saucer people must have built them. We couldn't build pyramids like that today with all our modern equipment."

I answered that of course we could. We could build thousands of pyramids if we wanted, but we don't choose to use our resources that way.

If the student insisted on arguing, I told him (or her, but it was usually a him) that if he wanted, he was free to come to my office to discuss it further rather than disrupt the class over his concern. Usually, they didn't show up at my office.