Teaching Creationism in Schools
Teaching Creationism in SchoolsThe question as to whether or not creationism should be taught
in public schools is a very emotional and complex question. It can be
looked at from several different angles, its validity being one of
them. Despite the lack of evidence to support the fundamentalist idea
of creationism, that in itself is not enough to warrant its exclusion
from the curriculum of public schools in the United States. The
question is far more involved and complex.
One way to address the question is whether or not creationism,
in itself, is a valid idea to be taught in public schools. The answer
to this can be yes. Not only should a student in American public
schools learn and acquire knowledge in empirical sciences, and other
tangible facts both in history and other courses, but he should also
learn how to think and make decisions for himself. Unfortunately, as
it turns out, creationism is in direct conflict with the biological
theory of evolution. Many fundamentalist propose that creationism
should replace, or at least be offered as an alternative to Darwin's
theory of evolution.
This is not the right approach. Creationism, as exemplified in
the book of Genesis, should not be taught in a science course. Science
runs on a certain set of rules and principles being: (1) it is guided
by natural law, (2) it has to be explanatory by reference to natural
law, (3) it�s conclusions lack finality and therefore may be altered
or changed, (4) it is also testable against the empirical world, and
finally (5) it is falsefiable. These characteristics define the laws,
boundaries, and guidelines that science follows. In a science course,
all knowledge conveyed is shown, or has been shown in the past, to
exemplify a strict adherence to these qualities. Creationism,
unfortunately in the eyes of Christian fundamentalist, does not
exemplify any adherence whatsoever to these rules and guidelines of
science. Therefore, it should not be included in the science
curriculum in public schools, even as an alternative to evolution.
Another idea is that which is held by those who subscribe to
the idea of scientific creationism. Scientific creationism, as it
relates to this topic, states that God was the creator, and that
evolution is simply a means, developed by Him, of conservation. Due to
this definition of how scientific creationism relates to evolution, it
may be easier to accept by scientific criteria, despite the fact
that the origins are scientifically debatable.
The problem in scientific creationism, and what I see as a
reason for its exclusion from the science classroom in public schools,
is the fact that it looks as if, from the outside, the whole theory
that it rest on is simply a contortion of the traditional version of
creation described in Genesis, custom-made to fit in with Darwin's...
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