General News Map: Publically Funded Schools Teaching Creationism

None in Kansas?! I don't believe it.
I'm not surprised though. I wonder why it's not a bigger story than this.

 

This wouldn't be so bad if it was taught properly.

"Alright class, by law I'm required to teach you about the Talking Snake Theory, also known as Creationism. It came from a book called the Bible that was cobbled together from a bunch of other books written over 2,000 years ago during the Bronze Age. It states that the world is roughly 6,000 years old and it was created in seven days. Well, technically six days, because on the last day the Creator rested. Anyway, the first human was made from a bunch of clay dirt on the ground, and the first woman was made from his rib. She wasn't shaped like a rib though. They had sex and had some children. Those children then committed acts of incest with each other and their parents to have more children.

Anyway, these humans were super good. And to stay that way the Creator told them not to eat the fruit from a particular tree. Unfortunately, there was a talking snake. It spoke to the first woman, named Eve. She ate from the tree, and got Adam the first man to also eat from the tree. The Creator found out and got really angry. He then threw them out of the magical garden that they had been born into.

All of you are descendants from these outcasts from the magical garden, and are no longer super good. In fact, you were born sinful as a result of their sin, because it carries down like that. But thankfully, about 2,000 years ago after watching the world suffer for at least 4,000 years, and committing at least one massive act of genocide via flood, the Creator sent his avatar down to save everyone. He did this through magical impregnation in a remote area of modern day Israel or Palestine depending on who you ask. We're not exactly sure why the Creator chose such a remote part of the world to begin spreading his message, but if you read the story in full detail you quickly learn not to question the Creator. Bad things happen if you do.

Anyway, this woman - who was still a virgin - popped out a baby that we ended up calling Jesus, though that wasn't really his name, and we consider him the Messiah. We liked him a lot, but unfortunately the Creator demanded that he die in an act of human sacrifice to give us all a way to clean away our sinful nature.

Thankfully, the Messiah didn't die. He came back as a magical divine zombie, which we now seek to follow and are supposed to emulate our lives after. He also wishes us all to know that the Creator is benevolent and loves us, and that you need to accept him into your heart and be baptized to be saved. If you refuse to do these things you will be sent to his fiery torture pit for all eternity.

This about sums up the Talking Snake Theory. It should be noted that none of this is backed up by anything outside of the aforementioned book called the Bible, but many people fiercely believe in everything I just said... Any questions?"

 

Personally, I don't think publicly funded schools should teach anything regarding the origins of life on earth, whether it be through creationism or evolution.

 

There's a distinction here that, while meaningless if you think in terms of special creation 6000 years ago, is actually very important.

Theory of evolution has nothing to do with the origins of life. It just postulates some life is already here, and shows how and why in right conditions it would naturally diversify into more and more different species, with some old species dying out in the process. We can tell roughly how long would it take and what kinds of differences and similarities between those species could be expected.

Now, the question is whether or not what we actually see fits these conclusions: had Earth been there long enough and been the kind of environment where evolution would work? Are differences and similarities between living things of a kind that could be evolved? Theory of evolution itself has no answers.

But all the other sciences do. Astronomy, geology, chemistry, physics, anatomy, you name it, it has provided some hard to refute evidence that evolution could have happened and special creation 6000 years ago could not.

So, once you're on that path of not teaching anything that might contradict this particular interpretation of Genesis (or any other kind of traditional cosmogonical myth) at the end of it you will be left with no science left there to teach.

As for the origin of life itself... It's an interesting question, but it really has little to do with the modern creation/evolution controversy. Irrefutable proof that some of the life was divinely created won't change a thing in it, because however it was done, it wasn't done in a way modern creationists think it was, unless the whole world is some kind of illusion.

 

Religion isn't a science. Science isn't a religion either.

Replacing "god" with "some intelligent force" is still religion and it has no place in the classroom. The only time I see it being okay mentioned is if we're talking about history (ex: the Scopes Monkey Trial). If you want to put creationism in the classroom, keep it in home schools or Catholic schools. Don't force it on the public school systems where it has no place.

Also, if Creationism is to be taught in schools, do not be discriminatory and only focus on the Abrahamic religions, because not everyone follows the same system. If you want to teach this, you must teach all the stories and mythologies or don't even bother.