Creationism/Intelligent Design and Evolution

[Patrick MacFarlane]

What are the thoughts on this?

Should Creationism/ID be taught in school systems? and how should this issue be approached?

[tom the pit leader]

Kids shouldn't be put in situations where they aren't prepared to evaluate evidence. We shouldn't have kids "studying" "science" when they can neither read nor evaluate the mathematical data used to construct scientific theories.

If a kid can read both sides of an argument and actually evaluate data, it won't matter what we teach because they'll be able to come to their own conclusions. If they can't, it still probably won't matter what we teach because they won't understand it and thus won't remember it.

[DanDesade]

chose option 5: It should be banned and Evolution alone taught

i don't believe in teaching belief.

really its a time tested experience. constant ongoing evaluation and reevaluation should give a person enough ability to objectively reason. do i create and live my own experience or am i constantly moved for no apparent reason by something i cannot prove to any other person because any event i attribute to some higher power isn't replicable without subjective before objective input?

[bitermer]

My school taught Theory of Knowledge or TOK as part of the IB programme. Kind of hated it at the time because it covered so much obvious and plain subject matter, but it definitely has a lot more value than teaching Creationism ever can.

[Iron Wolf]

I expect schools public or private to teach kids to improve their logic and reasoning skills, read and understand at least one language, and understand how theories become fact. If a private school has clients that want religious ideology taught in addition, that is their call as parents and providers.

Teach the kids/students the most scientifically provable facts and theories. It's up to the parents to indoctrinate religious belief into their kids. I don't expect or want a school to teach my kids my faith. That's my job as a parent.

[scozy]

They should both be taught: evolution in the science class, and creationism in the religious culture class. ('Religious culture' is a thing in the Quebec curriculum, but I'm not sure whether or how it would translate in other places.)

[Firkinvald]

Don't teach religion in school unless it's a religious school.

[Lord Emperor Clot]

As religion answers the questions of "why?" and science purports to answer the questions of "how?", both should be taught. A person who learns only faith can be horribly superstitious and not see how big their God truly is. A person who learns only science may well know how the world works, yet kill themselves out of despair and ignorance of their place in that world.
In a culture where a huge percentage of Americans don't even know who their senator is, a well rounded citizen is a rarity. Teach 'em both.

[Patrick MacFarlane]

Let me begin my stance by saying that I DO NOT condone the teaching of religion in schools as a method of indoctrination. I do, however, believe that students, when they are of a certain age, should be exposed to as many different religions and ways of life as possible to prepare them from the diversities of adulthood. I believe schools should expose and open the doors to various religions so that students may study and evaluate them for their own, deeper, understanding.

I believe they should both be taught because, like tom said, we shouldn't be teaching these things until kids are old enough to reason and come to their own conclusions.

I have always been of the opinion that although Religion is faith-based and Science is tangible-based, I have never seen why the two have to contradict and exclude each other. Like Clot said, Religion is *why* and Science is *how*. I believe that seeing how God does what He does is a good pursuit. And if some logical and well-reasoned student can truly have freedom of thought then they should be allowed to chose which parts of the discussion they wish to hold to.

[DanDesade]

i think it is an important to differentiate between Creationism/Intelligent Design and religious studies.

religious studies is more holistic in that it is characterized by the belief that the parts of something are intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole.

Creationism/Intelligent Design does not take into account the diversity of world religions, both past and present, and rather references only a limited series of anecdotes considered worthy of belief even if biased.