Teaching ID/creationism in public schools?

Question

what's your view on teaching ID/creationism in public schools?

defend your argument

Answer 1

logical.  

Answer 2

ID is not a scientifically valid theory by any set of standards used by scientists today. Science class is about science. Things that are not science should not be taught in science class.

The fact that this question is even considered a valid question is very disturbing. We left natural philosophy behind after the Scientific Revolution and the implementation of the scientific method. Pseudoscience is embarrassing. It makes cavemen of us all.

That being said, everyone should be free to believe in whatever batty insane religion they want, but Christianity has no place in the science classroom. And anyway, watered down, pro-evolution creationist theories that merely add on "our God did it" at the end are the evolutionary theory with a twist of Christianity to explain why life began. That twist is unneccesary and bloody insulting to people of different religions and atheists.

Answer 3

The bottom line is that ID/Creationism have been categorically *REJECTED* by the scientific community.

So why on earth would anyone advocate teaching something not accepted as science by scientists, to schoolchildren in a "science" class?

Look, the scientists have heard all the arguments about "irreducible complexity", or "no new information" or "violating the second law of thermodynamics" or "odds against abiogenesis." But these are all *easily* refutable if you know anything about complexity theory, information theory, thermodynamics, biochemistry, or computational probabilities.

So these arguments are ridiculous to scientists.

But despite this, the ID advocates claim that ID is something they should be allowed to teach to 10th-graders!

I.e. if you can't convince the scientists, let's appeal the case to schoolchildren!

And if, in the process, the arguments are so complex and confusing that the kids come out totally baffled ... we still win!   As long as kids think "wow, this evolution stuff is complicated, and those scientists still can't make up their minds ... so I will conclude that 'the jury is still out' on evolution."

You end up with kids like paulred2 here who think that "that people aren't sure about the ansewer to this question yet..."

If by "people" you mean *scientists*, then you are absolutely wrong!   If there is one thing that the overwhelming *CONSENSUS* of scientists are very very very sure about ... it is evolution!

But if by "people" you mean laypeople, then that's because we have a largely scientifically illiterate populace ... thanks in large part to the relentless efforts of Creationists to undermine basic science education.  (We have gone from #1 in the world in science, to #33.  Do we really need to help them?)

And to the old "teach both sides and let kids make up their own decisions" argument (Southern Yankee).  That is absolutely a surrender to ignorance!   Do we let kids "make up their own minds" about gravity, about atoms and molecules, about whether the earth moves around the sun, about whether Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, about whether the Holocaust happened?   Because there are fringe people who dispute all of those things ... but these are not open to debate in schools.  Not because we are "PC" ... but because there are certain things that are accepted as *givens* by the people who know about these issues (biologists, physicists, chemists, astronomers, literature experts, historians, etc.) and we do NOT waste our time or confuse children by "debating" things just because a vocal fringe group disagrees.

The tactic of ID advocates, unable to convince the scientific community, demanding to argue their case instead to 10th-graders, is cowardly and despicable.

It is not teaching science.  It is not 'education.'   It is promoting ignorance.

Answer 4

Paulred2:  It is not possible to ever prove anything conclusively to be fact.  Sorry, but there is no such thing as absolute proof.  All you can do is to undergo a rigorous process to rule out alternatives.  This has been done with evolutionary theory, but not with ID/creationism.  The ID proponents try to make you believe that the two are equal, but one has undergone 50 years of testing and survived it, the other is completely untested.  That's how science works, and in any other field, you would be teaching the one which has been tested and not the untested idea.  If we waited for absolute proof, we would not teach anything, because there is not anything on earth which has been conclusively proven to exist!

Answer 5

What Grade?

It ain't in the elementary curriculum.

I did a term paper on the topic years ago. It turned out that a group called Creation Research Society printed shoddy textbooks, then tried to get states to pass laws banning the teaching of Evil-loution. Great marketing plan...

Look up some old editions of Scientific American magazine. One of the back issues contains rebuttals of the dumb arguements creationists use. Throw that in the face of the preachers!

Answer 6

to be honest until they can prove it one way or the other without all this speculation they should just not teach any view point. that goes for evolution too, which hasn't been proven properly to be ethically tough in my opinion.

whats wrong with giving children the straight ansewer that people aren't sure about the ansewer to this question yet...  

Answer 7

It should be taught and let the students make their own decisions. The bad news. It can't be done w/o someone interjecting their religious beliefs. Until that can be satisfied, and it probably never will be, you won't be able to teach it in schools.This is one of those "touchy subjects" that EVERYONE has an opinion on, but few will do anything about it. It is usually the MINORITY that hollers they are the MAJORITY. No, they are just NOISY. No one can teach this w/o interjecting religion, because that is where its basis is. That lovely "separation of church and state". Ain't life wonderful? We all have to be PC. Let teachers teach, let students think, and let parents parent. WHAT AN IDEA!?!??!!?