Comments on: Green light for teaching creationism in public schools?

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 07:03:07 +0000

harley:It is actually something I would feel uncomfortable giving off the cuff without a lot of context as well. Perhaps some day I will write a couple of posts that together, will give the context and then the story. But thanks for asking!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 19:39:43 +0000

And what is the truth?You say smart kids will see it… Well what happens when thier truth is not your truth??? Is it false because you think something different?The whole thing just brings conflict…

By: qetzal

qetzal — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 19:38:06 +0000

It is part of the strategy of many pro-creationism groups to bring in creationism as a sort of “innocent bystander” in a broader discussion, but once it is in the classroom, it is easy for a teacher who wants to teach creationism to do so. The teacher can keep the actionable information … handouts, words written on the boards, other teaching material … within “legal limits” but allow or even encourage the conversation to go places it should not go.

Unfortunately, teachers will continue to do this anyway. Google “Matthew Laclair” for a pertinent example.

By: harley gee

harley gee — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 19:29:33 +0000

I will bite. What story is that?I remember my own 10th grade unit on mythology where we compared greek myth to christian myth. It was quite eye opening for me. -HG

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:21:09 +0000

Could be a good idea, but I can think of at least one creation story that you can’t teach in a public school without getting fired.Maybe in a Las Vegas school…

By: Con Daily

Con Daily — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 13:46:55 +0000

When teaching elementary age children in a private Montessori school, I follwed the advice of one of my teachers – teach creation stories, all of them from all religions, together as a social studies or cultural unit. At the end of the unit, teach the scientific “creation” story and note the difference between mythology, religion, and science. It could still be abused by creationists, but if the basic lesson is that every culture has a creation story to tell, smart kids will see truth.

By: Nathaniel

Nathaniel — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:54:14 +0000

Teaching various religious beliefs in social studies does not sound bad, so long as it has valid teaching point. I remember learning about Muslims, Buddhists, Taoists, etc… in social studies, I don’t see how this is different. Granted, I seem to remember much of history class covering Christianity, its spread and various aspects of it. That being said, there is no real need to teach the specific religious beliefs. Especially when MANY Christians are still debating the creation and intelligent design. They disagree all over the place.That being said, I think it could easily get out of hand if this comes up in the classroom. I remember a conversation at school where I ended up proclaiming “damn, you’re all a bunch of morons!” to the entire senior class (of 13 kids) because of a theological discussion about cloning ended up getting into the nature of the soul. I had to explain to them that what you see in the movies is not possible, the new entity will be no more soulless than an identical twin and that sharing a soul seemed relatively impossible. Living in a backwards little town in west Texas… it’s no surprise that has happened. I think trying to teach creationism at all is just looking for trouble.I like the way one teacher explained it to the class. Paraphrased: “Evolution teaches about how life is, and how it changes from one generation to the next. It does not explain how life came to be. That is for other theories. I also do not require that you believe in evolution to pass my class, only that you are able to understand evolution, there is a big difference between the two.”I was actually friends with this teacher and we would have theological discussions that went WAY out of the scope the state would normally allow. She actually believed that the bible is not a literal depiction but rather a poetic one. That a supreme being did create the universe but he only set it in motion and perhaps guides it with little nudges here and there. If God is really all knowing and all powerful, he would be capable of arranging every particle of energy in the big bang in such a way as to produce every desired outcome in the universe without having to do anything afterwards. I actually agree that this is theoretically possible… but mentioned that there was no way to prove or disprove it. Theology is fun that way.Nice article, definitely worth knowing. When I do have children and they go to school… I want to make sure that they’re not being taught things that have no business in the classroom. I’m suprised that anyone is even considering teaching creationism in the classroom. I know they want to force their religion on people, I know they want people to think that their solution is just as likely as evolution… but they’re looking to be sued! Let creationism be taught in private schools. Keep the public schools free from religious dogma.