Should evolution or/and creation to taught at schools?

Speedwell said:

Great idea! We should get the Roman Catholics to do it. All public school kids should be taught the Catechism, regardless of their faith.

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I'd rather the Catholic Church run the public schools in America than secular liberals.

Evolution yes, creation no.

compassion 4 humanity said:

I'd rather the Catholic Church run the public schools in America than secular liberals.

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I'm not aware that "secular liberals" run the public schools. I was under the impression that they were run by local school boards and the teachers they hire--who generally reflect the religious composition of their localities.
But let us consider the proposal. What would it get us? Roman Catholics adhere to many of the same social and political values as "secular liberals." Evolution would still be taught in science classes; indeed, the present public school curriculum is very similar to that used in Roman Catholic institutions. Except for periods of religious instruction, I don't see that very much would change. Even so, imposing instruction in Roman Catholic religious doctrine would be noxious to many Protestants, as well as those of non-Christian religious faiths. So why introduce it at all?

This is a serious question. I hear many complain that God and the Bible should be put back into the public schools, but I hear very little about practical suggestions as to how it should be done.

compassion 4 humanity said:

I'd rather the Catholic Church run the public schools in America than secular liberals.

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Because those godless heathens are ruining America, right?

DreadCthulhu said:

Because those godless heathens are ruining America, right?

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You're either with Christ and support teaching Christianity is school, or you're against Christ and support secularism in schools. There is no middle ground.

Speedwell said:

I'm not aware that "secular liberals" run the public schools. I was under the impression that they were run by local school boards and the teachers they hire--who generally reflect the religious composition of their localities.
But let us consider the proposal. What would it get us? Roman Catholics adhere to many of the same social and political values as "secular liberals." Evolution would still be taught in science classes; indeed, the present public school curriculum is very similar to that used in Roman Catholic institutions. Except for periods of religious instruction, I don't see that very much would change. Even so, imposing instruction in Roman Catholic religious doctrine would be noxious to many Protestants, as well as those of non-Christian religious faiths. So why introduce it at all?

This is a serious question. I hear many complain that God and the Bible should be put back into the public schools, but I hear very little about practical suggestions as to how it should be done.

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What are you talking about? It seems to me like the Catholic clergy are very conservative. Also, Catholics have been at the forefront of the pro-life movement. That isn't liberal.

compassion 4 humanity said:

You're either with Christ and support teaching Christianity is school, or you're against Christ and support secularism in schools. There is no middle ground.

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Why is secularism in schools a bad thing? Not everyone is a Methodist, you know.

DreadCthulhu said:

Why is secularism in schools a bad thing? Not everyone is a Methodist, you know.

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I didn't say one specific type of Protestantism should be taught in public schools.

Look at the religious demographics of young people. In fact, you don't even have to look at those statistics. Just go to virtually any church, and you will see that most congregants are old people above the age of 50 or 60. My concern with secularism in public schools stems from the fact that religion isn't popular among young people.

compassion 4 humanity said:

What are you talking about? It seems to me like the Catholic clergy are very conservative.

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Actually, it looks like they are pretty evenly balanced. Here's an interesting link:
Your Rabbi? Probably a Democrat. Your Baptist Pastor? Probably a Republican. Your Priest? Who Knows.

Also, Catholics have been at the forefront of the pro-life movement. That isn't liberal.

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Which is only one issue. Where do they stand on such things as immigration policy, gun ownership, union membership, workplace safety legislation, environmental regulation, child labor laws and the minimum wage--all "hot button" theological issues for the Christian Right?

compassion 4 humanity said:

You're either with Christ and support teaching Christianity is school, or you're against Christ and support secularism in schools. There is no middle ground.

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OK but the question before us is what, exactly, would you teach? What version of the Bible would you use? How would you find/train the teachers?

When I was a kid, I used to go regularly to Vacation Bible School. One summer our church didn't have a school for some reason, so my mother sent me over to the Methodists. The Methodists didn't really have one, either--they had hired someone to do it for them, an itinerant couple from somewhere down in the Bible Belt (that's actually a common practice, as I understand now. Jim and Tammy Faye got their start that way and so, I'm told, did Mr. Rogers). Anyway, when I got home after the first day and told my mother all the neat stuff I had learned about--the Tribulation, the Rapture, the Millenium, etc. she pretty quick got on the phone to the other mothers and Vacation Bible School was cancelled. And the Methodist Pastor had to be a good sport about the teasing he got about it for years after.

I think both should be taught.

The creation story is an important aspect of every religion, and every religion should be taught in schools. Learning about other religions helps people to understand other cultures, and understand why some things in history happened. For the sake of religious equality, all religions should be taught in the context of "X people believe that...", because it would be weird teaching them in the context of "God created man and woman. Also Odin, Vili, and Vé crafted man and woman from two trees, and Xenu brought millions of aliens to Earth to kill them with hydrogen bombs and blah blah Scientology".

Evolution is necessary for learning Biology. Regardless of whether or not evolution DID happen, observation has shown that life appears, without flaw, as though evolution happened. Maybe God made the Earth 6000 years ago to appear as though it was much older. Maybe the story of creation in Genesis is symbolic, not literal. We have no way of knowing, and it is not necessary for us to know.

When learning about life, we know that life perfectly has the appearance of coming to exist through evolution, so we must conduct science under the assumption that it did. God would not have made life appear this way without a reason. Maybe it was to make learning about life easier. Maybe it was to help humans discover medicines and such that occur naturally. Maybe it was because God wanted evolution to happen over time, and made life appear as it does to match the appearance of an old Earth.

It's not relevant why God made life the way He did, at least not for our scientific purposes. And it's not relevant if God actually made an old Earth 6000 years ago, or made a new Earth millions of years ago and told the story of creation symbolically. For the purpose of learning about the Earth, we must work under the assumption that the universe is billions of years old, because God made it in a way that it appears to be billions of years old.

Creationism could be taught in maybe a world religions class, or perhaps a philosophy class. Creationism isnt really something studied through science however.

mathinspiration said:

Do you think in private schools or public ones?

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Everyone has to pass the same test to graduate with a high school degree. Abraham was told to leave his nation and people. We are told come out from among them: "Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." People in the world mix truth and error together. A little bit of sugar makes the medicine go down. Even theistic evolution has error mixed in. Still we do the best we can to abide in the truth. Every day as Christians we fight to get the truth into our schools and the error out. I think we have made a lot of progress with the science books. To get the error out and stick to the truth. If there is something in the science books that we want to take issue with then we should work to try to get them to correct any errors.

mathinspiration said:

Do you think in private schools or public ones?

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I'm not sure. I woz taught evolution at school. I believe that it is false.