Originally posted by Viss1:
Evolution = science
Creationism = philosophy/theology

Teach one in science class, teach the other in philospohy class. Better yet, teach it in church.

Thus spake Viss1



Absolutely correct in every way.

In some ways I can almost sympathize with the religious right. They basically donâ??t give a hoot about improving our understanding of and ability to describe this world we live in. Their agenda is purely political. They want to bring God back into the classroom and into public life. Teaching kids about the scientific method and the results of applying it to every aspect of our lives is unimportant to them.

I also would prefer to see faith and the concept of God play a more open and natural role in the lives of children. The place where I draw the line is not about teaching religion to children, it is about teaching religion as â??science.â?

Our modern life is built upon the fruits of applying the scientific method. For each generation it is more and more vital that the methods and tools of science be understood and embraced. Providing a confused description of religion, faith and science is not doing school-kids any good at all.

What is so threatening about evolutionary theory anyway? It is a breathtakingly simple way of looking at the natural world and the complexity we see all around us:

Populations have variations within them.
Some individual variations occur randomly (mutations)
The variations found in individuals may be passed on to their offspring
Variations that provide benefits to individuals result in greater reproductive success and thus become ever more prevalent in the population

And thatâ??s it. Evolutionary theory states that these simple rules applied over vast number of generations have produced the incredible complexity we find in nature.

Prove it? Scientific theories can be proven invalid, but they can never be â??proven.â? This is not a weakness; it is the major strength of the scientific method. Even theories that are proven to be flawed and incomplete can still provide incredibly powerful tools for describing the world around us. Ask any mechanical engineer to stop using the theories of classical mechanics because they are flawed and do not account for relativistic effects!

Lets apply evolutionary theory to a problem that may face all of us eventually. Antibiotic resistant bacteria. How on earth did bacteria become resistant to drugs that worked so very well just a few decades ago? Without evolution there is no way to account for this. Looking at the problem from an evolutionary standpoint makes it easy to see not just the likelihood of this, but also its inevitability. Understanding a process is the first step towards manipulating it towards the advantage of mankind.


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