Creatonism In US Schools

Link

Just a general questions to americans - Why is this a thing? I get that a majority of your country believes in God. Still doesn't excuse not believing in facts and evidence. Ignoring this and teaching this in schools is not responsible. That's like teaching abstinence is better than getting an actual education about how sex is.

Private schools are allowed to teach whatever dumbass shit they want to.

Which is odd since education is mandatory and private schools are essentially a loophole to avoid giving your child an education.

EDIT: I'm aware most private schools are actually quite good. I'm referring to the ones that teach creationism and shouldn't even be considered a school.

Haven't you heard? A watch has a watchmaker, a painting a painter, and a building a builder, therefore everything was created out of nothing by a magical being, who he himself has always existed. It's a thing because we have too many brain-washed magic believing fools who deny reality to embrace their comfortable delusion.

depends on the context in which it is being taught

See here is the thing, you can believe/have faith in god while still accept the basic concepts of biology like evolution.. Creationists are a special kind of idiocy and in my mind aren't much better than what the Taliban, and ISIS represent..

The power of pretend. I get that people pretend that their magical god did this or that. Silly, isn't it?

Public schools mate, not private. Read the article

Christ is that article what passes for journalism these days?

But anyway, creationism isn't really a scientific theory and so shouldn't be taught in a science class.

@The_Last_Ride: come on man. Slate is just as full of shit as fox is.

Well ok maybe slightly better than fox but close enough to know that a tiny amount of money trickling into charter schools is not that big a deal.

Plus most of those people are going to be cripplingly dumb no matter what so really this like being upset that some morbidly obese guy ate an entire cake then had a pie for dessert.

The smart ones are going to figure out the score no matter what some school did to them.

Some religous people want it taught in schools, but any decent public school does not teach that.

Teach creationism all you want in my opinion, but make very clear the insane amount of evidence in favour of evolution, and teach that as well.

Edit: but teach it in religion class for ****'s sake, it doesn't belong in a science class.

South Korea does this as well. The country is dominated by racist/sexist/homophobic, right-wing to far-right conservative, protestant fundamentalists.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creationism

@The_Last_Ride:

Teach it in a comparative religions course. Teach it in a history course.

In science, briefly bring it up in the course of demonstrating the evidence against young earth creationism as a prevailing theory of the past. As for intelligent design creationism, teacher's discretion whether they wish to mention it in passing as a widely believed origin theory for which there is not, and likely cannot be, either positive or negative evidence.

Creationism isn't very common in public schools, considering it's illegal.

it's still bad if a school teaches bs

Not taught in public schools around here. Not sure where that would actually be taught since public schools are funded by tax dollars and thus not based on religious affiliation.

I was just thinking that. Throw out the Bible as a source (because you can't use it in school) and what's left? Anything?

apparently Spelling isn't taught in public schools anymore. =P

Most people are intellectually lazy. It's easier to believe in magic and leave it at that then try and wake up some brain cells.

I am religious I keep it to myself. I don't bash other people for not believing in Odin. People who don't believe in anything sure as hell like bash religious people though. It's like walking up to people on the street and punching them for no reason when they weren't even bothering YOU.

Anyways what foxhound_fox said is /thread

Just one question for anyone who thinks this is a serious matter: Just why is this a serious matter?

I mean you can't find a single school in my country that teaches creationism in fact you couldn't find one since like 20 or more years ago. But still I don't see how being an evolutionist instead of a creationist helped me become a better person at all.

Now if I were planning to study biology or things like that, maybe your point would seem valid. But fact is not all people choose biology or related subjects for their study so I don't see why people make a fuss about it all the time...

Lots of people believe in fairy tales, but that can be tolerable if they keep it to themselves.

Teaching Creationism in schools is insanity. Schools are to teach facts, not bullshit from some ancient book.

In the U.S., Republicans use charter schools to push their religious agenda. Since charter schools get public money, it is illegal. In addition, teaching creationism fosters a generation of magic believing morons.

Louisiana, for instance, has had their share of problems with regards to creationism:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/11/louisiana-scientists-burn-stake_n_7259486.html

"Last month, Louisiana lawmakers considered a measure to repeal the Louisiana Science Education Act, a 2008 law that critics have characterized as a way of giving teachers latitude to introduce creationism and other unscientific theories into state classrooms."

"SB 74 did indeed eventually fail, likely preserving the LSEA for at least another year."

You can teach the bible in a history course. Creatonism holds nothing of value

Creationism should never be taught in schools. Period.

@The_Last_Ride:

Schools should not base what they teach in history on the basis of value judgments or utility. Young earth creationism isn't just the view of some wacky modern psuedo-scientists. Such disparate historical figures as Jerome (early church father), Maimonides (Jewish Philosopher and Astronomer), Isaac Newton (Scientist), Johannes Kepler (Scientist), Mercator (Cartographer), Andreas Helwig (Linguist), all spent considerable time and effort in coming up with their own conceptions and dates for the beginning of the Earth, fitting a young earth model. Not to mention actual historical empires and peoples had fixed dates for the beginning of the world that fit the young earth model as well. It is worth mentioning when discussing Isaac Newton in history that he was obsessed with hidden meaning within the bible, including the date of origin as well as other numerology, and that his biblical studies were every bit as important to him, and occupied his mind with every bit as much fervor as his scientific contributions. These facts are important in painting a picture of the man and his context. And as young earth creationism forms part of the context of 99% of western and middle-eastern historical figures in history, yes it might come up in passing, and no it isn't wrong to do so.

I watched the video and the beautiful woman did mention private schools in the last of the color coded states graphic. And i'm fine with that. I'm fine with public schools mentioning there are other beliefs and view points to how it all began as well. But include more than Christianity then, and make sure the bulk is what the constitution says is legal.

if humans were created in god's image does that make god 98% chimp?

None of them still had not the technology we have. Carbon dating debunks all of creatonism

@The_Last_Ride: Which is a reason not to teach it in science, but you shouldn't ignore it in history, since it informed the outlook and is part of the context of nearly every western and middle eastern person since pre-history. Knowing that modern humans have been around for 100,000 plus years changes how we see ourselves and our history relative to how people of the past saw themselves. Knowing the planet is 4 billion years old and that hominin pre-history accounts for only the last 6 million changes our outlook on the world, our conception of possibilities; the fact that people in the past had a different conception seems an important fact to bring up in history class. There is a lot more mystery in our modern world. To people in past centuries nearly all of human history was considered a known event in their conception, and not merely by the uneducated or ignorant ones, but by all the geniuses and all the leaders that anyone could hold in esteem.

Always worth remembering that the father of the modern scientific method itself "spread the good news" for a day job as a Franciscan friar, and the Occam's razor principle so many try and use as a starting point for attacking belief itself, was likewise thought up by a Franciscan friar.

But maybe I misunderstood your original statement, which I took to mean "you can teach elements of the bible other than creationism in history, but not creationism since it holds no value".

Humans and chimps share about 94% of DNA, yet humans are 100% human and chimps are 100% chimp.

Humans share 50% of our DNA sequences with a banana, all life on earth is related, this is a reason for some to believe, as much as it is a reason for others to disbelieve.

Couldn't agree more. It's religion disguising itself as science (using a more technical terminology "Intelligent Design") as a means to bypass the separation of Church and State with this false science as a trojan horse.

A lot of public school teachers also skirt around evolution teaching because it upsets fundie parents. Just as bad.

I wouldnt mind creationism being taught, but that should stick to the religious studies classes. Not in science classes.

Of course, that should also, include not only creationism of any one particular religion, but of multiple creeds and analyze them and how these mythologies were formed in regards to their culture.

Not even Catholic schools?

Well, if you were a literal creationist, i.e. someone who believed the Bible story were historical and scientific fact, it would pretty much ruin any opportunity you could have to land a job in any science-related field (which accounts for most of the well-paying career fields that aren't labour-related) and would create a lot of social problems for you to interact with "normal" evolution-believing society. Especially if you applied the idea that "I believe it, so it must be true" to all your opinions and interactions.

But it's fortunate that literal creationists are a (very) vocal minority in North America. And despite efforts, cannot overcome the law.

They are still required to teach the curriculum. Standardized testing and everything. So at least the children are receiving the information, however skewed, and can make the decision on their own whether to accept the beliefs of their parents, or the facts laid before them.

And really, that's all it comes down to. A choice to accept the truth, or keep the wool in front of their eyes.

Creationism should be be taught in public schools in the US. Period. No discussion.

Private school can do whatever they want. But I don't agree with any sort of voucher system. Such vouchers allow public money to be funneled into private schools, and that means that the state is partially supporting religious subjects.

Because lol REpublicans.

Damn she has a nice Rack.

well the problem is, a lot of them do not teach it anyways, or teach it wrong. They spend 10min on it and move on.

Proof? If they don't teach it, then their kids fail the standardized tests and they lose their jobs.

I don´t know about all Catholic schools but my children attend to a Catholic school and I attended to a Catholic college ( LaSalle University ) and in neither creationism is taught.

Here's a decent one:

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/01/us-teachers-dont-teach-evolution

"Based on data from the National Survey of High School Biology teachers, the authors estimate that only 28% of all biology teachers consistently teach evolutionary biology, while 13% explicitly advocate creationism or intelligent design."

I was lucky enough to have teachers through high school and college that spent weeks, if not months on evolution, and even shot down creationism in the classroom. Some of the people I know were not as lucky and were simply never taught it in any meaningful manner or never got it at all. It's very hit or miss in this country

That's unfortunate. I was optimistic there were controls in place but I guess not.

I went to a Catholic School we were taught evolution because it's scientific fact and science class is meant to teach science. In religion class we were taught that God created the universe and evolution was the method by which he did so. Creationism was never taught. Catholics have been pro-evolution for decades. Hell a catholic priest was the first person to propose the big bang theory as the origin of the universe.

That may be true but is teaching creationism in schools any worse than telling kids that storks bring babies? I mean if the kid is sensible enough, when he grows up he'll figure out how humans really came to be right? It's not like he's going to buy that story for the rest of his life.