Atheists/Agnostics, would you let a fundamentalist Christian teach your child Evolution in science class?

Question

Christians, would you let an Atheist/Agnostic teach your child Bible Study in Church?


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Would it make a difference that the fundamentalist Christian has a PhD from Harvard in Genetics?

Would it make a difference that the Atheist/Agnostic has a PhD from Bob Jones University in Theology?

Answer 1

I wouldn't let either of them. I'd home school.

My first experience with Public Schools, age 9.

My mother was a professional musican and taught me music. One of the things she taught me were the clefs. G and F are the most widely used, although there is a C used in classical works.

In my music class in 4th grad the teacher wrote the clef on the board and asked what they were. I raised my hand and identified them as the G and F Clef and she said:

WRONG

A definitive answer.

The correct answer, according to her, was Trebel and Bass.

I went home devistated, believing my mother was a fool. She said they are also known as that, but in the dictionary she proved to me they were also called the G and F clef.

All that told me was my Music Teacher with her BA in Music and Teacher Credential, was being arbitrary.

To survive in SCHOOL you must not think, you must ROTE what the TEACHER wants you to ROTE.

The only CORRECT answer in school is the answer the TEACHER BELIEVES IN OR WANTS TO HEAR, all other answers are wrong.

Now you tell me, was she an Atheist or Christian? Did that have any bearing on her

WRONG!

To me, out loud, in front of the whole class.

Home school. Anyone who thinks someone with a BA is smart is a fool.

I think it was on that day that I decided the education system was bunk and began my long trek of self education.

Math is taught exclusively as an abstract. That should only apply to scientific and math majors. Not everyone can think in abstracts.

An abstract is an incomplete sentence.

If you write in incomplete sentences you are grammatically incorrect.

If you throw out an abstract in math everyone is expected to graps it instantly.

When I programmed computers I found myself actually doing abstracts and simpifying. Parsing a line to make it flush, for example. I would devise a routine in 10 steps and then look at it and reduce it to a single step using a ton of parentheses to make it run the steps from the inside to the outside. Made perfect sense to me at the time but I go back to it two years later and my own algorthm reads like Greek to me.

Last night I was attempting, once again, to read "quantum theory" for the novice.

A=E Ek Ak Ak
k

I still don't know what Planck's constant is. It was never written down except for

h

My definition of a constant has a fixed value. That's why it's a constant!

The constant for circumfrance is Pi which is defined, irrational as it is.

I couldn't begin to work these algorithms because they were all letters and no numbers

Far to abstract

quick brown

What does that tell you in writing.

Brown is quick.

Quick is brown

To abstract. There isn't enough information to paint you a picture.

Some minds graps abtract concepts, some don't.

Those who fail to grasp abstract math get put into "high school" arithmetic and never get to take chemistry or physics in school.

Just because you fail to grasp an abstract doesn't mean you can't do math. It means you have to be taught a different way.

THAT is the concept that should be behind NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND.

But it ain't. The strong survive and the weak fall by the wayside. That is how the education system works in America.

And it seems like 95% of the country is awfully weak.

Answer 2

Atheist/Agnostic with a PhD from Bob Jones? That's not realistic Jim, he would have been booted by the end of the first semester.

But to answer your question about letting an Atheist teach my kids about the Bible, absolutely not. The Bible calls itself "foolishness" to non-believers. One cannot begin to understand it without the reader being open to the possibility of the leading of the Holy Spirit.

So how could they possibly teach it?

Answer 3

I am not too keen on Bob Jones University. If they had an MDiv from Westminster Theological Seminary, I would be fine with them teaching "theology." But Sunday School, as I remember, was more towards spirituality and prayer than standard learning. I don't see how they could teach that, not being a believer.

Answer 4

1) Intelligent design is not considered science, as science requires testability and falsifiability in all hypotheses. 2) Evolution and the Theory of Natural Selection is the most widely tested and accepted scientific theory in this area. 3) One could still believe in a diety while accepting science (eg Albert Einstein). 4) Either you misspelled God, or you deny the fact that people who accept scientific fact can appreciate goodness and morality. In either case, you are wrong. 5) It would not be fair for religion to be taught in place of biology. Only one of these subjects is useful in science, and it's not religion. 6) How is a watch proof that the universe needed to be created? And the eye wasn't created in a generation. It slowly developed from the elementary light detecting eyespots of basic animals, gaining in complexity and ability through each subsequent succesful generation. 7) Just because Intelligent Design or "DFesign" sounds more scientific than creationism doesn't make it even remotely related to true science. 8) Your "impressionable children argument" sounds like you are saying that the only way for people to believe that nonsense is for them to be intellectually defenseless. 9) "mean secular atheists"? Quit whining. It's not their fault you chose the losing team. 10) The reason creationism is not taught is not because of fear, but because the education system is supposed to Educate the children. 11) Big science lies? Science is the discovery of truth. Not the mindless propogation of ignorance such as that which is implemented in the church.

Answer 5

I think even Fundamentalist Christians can be found who do not have a problem with evolution, however I doubt that most of them could be impartial and I'd like to know the stats on how many have Phd's in Biology from Harvard!

Answer 6

I would not let anyone from Bob Jones University teach my child about any subject, much less the Bible. I would rather have an atheist from a liberal university run my kid's Bible Study.

Answer 7

If they're doing a good job at teaching evolutionary theory, then I would not even necessarily know they were fundamentalist Christians.

If somehow I knew by reputation, then I'd probably scrutinize the lesson, to be certain the theory was being taught without insertions of theistic comments.

Answer 8

If said fundamentalist Christian knew what they were talking about and taught the subject accurately, yes. Their personal beliefs have nothing to do with whether or not they are capable of teaching a subject properly, only whether or not they are willing to.

BTW, welcome back, Jim. You've been missed.

Answer 9

Evolution, yes
Creationism, no.

One is science, the other is theology.

But then, I'm not going to have any children unless I can convince a very sweet girl and openminded woman to do in vitro for us. Not holding my breath.

Non-Believers...Where Gay Atheists Can Be Good Parents
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Non-Believers/

Answer 10

When the student is ready the teacher will appear. There comes a time when the teacher becomes the student. We can All learn from each other. Good to see you back.

Peace and Love