To The Christians Who Want God In Science And World History Class?

Question

Let's say you got your wish and our schools must now tell our children that the world was created by God instead of teaching them about evolution and the development of civilzation.

A kid (and this is VERY likely) raises his hand and asks the teacher, "So who is this God?" and the teacher is non-Christian (Muslim, Hindu, Pagan, Jewish). Now normally, his/her religious belief would not be an issue as God was never a topic in biology or world history class.

But now, because YOU have insisted that it be included, would you want a non-Christian telling your kids about God?

And if the "Creator" must be taught to the kids in a neutral fashion, "The God is whoever you want that God to be etc", doesn't that ALSO raise questions and doubts for your kids as they are being taught they are free to view God in whatever manner, not ONLY the manner YOU want them according to the religion they were raised in?

Your comments, in your own words. No cut and pastes please.

Is the next step in your fundamentalist takeover of the public schools to be that all human biology teachers and world history teachers be Christians to ensure ALL kids are taught from a biblical/Christian context whether they are Christian or not?

Michele, evolution is anti-Christian?

Who told you that? Most Christians believe evolution is a valid science. Evolution in no way denies the existence of a Creator. It just does not factor into the field of study.

Some of the most noted evolution scientists have been Christians.

Beverly, at present, evolution is God-neutral. It neither denies nor asserts the existence of God. The kids are still free to believe or not. Like I said before MOST Christians believe it is a valid science.

The only Christians who have a problem with it are fundamentalists who take the bible literally. In other words they actually believe there was a literal talking snake and tree with a flaming sword etc. etc. and want kids taught that instead of the FACT we share 98% of our genetic material with apes and animals DO adapt over time to their environemnt to form distinct characteristics and our geological record is millions of years old. These scientific facts only threaten bible literalists but not ALL Christians.

I believe in a Creator. I also believe in evolution as a valid science. There is not conflict for me and most people.

Answer 1

Most of us don't want creationism taught in science classes. What we want is for molecules-to-man evolution to be taught with all its warts (they are not even allowed to present evidence that would put evolution in a poor light). And we want intelligent design to at least to be presented (that is science).

Reliable methods for detecting design exist and are employed in forensics, archeology, and data fraud analysis. These methods can easily be employed to detect design in biological systems.

When being interviewed by Tavis Smiley, Dr. Stephen Meyer said, “There are developments in some technical fields, complexity and information sciences, that actually enable us to distinguish the results of intelligence as a cause from natural processes. When we run those modes of analysis on the information in DNA, they kick out the answer, ‘Yeah, this was intelligently designed’ . . . There is actually a science of design detection and when you analyze life through the filters of that science, it shows that life was intelligently designed.”

I agree with George Bush, "Both sides ought to be properly taught . . . so people can understand what the debate is about . . . Part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought . . . You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes.”

Good science teaching should include controversies!

Answer 2

Great question. So now each school system must either pick a religion or the teachers will have to say that God created the world and leave it at that. If a child asks how God created the world, what will he or she say? The Christian account of creation, the Muslim account, etc.? If the teacher is a Muslim and gives the Islamic explanation of creation, the next step for all these Christians will be to make the schools teach, not only God, but Christianity. I guess they want things to be like they were before the Reformation.

Answer 3

It's interesting to me that when I asked some of my Muslim friends if they were taught evolution in school they just stared at me blankly and had no idea what I was talking about.
So, it's not only Christians who believe in a Creator God, but Muslims are taught that as the only curriculum in their country.

What's so wrong about teaching both evolution and creationism and let they kids and their parents decide which they want to believe in... since neither side can PROOF 100% that their side is correct.
That would really make for a more enlightened society in my opinion.

As to your comment on development of civilization, wouldn't you agree most of the most cilivilized and most advanced countries in the world today have been predominantly Christian in the past?
Look at the primitive tribes and what affect Christianization has brought to their communities: education, sanitation, better healthcare, to just name a few.

Answer 4

I don't think they should teach, "The God is whoever you want that God to be etc", God is God. No matter what anyone wants to believe. Evolution is false; God is real- no matter what you believe. Evolution should not be taught because it is false, Buddhism is false and therefore it should not be taught. And if the teacher is a Buddhist, evolutionist, Muslim etc, and can’t teach without letting his/her belief get in the way, then he/she shouldn’t teach.
And as for the bit about the child asking about God, the teacher has only to say "Ask your parents."
"Valid science"? "Most Christians believe it is true"?! Where did you get that information?! Evolution has been proved false on numerous occasions. And most evolutionists doubt the existence of a Creator. Let me ask you something- why is it that we have so many “missing links?” Why is it that so many fossils have been proved to be fakes? I shall tell you: evolution is a load of crap. You have most likely been taught evolution in school and believe it- but you have never seen the OTHER side. I have seen both sides and am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that evolution is false. I have first hand seen evolutionists debate Christians, and do you know what happened? Every single time the evolutionist tucked his/her tail and fled. Ever seen Kent Hovind? I am sure you will bring up the fact that he has been jailed lately, but the fact of the matter is everything he said is true. He does not lose any credibility because he, foolishly, did not pay his taxes. He has proved so well that evolution is false, that when he attempted to debate the most highly recognized evolutionists they refused. The proof of evolution has still to be found. Christianity cannot be PROVED- but Christianity has NEVER been DISPROVED. Evolution has been disproved MANY times however. E-mail me and I shall give you proof about evolution being false (if you dare).

You say we shouldn’t teach Christianity because it’s our OPINION- Hello?! It’s your OPINION that evolution is real. I happen to have science to back me up. You THINK you have science to back you up, but nonetheless, it’s your OPINION!!!!

Answer 5

I would say History and religion is above science. What science is proving now, was already mentioned in religious scriptures and history thousands of years back. Most scientific inventions took place after thorough review of the history and religious scriptures. Some of the old civilizations were alot more intelligent then us (current human race), and had lot more knowledge then us.

Answer 6

better yet what about when you have well taught Pagan kids(such as mine) that can make preachers trip over their own words. imagine the disruption to classes that this would cause.

my boys constantly invite the JW's and Mormons into the house to talk about god and gods with them. and all of them leave having allowed a 14 year old and a 18 year old kid to make fools of them.

a situation like this would simply grind classes to a halt and nobody would learn anything.

let the school teach math and science, i will teach religion.

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Cowboy,

you need a new flu shot every year, because the virus evolves to create an immunity to the antibodies of the previous year.

evolution is a fact. human evolution is a theory that is strongly supported by fact.

intellegent design, is probably the worst arguement that religions could have come up with.

and I am an Ordained Minister.

Answer 7

Well, it would be nice for them to know both sides of such an important argument in society, but bottom line, NOTHING should be taught as fact in schools about these two theories. They should be taught exactly as they are, Theories. Let the children decide for themselves when they grow up which side makes more sense to them. I live in a country where religion is taught in schools, but it is so warped, they don't even use the bible, just talk about which saint day to observe and when, and how to make offerings to the saints etc. Horrible. Just recently they passed a law that would exempt children not wanting to hear of this stuff from the class. Only very recently.

Answer 8

I have never pushed for this to be taught in schools, but if it did happen and my son was told that "God is whoever you want God to be"..that wouldn't bother me at all.
My son will be free to choose what he believes, although I will teach him about my faith.
Even now if my son has questions about something he learns in school (well when he is older) and I am sure he will have questions, then we will sit down and talk about it.
I am sure there are confused kids in schools now who do believe that God created the world, and then are taught differently. So they go home and talk to their parents about it.
You don't seem too concerned about these children.

Answer 9

I would like to see religion and creationism taught in public schools, so long as they are taught in the context of social studies (like the history of ideas, comparative world cultures, philosophy, etc.), but we would simply be lying to children if we taught creationism or intelligent design as if it were a science. We should NOT teach children that science is the ONLY legitimate path to truth; I think it is important for even very young children to realize that there are different ways of knowing things (empirical investigation, logical reasoning, intuition, mystical enlightenment, and even faith, since we need to have faith in ourselves and faith in the value of reason in order to learn anything at all).

The key to SCIENCE is SKEPTICISM. The entire enterprise of science is based on the idea that we do NOT know something, and we employ empirical investigation (designing repeatable experiments) and logical reasoning in order to discover the truth. In order to rationally discover a truth that we do not already know, we need to begin by doubting the established views. The philosophy of Rene Descartes set the tone for what we know as modern science. He employed a method of radical philosophical doubt. Science is not the same as philosophy, but science BY ITS VERY NATURE as a type of human investigative activity, must approach its subject (whether it is physics, chemistry, geology, biology, or whatever) with a certain level of DOUBT, more or less like Descartes did when he adopted the task of search for some solid grounds of philosophical knowledge. You can't genuinely INVESTIGATE something if you believe that you already know the answer that you are pretending to look for. If you already know the answer, then you are not investigating anything, you are simply manipulating things in such a way so as to make things come out the way you want – you are DESIGNING a curricula, not DISCOVERING knowledge.

Thus there is simply NO logical way to count creationism as a science because creationists believe that they already know the answers. "Creation science" is not genuinely investigating anything – except to the extent that it is trying to discover the best ways to justify its previously established dogma. To teach children that creationism is a science would therefore be the same as lying to them, and that would be immoral.

And one final note: Creationists sometimes try to turn the tables by claiming that Darwinian evolution is the established dogma and that scientist don't really question it. This involves a fundamental confusion between the facts of evolution and THEORIES (note the plural) of evolution. Darwin's theory was that natural selection is the primary means by which different species evolved. Darwin's theory is under sever attack by SCEINTISTS themselves, and in fact nowadays most evolutionists don't believe that natural selection is the primary means of speciation. There are alternative theories competing with Darwin, but they are all theories of evolution. They are all trying to explain the facts of evolution. In this sense, evolution is like gravity or sunshine. We know that things fall to earth and we know that the sun shines. We come up with theories to explain how it all works. (From a philosophical perspective, one can point out a certain dogmatism at work here; this is a dogmatic faith in the value of empirical evidence. Science "dogmatically" accepts the existence of "facts of experience" as the basis for investigation. Scientist dogmatically accept the value of skepticism at the beginning of any investigation. Philosophers of science often question the reality of facts and the meaning of skepticism, but science itself "has to start somewhere", so it starts with the facts of observation, and it starts with some degree of skepticism toward all theories.)

The facts of evolution are well established. We know that all forms of life are biologically interrelated – there is a "family tree" arrangement characterizing the traits of all living organisms. We know this through direct observation of genetic changes in existing organisms (we can see some of the mechanisms of evolution right before our eyes), and we know this by direct observation of shared characteristics of existing organisms. We also know this by inference through observation of fossils. These are the facts that various theories of evolution are trying to explain. Notice that we DON’T have all the answers to how species developed in detail; if we did have all the answers, there would be no science left to do – there would just be a history of ideas taught by historians telling us what scientist discovered about how the world works.

Answer 10

Hello??? Did I miss something? Is it no longer called the THEORY of evolution? Isn't the defination of theory, a working hypothesis that hasn't been proven?
If evolution is still a theory, what's wrong with presenting opposing theories?

If I missed the news bulletin that evolution is a scientific proven fact, please post the facts that prove it beyond a doubt.