Last one about creationism in schools...?

Question

There seems to be some confusion about meanings of certain words. Asking about creationsim in school I was more often than not told, "Teach both theories and allow the children to decide for themselves."
One clarification is needed.


A theory in technical use is a more or less verified or established explanation accounting for known facts or phenomena.

A hypothesis is a conjecture put forth as a possible explanation of phenomena or relations, which serves as a basis of argument or experimentation to reach the truth.

Now, all that being said, do you now realize the difference between the two?

While evolution, big bang etc. is not a proved phenomena there is at least SOME evidence to suggest one is on the right track. Where as creatinism as of yet... as NONE other than the bible which.. if you will could be construed as a hypothesis.

Answer 1

Creationism is a at the same time true and a mistake because they realy think that it happens in 6x24 hours.
But Peter said "Dont forget beloved that for God, a day may be thousand years and thousand years are worth one day"
This means that 1E-43 seconds (0. 42 zeros1 sec.) which is the Big Band is The First Day and 9 Billion years from the appearance of the first unicellulars life to now is 1 day too...
The second mistake is that in Genesis, a translation error happend when they say that "the spirit of God was over the water" instead of the "waves" wich means the original radiation of the black matter composing 99.99% of the Universe.
The second mistake is that God created man before woman because the woman is XX and God took a rib af the woman to make of her a man wich is XY.
Crazy, isn'it

Answer 2

I Know the difference. I think that you've understated the level of validation a hypothesis requires before it is considered a theory.

You might have also stated that the energy from some sort of primal event has actually been measured by COBE, that age estimates have been calculated for the age of the Universe using a variety of measurements and calculations which seem to agree. The Age of the Earth and Solar system follow a pattern that disagrees with the Creation hypothesis.

Evolution, meaning "heritable changes occurring over generations" is something that can be seen to happen in Viri, bacteria and smaller animals that reproduce quickly.

Anyway, thanks for explaining this again. It is unlikely to help with those who subscribe to the Creation theory (or dogma), but it is important to know.

Answer 3

Theory of Creationism -
There's only ONE book that mentions creationism - this book is a compilation of stories straight outa Bronze Age mythology that were voted on for inclusion in the bible (aka the Goat Herders' Guide to the Galaxy) in the late 300s by a committee of bishops who had an agenda - mainly, they needed a system of some sorta belief they could sell to McGullibles to support their desire for free board and lodgings.
The data supporting Creationism has remained static for well over 20 centuries; its crowd of believers is dwindling as people grow up and start using their brain.

Theory of Evolution -
There are untold books of evidence, experiments, data, etc, etc, supporting evolution.
The data supporting Evolution grows daily as do its crowd of believers.

Wellington Grey's flow chart showing the differences between Reality and Religion is at the site below - it's amusingly succinct.

Answer 4

Evolution is a fact supported by evidence. The theory of evolution is the explanation of how evolution took place. An analogy to this concept is this: The Earth is a planet. That's a fact supported by evidence. The theory of cosmology explains how the Earth was formed, such as that it detached from the sun, or that a comet produced the dispersion of solar matter to form the planets. These explanations are based on observations of similar events taking place in the known universe, so they are scientific theories because they are based on observable facts.

Creationism is a theory also, but a bad one, because it is not based on the evidence of facts of any kind. It is based on Faith. The assumption on which creationism depends is the existence of an intelligent creator. Without that Faith, the entire "theory" of creationism collapses.

Scientific theories are not based on Faith. To be valid, they have to begin with the evidence of facts. Then they proceed to explain how those facts are produced.

To say that lightening and thunder are produced by the rage of God, for example, is theoretically possible, until we discover that those phenomena are produced by common, everyday climatic conditions. Such is the case for evolution and its theory.

Answer 5

Evolution is a theory, you know...like gravity.
Creationism has no evidence or proof other than 'faith' and the Bible. I no more believe God created Adam and Eve than I do that the world was created on the back of a turtle (or other creationist theories).
Evolution, however, has evidence and explains more even in modern day, not just where we came from, but teh here and now and where we are going.
I'm against any religion being taught in school. That should be taught at home.

Answer 6

I object to having evolution taught as if it were an accepted fact, when, in fact, it is not.
Teach science...but teach the truth of science, that it is not a static thing, that it is always changing, that the accepted theory today could be tossed out the window tomorrow, depending on whether or not new facts turn up. Let the children understand that science is an ongoing thing, always subject to revision...there is nothing wrong with that.
As of this moment, there is no proof that evolution is a fact...

For balance, add a World Religions class that touches on all of the major religions of the world, along with each one's explanation for how we got here, and why. Let the kids know that there are people who believe that a Creator, or an "Intelligent Designer" made the universe, and everything in it...including them.

A theory, my brainy friend, is an explanation that fits the available facts as we now know them. It is not, as you seem to suggest, necessarily a fact. If it were, we could prove it beyond any doubt. For instance, you could show me examples of this "common ancestor" we're supposed to have evolved from...and you could actually explain why there are no sentient plants, for instance, or intelligent kangaroos (by intelligent, I mean like men.)
So, we've seen some bacteria develop a resistance to medication...and we've seen some finches with shorter beaks. Uh...and??

Answer 7

You don't teach children a scientific theory and a religious theory in a science class. Nothing but science is appropriate in a science class, just as you wouldn't teach math in a history class. Also, children should be taught the known scientific facts in a science class, regardless of whether someone's religion requires them to reject the facts. A school class of any kind is not a place to keep children ignorant.

Answer 8

You rather conveniently left out SCIENTIFIC LAW. And the definition for THEORY that you use is insufficient.

Evolution is NOT a theory, it is an hypothesis that is BASED UPON several loosely bound theories. Evolution will never become the LAW of evolution because it is neither observable nor duplicable. By comparison, gravity is a LAW not a theory. It is rightfully called the LAW OF GRAVITY.

Evolution is quite emphatically the greatest lie of satan. One CANNOT prove that which is UNPROVABLE.

Answer 9

I think the type of evolution that we observe (finch beaks, bacteria) should be taught - it's proven fact.
This is selection from existing genetic information and always results in lateral or loss of genetic information.
The proponents of the GTE twist 'natural selection' and 'adaption' to prove their "theory" that man evolved from molecules over millions of years.
This requires an INCREASE of genetic information through mutation, which has never been observed, yet would have had to have happened millions of times.

Answer 10

I get upset when Creationist consider the Bible truth. It makes me wonder what else they have cut out of their lives due to their own ignorance.

It's not stupid, it's just a choice to simply ignore and stop exploring. They found an "answer" and that's enough.

It's funny that an evolutionist, so to speak, will speak of his belief as "theory" but a Christian will state their "belief" as fact.