Since public school is mandatory, should all religious belief systems be excluded . . . including evolution?

Question

It remains an unproven theory to this day. It's no less a religion than any theory on the origin of life, how complex living beings came into existence, and what morals can be inferred from its underlying foundational premise.
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Answer 1

Gravity remains a theory to this day as well. Should that be excluded from public school teaching too? "Theory" is a scientific term to classify a body of knowledge. A theory, in the context of science, is a logically self-consistent model or framework for describing the behavior of certain natural phenomena. A theory typically describes the behavior of much broader sets of phenomena than a hypothesis—commonly, a large number of hypotheses may be logically bound together by a single theory. It does NOT mean that it is an unresolved question.

Answer 2

I guess we should stop teaching chemistry as well since that is also an unroven theory. We dont' really _know_ what is happening with the atoms, we just make some educated assumptions that, so far, prove out. Same with electricity and physics.

Yes, evolution is an unproven theory BUT it does have supporting evidence. Religious theories, on the other hand, have no supproting evidence. Sorry, an old book written by semi-literate sheepherders allegedly by God's Hand doens't count as evidence.

Nice try, but religion is all about faith. Yes, the teaching of religion should be excluded from public shools; that is what the family and the church is there for.

Then again, I guess we could teach religion and that would make you happy, I assume? Of course, we'd then have to teach ALL religions, not just the one you like. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Paganism, Wicca, all of it. Otherwise you'd be using the government to promote a single religion and that is expressly against the Bill of Rights of this country.

And let's not forget that the men who wrote the original BoR were some of the most religious people of their time. They had good reason to avoid a state-sponsored religion.

Answer 3

Firstly, it's true that public schooling is not mandatory. You can homeschool [as I do], send your child to private school, or simply take your child out of objectionable lesson plans at public school [which my parents did when they taught evolution when I was in school].

Secondly, while I don't believe in evolution that doesn't mean that I can control what is taught to the populace at large. A community school is supposed to be run by the community. There are cities and counties in this country where it is illegal to teach evolution because that is the way the people in that community feel. Great for them. However, if the majority of people in my community feel that their children need to be taught evolution I cannot expect them to change their cirriculum to suit the minority. That is unreasonable and unfair.

And lastly, evolution is not a religion-no one prays to Charles Darwin, nor bases their moral decisions based on the theory that people came from apes. Evolution is an unproven scientific THEORY, but you cannot say that public schools should exclude theories from their cirriculum because then they would learn almost nothing in the maths and sciences since it is ALL based largely off theory [ie the THEORY of relativity, the pythagorian THEORUM, etc].

I understand not liking your child to be taught that evolution is a fact. If you feel like your school district is doing this, you can talk to your community and see if you can come up with a majority who feel like you. If not though, you need to realize you're in the minority and that public school is something that involves your entire community and the majority should be represented; then follow through with an educational alternative.

Answer 4

I think many of you are missing the point. Evolution is in direct opposition to religious beliefs. As such, many religious people don't want their children taught evolution. They feel that it goes against their belief in God, and they have that right.

It would be the same if science suddenly announced that they know what happens to us after death and taught that as a science. That would be another opposition to relgion.

Creation is not a science and shouldn't be taught in school, furthermore, since evolution, the big bang, and other THEORIES attempt to negate religious beliefs, it shouldn't be taught either.

Since none of us were there during the beginnings of man, all theories are just that, theories. Science has not proved evolution or the big bang. In fact, science has gone far in proving creationism with the mitacardia eve theory. That proved that man's orgins began with one woman and if you will compare what they call the 'hot bed of society' to the points on the map that Genesis points to as to the location of the Garden of Eden, you would see that they align.

Answer 5

Evolution is just a theory, not a belief, and, no, religious beliefs shouldn't be excluded from education - they should just be placed in the propper context. For instance, teaching the history of the Crusades without reference to Christianity and Islam would be both difficult and pointless.

Answer 6

While it remains a theory, and probably will forever, it has so much merit that for you to discredit it on this fact alone is purely ignorant. It's not less a religion because it's not a religion. Science is a belief system based on axioms and universal truths. Religion is a belief system based on faith; you believe or you don't and there's no basis behind any of the beliefs other than faith.

Science never sought to find morals in its goal of understanding the world around us. Religion has its basis in moral values, science never did and never will. Science cannot answer moral value questions, these are human values based on fuzzy logic.

Answer 7

It is not a religion at all.
True, it is an unproven Law, but Gravity was unproven for some time after Newton.
A religion includes belief in the supernatural. I cannot see how evolution falls under this heading.

Answer 8

Evolution is not a religious belief but a scientific theory which has just about been proven. It is happening right now in billions of organism.
Why do I believe scientists over religious claims? Scientists build planes that fly and that I can see. Many religious people claim that there are angels but I cannot see those flying.
Religious people say that prayer heals but there have been many more healings since the invention of penicillin.

Answer 9

Evotlution is a theory. People have "faith" in this so it is a religion. They cannot prove evolution but they still believe it to be true. Sounds like a religion to me. They should not "preach" it as facts to kids....OR they should let me share my faith in schools too.

Answer 10

I love how creationists like to claim evolution is an unproven theory while they offer absolutely no proof that creationism is anything other than religious bullshiat.This is the common thread running through most religious assertions-attack that which lays the lie to their dogmatic beliefs while offering nothing to prove them or to disprove the scientific facts that disprove them.

Newsflash-The Flinstones is a cartoon,not an educational series.