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Originally Posted by zen_tom
Harry, how many of those children who believed in the Easter Bunny 10 years ago still do?
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and yet many/most still believe in god.
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At the age that proper Darwinism is taught (guessing at least 16) I think that given the option, most people are going to go with the common sense view. My point is that if both were taught at the same time, Creationism would quickly become as ridiculous as belief in the Easter Bunny. If this thread shows anything, it's that people are not being taught evolution properly. Seriously in this day and age, this sort of discussion really should be moot. And teaching both ideas at the same time really ought to speed that process along. The sooner the better. The people who still believe this kind of fairy story were obviously the victims of a poor and unbalanced education. What's wrong with advocating a more full and worthwhile curriculum? If evolution was taught properly in the first place, this kind of discussion would not be necessary - I honestly believe that children (at whatever age) are capable of reasonable thought - of course, there are always going to be the fundamentalist kind of schools that choose to indoctrinate the youth into believing unpalatable ideas, but given a truely balanced curriculum, I honestly believe that kids would be able to work things out for themselves.
The best way of educating people is for them to be shown the options and let them decide for themselves.
At the end of the day evolution IS still a theory, it's just a better theory than that proposed by the Creationists. The problem is that people are under the false impression that science = fact. The truth is that science is much more subtle and modest than that. There isn't room for fundamentalist thought in science, but instead it is the rigorous persuit of abstract models that are testably closer to the truth.
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proper darwinism isn't taught anymore. it's been shown that he was wrong about somethings. but his ideas of natural selection have been verified.
i'm not sure why you think evolution isn't being taught properly in schools. besides the fact that there is only so much time able to be devoted to it normal biology, let alone AP Bio, to go into such details that you would think it would be undeniable. other than a time constraint, i don't see why you say that.
religion is a powerful thing, especially if you live in a very religious area. and the south and 'heartland' seem to be very religious. that's why we have a problem of people arguing for creation. it doesn't matter what we may say to them. short of a monkey giving birth to a human, or a dog turning into a horse, they wouldn't believe it (and in those instances they'd probably say it's a miracle) (oh, and i know that those are not examples of evolution, but those are arguments that creationists use).
if we were to teach creation and evolution side by side, what would end up happening is fundamentalists would say "see, we told you that they're both equal theories and we believe that god did it is correct." and after having been 'brainwashing' their children all their lives, their children will more than likely go along with creation.
if you'd taught creation at my school, you'd have been laughed at. but teach it in a less diverse, highly religous place, and it probalby would be taken seriously.
i have to disagree with you that the best way of educating people is to give them options and let them decide for themselves. let them do that in college. if they're interested in learning about evolution in greater depth than can be taught in a high school, they can. but there are a lot of kids in high school who will take what you say at face value. going by the kids i went to school with (at a 'natioal exemplary school,' or so the sign said) there are many high school aged kids who will take what you say and not bother thinking about it critically. they'd rather be spoon fed it and then regurgitate it for the test and forget about it. because they arent' intersted in putting in the work to think about it further.
the thought just occured to me that i think you really might just be trying a different approach at pushing the idea of teaching god in school. you say above that "The people who still believe this kind of fairy story were obviously the victims of a poor and unbalanced education." while it seems to be in regards to creation being a fairy story, it sounds like you're saying because we're not teaching religion in class they're only getting half the education. maybe i'm reading too much into it, but with your other posts in mind, it almost sounds like you're saying that not teaching creation is bad because we're only getting half the story, yet you also seem to be saying that creation is wrong. why would anyone want to give a story a false side to it?
i could be wrong about that thought, but i've otherwise never heard a supporter of evolution/critic of creation advocate teaching it in school. especially considering you're last parpagraph shows a bit of a misunderstand of science. science has fact. there are scientific laws which are fact, like the law of gravity. while that methods that gravity works by are still 'theory', that it is there and happening is fact. same with evolution. it is still the 'theory of evolution' but evidence has shown that evolution is indeed happening and a fact. the various mechanics may not be fully worked out yet, but that it is happening is indisputable.
evolution isn't "just a better theory than that proposed by the Creationists." creationists haven't proposed a theory. there is no scientific basis to the 'theory of creation.'