|
Here's what I get out of all of this:
ID shouldn't be taught in biology classes, but I see little harm in mentioning "The Christian faith believes this, but in this biology class we will be discussing Darwin's evolution. If you wish to discuss the relationships between these two ideas, please talk to me, or if there is great enough demand then we will discuss in class."
I think the main problem with this is that we have the thought that we cannot discuss both. Yes, they are in opposition to one annother, and yes one has more scientific background. But what I believe is that if we are discussing "The beginning of the earth" then we should present common conceptions of how the Ball got rolling.
I completely disagree with teaching Creationism as The Truth, which is what I suppose is being proposed by the US government (?) but I see no harm in presenting it as an idea.
I first heard of ID in my grade nine biology class. My teacher was a creationist, but he still taught us evolution, because he believed that both could work in tandem. I can't support his ideas here, but I can say that this did happen. I then learned more details about ID in my grade eleven philosophy class, while discussing Aquinas, and have recently discussed it again in my History of Western Philosophy class in university.
The problem with arguing back and forth between Creationism and Evolution, is that both have their limits. Both suggest that something happened that "started" whatever it is that we are doing now. Neither is comfortable with the idea of infinite regression, but one is slightly more comfortable with it than the other. The thing is that science relies on Microbes (which we have concrete evidence of existing, but we have no definite explaination of how got here) whereas Creationism relies on "god" for comfort.
What I find most interesting about the argument is that ID doesn't nescitate the Christian God, and yet it is mostly Christians that fall back upon this.
Oh, and just for info, I'm a deist who believes that evolution and creationism can coincide. I don't believe in the Christian god, but I do feel that the universe probably had a Starting Force, which I guess I choose to call "god."
__________________
who am I to refuse the universe?
-Leonard Cohen, Beautiful Losers
|