Evolutionism In Public Schools Essay

The question as to whether or not creationism should be taught in public schools is a very emotional and complex question. It can be looked at from several different angles, its validity being one of them. Despite the lack of evidence to support the fundamentalist idea of creationism, that in itself is not enough to warrant its exclusion from the curriculum of public schools in the United States. The question is far more involved and complex.

Thesis: It is patently absurd to argue that creationism and / or intelligent design deserve a place in public school textbooks in the "science" chapter or in any way near to the chapter on evolution. The United States Constitution guarantees freedom of religion and freedom of expression, so all faiths and denominations have the absolute right to worship and believe as they

Vanessa Alacantar was a high school student who wrote an argumentative essay entitled “Why creationism should be taught in schools.” As can be ascertained from the title, the author’s position is that the theory of creation should be taught in schools alongside evolutionary studies. She writes the essay with a sure and almost condescending tone, making certain claims out of context in addition to using faulty logic in what I personally see as an attempt to confuse the reader about the view opposite her own.

The opposition to this theory comes in part from those whose religious beliefs are contradicted by it, those who claim that evolution is “just a theory,” and claim it is not a sound science because of the label. To understand that evolution is true and reliable, the definition of the word theory in a scientific context must first be understood. In Richard Dawkins’ “The Greatest Show on Earth,” this is explained, ”The Oxford English Dictionary gives two meanings… Theory, Sense 1:... a hypothesis that has been confirmed or established by observation or experiment, and is propounded or accepted as accounting for the known facts… Theory, Sense 2: A hypothesis proposed as an explanation: hence, a mere hypothesis,speculation, conjecture…” It is proposed in this book that scientists and creationists are using these definitions in different contexts. Creationists use the second sense of the word theory, meaning a speculation of no value, and scientists use it in sense one, that of a proven hypothesis. In science the word theory is surpassed only by the word law in the sense of conveying certainty. In science, a theory is a hypothesis that has never been disproven, such as the theory of gravity. Evolution has been proven many times over through both observation and experiment, which is the reason it is taught in public schools. Though it has uncountable examples, only a fraction will be mentioned. Transitional fossils are one of the major concerns on the part of creationists. They use gaps in the fossils record to argue its unreliability. Transitional fossils are the species that lie in between the transition from one species to its ancestor or descendant. When these fossils are missing, it can seem far-fetched for a whale to develop from a land dwelling dog like animal, but when the fossils in between these two species are discovered, the transition becomes clearer. Though

Ted goes into both sides of the argument, speaking from a scientist point of view and also from a christian point of view. He said "Some Christians claim that to believe in the theory of evolution is un-Christian. Correspondingly, some scientists believe that to be religious is to be unscientific." Ted believes neither of those statements are true, he thinks you can accept and believe in both. You can believe that it was gods plan to use evolution to create life. He says the supporters of intelligent design are having conflict over what should be taught in public schools in terms of science. Teaching Darwinism in public schools is the standard, but supporters of intelligent design think, in order to be a Christian you have to oppose Darwinism.

Creationism is the process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth. As you can see, they are two competing theories. But only one seems to be taught in public schools, funny right? Nobody ever seems to criticize evolution in any course materials or textbooks, it just can’t be stated as a scientific law. The controversy believes that sudden appearances of chaos from nothing and god can’t be enough evidence. However, we can’t find transitional fossils between ape and man to back up evidence for evolution.

The argument of Creation vs. Evolution has been debated for quite sometime. Since Darwin’s theory of Evolution by Natural Selection was published, some of those that thought the world and its inhabitants was made by a creator now began to think differently. Evolution began to make sense, there was evidence of certain types of species evolving (as in the finches in the galapogos islands as observed by Darwin) however, with creationism there was no evidence, it was all based on faith. Although Darwin’s theory stands at the forefront for the belief in Evolution especially for those that tend to lean towards this side of the argument, there have been and still is many who support the argument of Design or what is referred to as the teleological argument. Philosophers such as St. Thomas Aquinas and William Paley wrote about the belief in there being a creator in their famous works. David Hume, William Derham and Richard Bentley to name a few also wrote about intelligent design. I believe in Creationism. I believe that the universe and everything in it came into existence because of a higher intelligence and not solely from a primordial soup and if in fact everything did start out as a soup, all the ingredients for this soup was put together by the head chef. In researching this topic, I believe that creationism and evolution (micro-evolution) can co-exist without one absolutely refuting the other. I believe this designer created existence in such a way that evolution is

There has been various debates around the world about evolution that it should be taught in school or not. Evolution is a theory which states the origin of time, space and mater came to be from a blast (Cosmic Evolution) and the species on earth changed over time due to the influence of natural selection, while Creationism is a belief that the universe and everything in it was created by a divine. The current curriculum teach evolution, even though they do not have enough evidences to prove it, and it is not science. Do you believe in it or not? “Science is something that we can observe, study, test and demonstrate.”

Evolution is theory based on Darwin's theory of natural selection. The theory of natural selection states, “ The process of nature by which … only the organisms best adapted to their environment tend to survive and transmit their genetic characters into increasing numbers to succeeding generations while those

I firmly believe that creationism should have equal representation as evolution in public schools. As I’ve said, creation doesn’t have complete scientific fact backing it up, but if almost half of Americans claim to agree with it, creationism should be taught alongside of evolution in the schools. Decide for yourself: should schools today be welcoming differing ideas and healthy debate, or are educators shutting out valid theories and

Despite great efforts to convince the opposing side, a battle still brews amongst creationists and evolutionists over the beginning of life and the universe, but neither opinions’ palpability can be firmly upheld through scientific manners. Since science can only prove hypotheses that are testable and based on current observations, neither creation nor evolutionary concepts can be proven with irrefutable evidence. However, regardless of the inability to prove either concept, most public school systems promote evolution as a scientific fact. Many students who lack firm beliefs about the origin of life believe what they are taught without giving any personal thought to the matter. Instead of robotically absorbing biased information,

In an article published in the New York times, by Laurie Goodstein, she revealed that a poll conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, revealed that 64 percent said they were open to the idea of teaching creationism in addition to evolution, while 38 percent favored replacing evolution with creationism. It is important to note by this poll that the idea of teaching our children other theories of how this world was created was supported by more than half of the polled population. It needs to be understood that when these teachings are given the opportunity to be introduced in the public school settings, teachers must maintain a very bias approach as to not sway their students into believing one side or the other but, rather let them decide for themselves through research and study what they will believe in.

Public schools are a place to learn proven facts and some very well—known and accepted theories. These schools have been led this way for a long time and show no signs of changing. Many states around the country have rejected the teaching of creationism in public schools, since the subject is so controversial among teachers and parents. In Ohio, a bill to develop new science content standards was not successfully passed. Many creationists were upset when they discovered that the first drafts of the standards were filled with evolutionary content, without any allowance for alternative explanations of life’s origins. In the uproar, the state board held a special meeting to investigate the process that the writing team and advisory committee used to draft the science standards (Matthews, Answering Genesis). This is why learning the facts about evolution should be taught at school. By doing this, there would be much less confrontation between teachers, students, and parents. If one has the desire to learn about creationism or any other beliefs of how the world came to be, one should learn it at a place outside of school, such as church or at home.

Recently, in Georgia, the persisting question 'does evolution have a place in our schools?' was again brought up. The state wants to remove the theory of evolution from the curriculum. The children would still be taught mathematical theorems, classical literature, chemistry, and biology; but the teachers would be depriving them of a scientifically accepted theory of how the world began. The children cannot be made to believe anything that they do not want to, therefore teaching them the valuable philosophy of evolution would help to expand their minds, rather than shrink them. Evolution as a science is particularly beneficial. Most young children, stereotypically boys, are very much into playing with

Evolution has been debated for many years. Most scientists assume evolution to be true, but it is not officially proven. Evolution is known as “fact and theory,” because it is a fact that organisms have changed over time, but the mechanism that changes those organisms is uncertain. One of the major debates regarding evolution is the belief in creationism. Creationists believe that the Universe and organisms on Earth were all created by a divine power. There are also some theories in which creationism and evolution coexist. One idea is that the divine being who created the world used evolution as a method. Another idea is that science and religion are actually the same thing and religion explains the unknown parts of science. For example, science says that the world couldn’t have been created in seven days, but one of God’s days may not be the same length