Where do we come from? How did this world, this universe originate? Questions that philosophers probably first of all, and successively scientists, dogmatists, little children, and imaginably almost the whole population of the Earth have at least once asked themselves and tried to answer, sometimes with convincing or satisfactory results, but presumably more frequently with no different outcome than numerous new interrogations. However, today we do have several answers, different according to areas of the world, distinct cultures and various religions, and each individual can choose what to believe; so the actual question, which remains unsolved, is the following: what should public schools teach to their students? The answer to this query …show more content…
America is not a theocracy; indeed, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution grants the freedom of religion and states that the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect “a wall of separation between church and State” (Establishment Clause). Since public schools are in fact “public” institutions, related undeniably to the states, it would be illegal and unconstitutional to have them not distinctly separated from any church. Different would be, obviously, talking about private religious schools; those are in fact called “independent schools” or, more commonly, “nonstate schools” – which means, literally, not administered by any government, local, state or national. According to the Council for American Private Education (CAPE), even if the percentage of students attending Catholic schools has declined since 1995, it still reaches 12 %, which is an extremely high number; while among the top five reasons for parents to home school their children – with a 36 % agreement, as reported by the National Center for Education Statistics – appears “a desire to provide religious instruction.” This statement confirms that if parents do want their sons and daughters to learn about religion in a scholastic context, the only way to achieve
Separation of church and state protects the students. “Because public schools are government funded, prayer led by school officials or incorporated into the school routine amount to government established religion.” The governing body is not to place one religion above others. It is unconstitutional to do so. The public school system is funded by the government, therefore they are obligated to refrain from pushing a singular religion. Separation of church and state is necessary because not everyone is a member of the church body, let alone the same religious group. “The public school system is created for all students and supported by all taxpayers. It should, therefore, remain neutral on religious issues over which students and taxpayers will differ.” The population supports the public school system alongside the government, and taxpayers should remain unforced to pay for a religion they do not agree with, especially when their children are involved. Segregation of church and state protects both the state and the school faculty. “Separation of church and state has been part of the nation’s legal and cultural nomenclature since the early 1800s. Judges, politicians, educators, and even religious leaders have embraced church-state separation as central to church-state relations and a cornerstone of American democracy” The idea of church and state separation has managed to regulate the interactions between the beliefs one holds, the culture they take part of, the politics they support, and how the government interacts with them all. By limiting the manner and extent faculty can approach religion, students gain space to express or explore belief systems aside from what is being administered without feeling insecure or uncomfortable. The division of church and state prevents the religious groups from interfering with government affairs, such as
America today is permeated with natural law. Our founders were subscribers to natural law and believed that man’s inner morality can lead to sustaining a civil society. The forefathers of America were from different denominations that ranged from Presbyterian to Catholism. Some were even Deists. Even though their denominations varied, they all united under the idea that their Creator was the source of their reason (Levin 2009, 26). The result of these beliefs produced a religious liberty throughout the country. That liberty still stands today. Natural law, contrary to the thoughts of its non-supporters, does not make a country into a theocracy. Since God’s laws are universal, the creed of a person does not change the fact that they entitled to their God-given rights. The founders were extremely foresighted because they acknowledged that liberty is inseparable from religious liberty (Levin 2009, 29). Another example of how natural law is in America’s founding is the right for citizens to disobey man-made laws that tyrannical in nature. All laws that are not given by the consent of the governed have the potential to be overthrown. America’s Declaration of Independence even says that the people should go as far as overthrowing the government if it becomes too powerful (Levin
In your speech you used a poll to support that creationism should be taught at school. however your use of it as evidence was faulty.According to the article you used Evolution versus Creationism: The Public Education Controversy only 13% say both evolution and creationism should be taught as “scientific theories” in science class. You then stated that a “follow-up survey was conducted in mid- December. Random-Digit-Dial sampling was used to ensure that the results are projectable to the American public as a whole. So based on this evidence, people want their kids to be taught both creationism and evolution so they will be able to make their own choices of what they believe.” In the survey 66% wanted evolution 16% wanted merely
Personally, I believe that when studying science that evidence of the glory of the Lord is going to prevail. As stated in Genesis, the Lord created everything thing we see, smell, feel, taste, and hear in six days; therefore, while studying science we are really studying God. If creation science is taught to children starting in the early years of school, they will have a better understanding of the glory of the Lord even at a young age. Logically speaking, creationism should be taught in schools if you wish students to learn about the glory of God. Because I strongly believe that creationism should be taught in all levels of education, I chose to attend Lee University and take Physical Science. Throughout this semester, I hope develop a better
In the status quo, the theory of evolution is inside the school curriculum. However, a fellow contrary, the creationism theory is not in it because it is not justified as a proper education material as many people claim that there is no prove and science behind it. According to Than (2015), there are two main points of the evolution theory, all life on Earth is connected and related to each other, and this diversity of life is a product of modifications of populations by natural selection, where some traits were favored in and environment over others. The basic assumption from the theory is that there is no supernatural being has ever been involved in this universe. Supernatural being in this context
Creationism Isn't Science but Belongs in Schools The origin of life has been a point of discussion for as long as history has been documented. Ancient Egyptians believed that the sun god Ra took another form, created land from a watery abyss and created everything, including gods and humans. The Iroquois, a tribe of Native Americans, told a story of god to human lineage that resulted in twins, one being evil and one being good. The good twin creates a picture perfect world.
Creationism and Evolutionism by definition are very different topics. Currently, evolutionary naturalism is the most widely taught view of origins in America. In schools in the modern day, only evolutionism is taught and condoned. But before the 1920s, only creationism was taught, and evolution was forbidden. Then, on February 20, 2008, the Florida State Board of Education voted to revise the public school guidelines to require teachers to teach only Evolutionism. The law was passed with a very narrow 4-to-3 vote in favor of the law. Our resolution (affirmative side) is to teach both the theories of evolution and creationism side by side. This would
Surveys show that fifty percent of adults in Turkey, forty percent in the USA and fifteen percent in the UK reject the theory of evolution and believe that life on Earth came into existence as described in the religious texts (Jones and Reiss, 2007; Miller; Scott and Okamoto, 2006; Lawes, 2009).
Conflict is the clashing of ideas or ideologies which produce either a strong resolve for those involved rather than a result. In Dr Joseph Mengele’s experiments a strong resolve was produced where this past history was able to develop improvements to the establishment of the Human rights declaration. However there are some situations in which a large control group in society can limit a resolve from occurring. In the climate change debate between authority groups and scientific community historically, as Galileo found where groups continue to deny scientific fact, argument seems to lack conclusions that are beneficial. Conflict can produce many positive aspects where compromise is possible. This can be seen with individuals like Zack Kopplin
For years the United States government, and the majority of the science community, has been pushing creationism out of the science classroom in favor of evolution, because creationism is considered unscientific by most scientists (Baker). Many scientists think that creationism shouldn’t even be mentioned, for fear of legitimizing what they think is unscientific (Reece). Regardless of all of this, the United States public acceptance of evolution remains low and support for creationism remains high compared to other western countries (Baker). Because of this there are some scientists and educators pushing for teachers to start
Another locus of this issue in in its legality. Both sides in whether we should teach it versus us not teaching it both have had legal debate, arguing whether or not it’s a constitutional question. They both also have the advocating that teaching creationism is protected by the first amendment or it would be violating the first amendment. both of these would fall under the free exercise of religion clause stated in the amendment. Creationists next attempted to argue that their ideology shouldn’t be boycotted on the basis of separation in churches and in states, as it is science, not religion. The result of this was the Arkansas government passing a bill that stated there must be a "balance" between what they referred to as "creation-science"
Throughout American history there have been many topics of controversial debate. One such topic began in 1925 in a small tennessee town, with a court trial known as the Scopes Trial. The Scopes Trial was a case involving a farmer sueing against a teacher who was teaching evolution in a school. At the time evolution was illegal to teach in educational curriculum and it was condemned heavily by a majority of the population. For this reason the trial and its ruling brought with it a lot of press. By the end of the trial the side of evolution had lost completely and the state continued to protect creationism in schools. Additionally anti-evolution movements vigorously began popping up around the country fueled by many
When it come to the government funding church based schools most people are divided into two different groups, those who oppose all involvement, and those who think that funding of religious based schools is constitutional (N.A. 2009) as long as it funded in a neutral manner.
Only 10 percent of America's students are enrolled in private schools. Scarce public resources should be designated for public purposes, not private ones” (Religion and Education). Private schools are not very open to diversity, some of them do not allow any other religion
The United States government is a secular body; most people call this separation of church and state. This prevents against any religious discrimination in law, and, also, prevents against having an official religion.