Should Creationism Be Taught in Schools

Introduction

Most people agree that one of the main purposes of education is to teach HOW to think, not WHAT to think. Why is it then, that children today are not given the chance to decide for themselves what they believe is the origin of the earth and all its organisms? Evolution is taught as a scientific fact in public schools today, something not to be questioned. A student at Bronx High School of Science in New York says, "It's frustrating because they teach evolution as fact, but we know it's not true." Even George W. Bush agrees that, "children ought to be exposed to different theories about how the world started."(Grunes,1989,17)

Discussion

        Gallop polls show that about 50 percent of Americans believe in creationism, 40 percent in theistic evolution, and 10 percent in materialistic or Darwinian evolution. Sixty-eight percent think both creation and evolution should be taught in schools. Although most Americans believe in a Creator, the intellectual culture is totally dominated by naturalism. In other words, the intellectual elite in America think that reason starts with the assumption that nature is all there is and that a mindless evolutionary process absolutely must be our true creator. The common people aren't so sure of that. Why do we, "the common," not have a say in this issue? My theory is because of political socialization. The real story of the Scopes trial is that the stereotype it promoted helped the Darwinists capture the power of the law, and they have since used the law to prevent other people from thinking independently. The view that the founding fathers didn't want the church to have anything to do with government/education, is totally wrong. For example, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence stated: "The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments. Without religion, I believe that learning does real mischief to the morals and principles of mankind."         

The more that generations of students are indoctrinated to believe in solely material causes for the origin of life, the more a culture abandons God's Word as the absolute authority, and the more a culture accepts evolutionary philosophy, then the way people think, and their attitudes, will also change. If they are just an animal, then no one owns them, so they approach life with a different philosophy. The restraining influence of absolute authority starts to dissipate.



Discussion

The issue of teaching creationism in the public schools has long been debated. Over the years many different arguments have been made. First creationists tried to have the teaching of evolution outlawed. This issue went to the Supreme Court in 1968, where in _Epperson v. Arkansas_ the high court ruled against banning the teaching of evolution. Soon after this decision creationists began to call for 'equal time', or the equal ...