Creationism in education.

[styley]

Is it really all that wrong to teach creationism in schools to susteptible young minds? Does it really cause any harm?

[sally1001]

Amen, Jake. oops, no pun intended.

[jake-the-peg]

Unfortunately in this field children are not equipped to evaluate the information presented to them.

Whether Intelligent design was or was not fit to be taught occupied a law court for 6 weeks and went into such details as the possible evolutionary mechanisms around bacterial flaggella.

It would be nice to think that children could be given "the information" and allowed to make up their own mind but they, like most of us are not in that position and rely on having that information pre-digested.

It's a nice idea but as we filter any information in education we taint it with our own judgements of wht to and not to present.

So it just doesn't work that way

[jno]

do we teach children the alphabet then leave them to make up their own mind about how to spell?

erm, yes, come to think of it. But in general Jake is right: basic education (as opoosed to degree-level) is about teaching kids that 2+2=4, not leaving them to make up their own minds on the subject.

[brionon]

If you read this you will soon see that Gravity doesn't exist.
It's Intelligent Falling !

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/39512

[brionon]

Octavius Do you think that the Pommegranat theory should be taught too? Or the Dream-time theories ?
The kids would never learn anything else .

[VillageVicar]

I agree with the building blocks of education science. Of course I do. But I would still suggest that the spark of inspiration is an essential element to broadening the development of youth. I suppose one teacher who has taken a child outdoors to discover the countryside could simply identify a blade of grass as nothing more than that. But another teacher might encourage children to look deep within that blade of grass that they might discover a thriving community. Children possess something we as adults often lose track of in life. Children have what I call a �sense awe.� Their natural inclination is to find imagination in most everything they do. That is an essential catalyst to a child�s development. I would hope that an educator is able to find the balance between providing the science of evidence and the science of faith.

Fr Bill

[mibn2cweus]

"The science of faith" What is that . . . other than a meaning obfuscating oxymoron?

Science is the method and process of exploring and proving relationships between things in the natural world (please excuse the redundancy).
Faith is the belief in something that can not be justified with evidence or reason; quite the opposite in form and function.
As nearly as I can ascertain "the science of faith" must be the method and process of demonstrating why and how faith is powerless to reveal the true nature of reality. Such a task is the purpose and within the province of the metaphysical and epistemological branches of philosophy.

What is the age/grade level of the students we are considering with this question?

[styley]

4+