I live in a democracy where there is a high degree of freedom of speech and so long as I obey the law I can pretty much say what I want wherever I want. So if I happened to believe that the earth was flat I could erect a soapbox in Hyde Park, or anywhere else, and tell whoever would listen about my beliefs. However, unless I was totally deranged (which I suppose I might be, come to think of it) I would not expect that anyone would take me terribly seriously. And I certainly wouldn’t expect that anyone would suggest that my flat earth view should be presented in schools as an alternative to the scientific fact that the Earth is a sphere!
This, of course, brings me again to Sarah Palin. She is on record as believing that creationism should be taught in schools alongside evolution. Let’s be quite clear about what this policy position means. It means that Mrs Plain thinks that there is some sort of intellectual equivalence between on the one hand the robust science of evolution and on the other the contrary myths of creationism. I don’t know which of the many forms of creationism that Mrs Palin wants taught (and perhaps believes in herself?) but I do know that the place for the view that God created the Earth is the Church (or the Mosque or the Synagogue) not in the school.
There is nothing incompatible between understanding the science of evolution and the personal choice that any of us can make to believe in God. But there is an obvious conflict between the notion that Genesis Chapter One is literally true and the science of evolution. Like all allegorical writing surely Genesis is not meant to be taken literally but symbolically. We now know that the Earth was created between 4 and 5 Billion years ago and that it has gradually evolved into the planet we live on today. Like most areas of science there is perhaps as much that we don’t know as there is detail that we do know – which is one of the reasons why the CERN experiments are underway in Switzerland. These experiments are not to prove that the Earth was created by a Big Bang those billion of years ago (that’s a fact) but to find out a bit more about it.
For people of Faith (any Faith) who believe in God and that God created the world we live in then surely it is perfectly sound for them to say that it was God who launched the Big Bang? Why not? And the Bible (or The Koran), written all those years ago when science was in its infancy have stories which establish the belief that God created the Heavens and the Earth and which then recount a charming allegory to illustrate that belief. Science and religious belief can co-exist perfectly happily in this way – there is nothing irreligious about evolution. And there is certainly no need, as Mrs Palin seems to think, for evolution and her sort of “six day creationism†to be taught together as competing alternative paradigms. That would be terrible science – and terrible education as well.
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2 users commented in " Teaching “science” the Sarah Palin way "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThe thing that people seems to forget or shove aside is that the bible, especially the OT, was written thousands of years ago by man who had more or less just discovered the wheel and fire. The bible was written as an explanation – the best they could come up with at the time – for the how and the why of things at the present. Now, thousands of years later, why are we supposed to use this ancient textbook (of sorts) written by ancient man, just because the majority of people on earth are still gullible enough to believe it. Schools get yelled at by communities when they have textbooks from the ’80s that list Ronnie as the current president. Why are we letting ANYONE force the idea of using the writings in the Bible as a textbook?
This is of course a separate argument to the fact, as you pointed out, that these teachings BELONG IN CHURCH. It’s bad enough we allowed “under god” to be added to the pledge in the ’50s. I thought we were smarter than this by now… If we are going to allow the teaching of ‘creationism’, it should be in mythology class alongside the Greek and Roman gods and ancient Egyptian Pharos. Who’s got any proof that those theories aren’t correct and the ones we should believe.
But I digress, if Oldie McGee and Mrs. Religiod make it into the White Palace, creationism is the least of our worries… At least I can wield parental power and have my daughter taken out of class when the teachers crack that egg, or I can rebuttal those teachings at home.
Nice blog post!
She is on record as believing that creationism should be taught in schools alongside evolution.
No, she isn’t. She’s on record as stating that the existence of alternative points of view should be taught, and that her personal experience of being raised by science teachers and also given the religious story was a positive one.
I don’t know which of the many forms of creationism that Mrs Palin wants taught…
Exactly. You don’t know, because she isn’t “on the record” as saying anything like what you’ve written. You’re just repeating Obama talking points.
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