Cobb County has been told by a federal judge that it must remove a sticker from their biology books that states that evolution is only a theory and therefore the students should think about it rather than blindly accept it. This is after 2,000 parents complained that evolution was being taught as fact. Six parents and the ACLU countered and won.
I'm banging my head on this for a couple reasons.
First, the ACLU claims that this violates the separation of church and state. Aside from the fact that I think the whole idea of what the founding fathers wanted with a separation of church and state is widely misunderstood, this sticker is not stating that Christianity is the only explanation, only that evolution is just a theory and that the students should be open minded. After all, isn't that the reasoning most people give for keeping religion out of schools?
Second, evolution IS just a theory. Theory does not mean wrong. The scientific process depends on theories. First, I observe something and I come up with a hypothesis or educated guess. I test and test, refining my hypothesis. Eventually, when I have enough proof, I have a theory. A theory means, "I've tested it and I can't find anything wrong, but I don't have enough proof for everyone to state that they are 99.9% sure that it is right." Eventually, some theories, with enough proof become law. Gravity is one of those. We haven't found a way to prove that the law of gravity is wrong. Still, science can never say that the law of gravity is right. It can only say that we can't prove the law of gravity is wrong. Getting back to the subject, athiestic evolution is a theory, theistic evolution is a theory, spontaneous creation from an intelligent source is a theory. Personally, I believe in spontaneous creation, but I think the public schools, in a spirit of openess, should teach not only the theory of evolution, but other theories as well. After all, aren't schools supposed to be a place of learning, reasoning, and growing of a person's mind?
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder