Evolution vs Religion debate in KS Schools (AGAIN)

[sunflower1220]

I'm curious to see where everyone stands on this issue.  While I personally do not support the evolution theory, I do believe children should learn about both concepts.  You are taught (if you are a church going family) from a very small age what the Bible says on this; however if you don't go to church it's not as widely known.  I think equal time

Comments

[cafemercury]

Is there a hard and fast answer to this? Probably not. There are two points that stick out for me, though. One is that Darwin's Theory of Evolution is presented as just that--a theory. It has not been proven, or it would be called The Law of Evolution, just as we have the Law of Gravity. I think the schools bear a responsibility, irrespective of religion, to stress that Darwin's theory is theory, not proven fact.

The other is this: I have no problem with equal time being given to a Biblical theory of creationism. The problem for me comes from an incident from my fourth grade year that I remember clearly as if it happened yesterday. I attended private school that year, and after the Pledge of Allegiance we always said The Lord's Prayer. Now, most of us grew up in Christian homes, and this was not a problem for us. About a month into the school year, though, one of my classmates ran out of the room crying. She was Jewish. The Lord's Prayer was not part of her faith, but as the lone Jewish girl in the class, she felt pressured to say it, and as such, felt she was betraying her faith.

The Creation story as we know it isn't part of other religions. I think that's where the gray area comes in. Should a Hindu child be forced to learn the Judeo-Christian Creation story? Should it be presented to them as fact and strike at the hearts of their faith? Are we going to include the creation stories of other faiths as well?

I'm not familiar with the demographics of Kansas, so I don't know if that's a huge issue there, as it would be here. Both of my children have Hindu kids in their classes; one has a Muslim classmate. (I fully admit I'm unfamiliar with Islam's take on creation, though I imagine it's similar to the Judeo-Christian version.)

[sunflower1220]

First, I've been super ill since the day after posting the original message so this is my first time back on. I LOVE your new name!!

Second I've read your post twice, and thought about it a lot. It makes lots of sense. So now my thinking is more what can we do to be sure it is equal for all. Guess in reality there is no way to make it equal for all. I'm still super ill so that's about the extreme of my in depth thinking at the moment. When my brain is functioning better I'll post more.

Thanks for replying to this because I like learning others points of view.