Teaching Creation in Biology?

I think that Creation should be taught in Catholic schools as they take religious studies, but in public schools I don't think they should be bringing in religion. Public schools should stick to teaching Evolution.

Of course Catholic schools are going to teach creation in their religion classes, but I think it is very important that students are still taught evolution (in biology). They don't have to necessarily believe that evolution happened, obviously everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, but they need to learn about it. I feel it is very important that all students whether they are catholic or not, have a good background knowledge of evolution since this is what is expected at the university level.

I don't see what is wrong with teaching both evolution (as depicted by Darwin) and creation (as depicted in Genesis) and the interpretations mentioned in the Catechism. It doesn't mean that those who learn about evolution will necessarily accept it. As a matter of fact, I bet the majority of teens won't even understand it even if it is taught. I personally had to go through a number of university courses to finally be able to relate it to some forms of life, i.e. the 'evolution' of antibiotic resistance in bacteria. To most science-illiterate individuals, evolution progresses in a linear fashion, where at one point we were ape-like creatures and then over time, these ape-like creatures became humans. I think it would be a good idea to address this misconception, before they go out into the real world with this baseless notion of evolution.

The only danger of teaching evolution to a bunch of naïve teenagers is that it could be taught with bias; that is, you may get a teacher who believes in the theory and is passionate to have students change their minds on creation, as depicted in the bible, even if it means bending the truth or correlating irrelevant facts.

Overall, even if it isn't taught, I don't think it will really make a difference in a person’s life. How do I know? Ask your parents if their lives would change if someone had taught them about evolution before they got married or before they had children or before they bought their first car. I hate to be presumptuous but the answer will likely be ‘NO’.

I personally think that its okay to educate students about evolution and creation. But the problem is how many of those students will be able to understand the whole concept of evolution and creation? Its a very hard topic to absorb and understand. Also, there is a chance of influencing these students thoughts and beliefs after educating them with concepts of creation and evolution. At the same time, these educational classes might help students to be more aware and knowledgeable regarding these topics. Because even though these topics have been widely spoken, there are people in our society who still don't understand what evolution and creation is. So I think it will be a good idea to have a class based on this topic.

It has been stated a million times by a million scientists. The basic framework we have to describe life, from a biology perspective, is through evolution. Almost all fundamental aspects of biology (from molecular to physiology) is rooted in evolution.

Creationism and separately ID are not science and they don't belong in a science class room. You can teach that in philosophy or religion class rooms all you want, but it IS NOT SCIENCE.

I grew catholic and went to a catholic highchool, we didnt learn any creationism (I believe the catholic church accepts evolution actually) but they do follow ID. ID has no real relevance in the context of a science classroom.

In response to: "I believe the catholic church accepts evolution actually"

Certain theories of evolution are incompatible with the Catholic faith, as are the materialistic ideas often associated with them. That evolution would operate apart from God’s sovereignty, for example, or that it produced the soul of the first man, or that man has no soul—all of these are incompatible with the faith and unprovable as matters of science.

http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2004/0401bt.asp

Moreover, the Catechism states:

"The question about the origins of the world and of man has been the object of many scientific studies that have splendidly enriched our knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life-forms and the appearance of man. These discoveries invite us to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator, prompting us to give him thanks for all his works and for the understanding and wisdom he gives to scholars and researchers" (CCC 283).

I was merely remarking about how Pope John Paul II stated that the catholic faith and scientific findings about human evolution are not in conflict. It is an example of theistic evolution. They claim that evolution doesn't operate apart from god's sovereignty, and evolution has nothing to say about the human 'soul'.

But I diverge, this has nothing to do with science. There is no science involved in creationism. Creationism actually directly refutes all the science we have collected on the matter thus far.

The debate about creationism being taught along with evolution in schools has obviously been in the media for awhile, and I don't expect it to go away any time soon.

I would just like to suggest that whenever creationism is mentioned in a church, mosque, etc. a scientist be brought in to give equal time to explain the theory of evolution. There should also be a disclaimer at the start of each mass, sermon, etc. that creationism is an unsubstantiated story, not a fact.

I also feel that evolution should be taught in biology/science classes in high schools and that in the Catholic school board, creationism should be taught in religion classes.

Although most teenagers may not have an opinion about what they believe in, they are at least introduced to both evolution and creationism. When they do get older and are more aware of what each one states, they will then be able to form their own opinions on what they believe in.

Interesting...I guess we should put on every lecture slide in university that this is not fact... there is no such thing as fact, only theory... It can only be disproven, not proven.

If your referring to the scientific method... yes, it is very much lacking in that department. Yet there are some scientific feilds that are almost religious! Should we rename Quantum Mechanics to The Spirituality of the Quantum world and remove it from a physics degree requirement? Lets see...hrmm atm, it is unprovable, cannot be witnessed, can only be guessed about based on mans ideas of what it should be..sounds like faith to me.

In response to Billy's message, the interpretation of quantum mechanics (say the Copenhagen interpretation, many worlds theory etc) deals only with how we interpret the theory. Quantum mechanics has been used countless times to carry out calculations and make predictions in particle physics. You cannot apply ID or Creationism to make any predictions or anything. There is a huge difference.

In response to everyone who says that evolution is too complicated for pre-university students: most of what we learned in HS was a 'baby' form of what we are learning now. The theory of evolution is not taught in its full glory in high school, but usually they go over natural selection and sometimes other concepts such as genetic drift.

And to Michelle, when I mentioned Creation being taught in public schools, I was thinking along the lines of those optional religion courses offered. Definitely not in regular classes since most public students are not Catholic.

Sorry, both of these things I should have made clear earlier

Ohhhh, no that was my fault for misinterpreting. I assumed you meant they wanted to implement teaching creation as part of science class alongside evolution. I have no problem with creation being offered in elective courses, in fact I wish my high school had offered courses like that.

Sorry about that!