Imagine: You send your child to their public school and someone is teaching them religion. Not your religion, though. What would you do? Protest? Complain? Yank your kid out of the school system? Do you think public school is the place for the teaching of religious ideas and philosophies? That is what is happening. In October the Grantsburg, Wisconsin school board decided that science classes should include the creationist view alongside evolution. In March, the state education board in Ohio approved a lesson plan allowing creationism. And the Dover Area School Board in October approved the teaching of alternative theories of evolution, including “intelligent design”, the theory that life is too complicated to be accidental. The only creation theory being considered is Christian in nature. However, every religion has a story about creation. Do we include the teaching of them all so that no one is offended at being left out? An entire year would have to be devoted to the science of creation theory. There are questions that remain. Is creationism a science? If not, does it belong in a science class? According to my Oxford Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus, science is a branch of knowledge involving systematized observation and experimentation. Creationism is the theory of the origin of life in accordance with the Bible. Okay, now how do you test a theory espoused in a book of mythology? Yes, I called the Bible mythology. That’s what it is. Religions are based upon mythologies that are meant to explain and teach, although they are not literal in nature. They are a matter of faith. This is the same for all religions. Science, on the other hand, is based upon observation and experimentation. Theories can be either proved or disproved. Science should be taught in school. And unless a child attends a religiously based school, religion belongs either at home or in Sunday school. Too many different religions are represented at public schools to be basing lesson plans upon a single religious belief. The same people pushing for creationism being taught in school would raise their voices in almost violent protest if any other religion was given the same consideration. Christianity has often stood in opposition to scientific discovery. Remember Galileo who suffered persecution because he dared suggest that the universe did not revolve around the earth? Today, the idea that the earth is the center of the universe is ridiculous. There is nothing wrong with religion. I am religious, but I do not allow my beliefs to close my mind to new ideas. If you believe in a God that created everything, why is there a danger to that belief if a theory like evolution is taught? Wouldn’t God be responsible for that, as well?
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