Should Creationism Be Taught In Schools?

I am going to assume that most of us here are religious in some sort and believe in God, or some immortal being from which life began, so maybe it will be easier for me to convince you of something that you already believe in. Creationism should be taught alongside the theory of evolution.

In many of my science classes, when this topic of evolution comes up, the kids in the room will groan and ignore it. You can tell that even some of the teachers aren’t too happy to preach what they don’t believe in. For their sake, for our sake, creationism must be taught. Teachers and students must be free to talk about controversial issues openly in the classroom to keep a spirit of freedom of speech and open-mindedness in the school setting.

I think that everyone should at least have a chance to choose for themselves, especially the teenagers. We are old enough and wise enough, and we’ve been through quite a lot of experiences which could give us enough sense as to what we want to believe. A poll taken in 2009 showed that 66% of children between the ages of 13 and 17 wanted to know more about creationism than they were being taught. Who knows if some of those who were surveyed are right in this room?

Look at it from this point of view. What kind of science is being taught to the future of the world? A philosophy, a viewpoint of science rooted in a worldview that blatantly disregards anything supernatural. No God. No angels. Everything happened by accident, by chance. We came from fish, and monkeys and Neanderthals. Is this really what we want to know, and want our descendants to know? If so, what is to stop us from going out and committing crimes, causing a massacre or maybe committing suicide? There’s nothing that comes after this life, apparently, so why bother trying to be a good person? Why bring any children into the world? Maybe because that is how society wants us to interact? Well, is society going to keep you from dying and rotting in the ground?

But for those of you who love to argue over a political or controversial issue, you may look at it from this point of view. Allowing creationism to be taught enables students to learn about the different religions that came forth from it, which, in turn, has a great deal of educational value. A controversy is always worth a good discussion. And a controversial topic on religion is even more thought provoking due to the fact that it is one of the many things that can unify, or destroy, a nation, a community, a family. Discussing things like this provide critical thinking skills which should be emphasized more in our education. Take for example, this debate-slash-speech occurring right now. From kindergarten we have it drilled into us that we have choices, that no one forces us to do anything. This topic causes you to think about your choices. But do we have any when it comes to mingling education with religion? Evidently, since this is being discussed, we do NOT. Why can we not have any say in this particular matter? What are they afraid of? That we will start thinking about what’s going on and thinking about why this is the way it is? It has gone on record that once we start thinking, things happen.

Many people believe that today’s generation is both capable of restoring peace and of destroying the very fabric of our world. But doing either of these things requires a particular amount of genius, and genius, my friends, is what we have. So if it was up to you and me, and the choice was ours, what would you decide?