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1CG Tanis54Nov. 15, 2009
Creationism Creating Controversy in Public Schools CAN be PreventedCreationism is not a science, yet year after year, decade after decade, century after century, creationists have been trying to force their theistic curriculum into the United States public school biology classes in place of evolution. Evolution, a tested, proven theory for theexistence of man has managed to prevail over various accusations and attempts made byCreationists to “disprove” it. Nevertheless, bible-thumping teachers, students, parents, and politicians have yet to give up their cause. This fight of religion versus science has causedstartling figures for the belief in what is proven and what is speculation. Only 13% of Americans believe that evolution is the true theory for the existence of mankind, and this is against years of information in favor of it, yet these non-believers have a lack of faith in science because they saythat evolution has a lack of evidence. This hasn’t kept it from being considered untrue, as only5% of scientists believe in Creationism, which shows a great deal about how science relates tocreationism: it doesn’t. The fact is, the two have very little to nothing in common and thereforeshould not be associated, especially in biology classes in public schools. It is an insult to theintelligence of the youth and a waste of time and money for those who practice and fund it. Amajor reason Creationism shouldn’t be taught is because it’s unproven; it’s nearly identicaltheory of Intelligent Design (ID) isn’t either. Evolution
is
proven, according to scientificstandards. It decreases science literacy in the youth of Americans. Most importantly, it breaks thelaw: it defies the constitutional amendment separating Church and State.
Creationism is anirrational curriculum for the United States and to teach it would be the wrong decision.
Creationists believe in six main ideas. They believe the universe came from nothing,mutations and natural selection do not depend on a single organism, the change of plants andanimals have fixed limits, humans have a different ancestry than animals, geology is from a great
 
2CG Tanis54Nov. 15, 2009
flood (Similar to the story of Noah’s Arc), and that everything was created in the last 10,000years ( Pollit ) . However, scientists find this a difficult thing to conceive as fact . ChristianApologetics is a sect of Christianity that is specifically designated to make Creationism acceptedfact. They do this by creating a rational basis for the faith and defend it when objections aremade against it. Apologetics also aims to point out flaws in other explanations for existence man.Basically, their responsibility is to prove creationism, but they have yet to do so. In 2004 parentssued the Arkansas school board after teachers read a one minute disclaimer pointing out gaps inevolutionary theory, thus implying to kids that creationism had no gaps (Carroll). This case isknown as McLean v. Akansas. Parents were angered because even if, somewhere, there is a gapin evolution, it is nothing compared to the gaps in creationism. Judge William Overton, whooversaw the case, ruled that creation science does not qualify as a science (DeWolf). He came tothis conclusion because of rules set by Michael Ruse (a philosopher of biology and known for work on controversies involving Creationism) that determine sciences validity. These rulesinclude the proposed science being explanatory by natural law, testable against empirical word,tentative, and falsifiable (DeWolf). Ruse also testified that because creationism has a creator asits cause of events in history of life that it could never be considered a science, categorizingCreationism as a religion. Even Eugene F. Chaffin, a creationist with a PhD in theoreticalnuclear physics, stated, “Creationism contradicts prevailing and widely accepted biological andgeological evidence of earth’s age and origins… being a creationist requires a leap of faith all itsown” openly admitting that the theory he believes in isn’t very strong (Buckner). Creationists tryto use the bible as a valid text book for the curriculum that would be and is used in publicschools. This adds to its invalidity because there is no physical proof or living witnesses of theevents in the bible. St. Augustine, known as the “defender of truth and shepherd of souls”
 
3CG Tanis54Nov. 15, 2009
(Portalié), criticized Christians who “talk nonsense” about the laws of Nature. On top of that,Darwin himself was very religious, yet this didn’t stop him from being a scientist, hypothesizingand supporting evolution.Darwin believed in his theory of evolution because it is the most durable scientific theory(Alter). It is defined s the change in characteristics of a population over time. This is a provenfact because there is physical evidence (fossils, recorded history, and living proof) that such achange has occurred (Carroll). Creationism cannot similarly justify the bibles credibility. Inrebuttal to the accused gaps in evolution, theorists say that evolution does
not 
literally provecreation of mankind. They are only explanations of why or how evolution has occurred. Thefactual component is that these events
have
occurred and therefore must be explained bysomething, or to put it bluntly, “saying evolution is true is the same as saying the Earth orbits theSun- it’s a fact” (Carroll). It’s a fact and it’s also blatantly obvious. Like astrology, which provesthis point, evolution fits a scientific criteria of adequacy (namely that it is falsifiable, predictsfuture events, leads to further discoveries, and exists) and creationism does not (Pollit). They saythat evolution, along with biology, geology, archeology, and astrophysics, isn’t true because“god didn’t create them” (Pollit). Nevertheless all these theories are proven scientifically,therefore disproving creationist and ID theories that science isn’t valid because of the absence of a designer. This is a great example of Creationists stumbling on their own theories. In the 1600smathematical formulas and equations were created to translate Genesis into a modern calendar,including the creation of the world (by God, of course) on a Saturday night on October 22, 4004;and the creation of Adam in the Fall of 3928 B.C. (Buckner). Even if this is correct information,Creationism goes against science and logic (as mathematical formulas
are
scientific) to provethat science can’t be right. The hypocrisy and irony of the situation is overwhelming. If this, in
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