Evolution vs Creationism
As we all grew up under the guidance and knowledge of our own parents, we had been slowly molded to accept certain beliefs, while rejecting others. We were also taught to think creatively and question what we were taught, even from them. The status quo is always changing and evolving and the problem we find in today’s society is that sometimes we see and hear things and immediately take them as fact, or even repetitively until we believe them as fact with no evidence to back those things up. In my opinion, we have lost the ability to, not only think for ourselves, but to truly question the mass amount of knowledge we consume on a daily basis. I feel that this has a similar effect on the conversation about evolution
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As I grew older and learned about evolution my beliefs were strongly challenged with no merit. The problem I had with both scenarios was that they are both THEORIES. A good example of me questioning what these theories actually meant is when I went through grade-school, the pledge of allegiance had been removed because it had the word God in it. As a young child I questioned the fact of why I couldn’t say it in school. Later on, as I entered high-school, our class had scratched the surface on evolution and I wondered why we were not taught creationism as well, and why we were not allowed to make our own decision of what we were being taught throughout school. According to a Gallup poll of 1,016 U.S. adults about 45 percent of those surveyed favored the statement “God created human beings in their present form within the last 10,000 years” (Fitch 1). If the survey showed an almost even split of both theories then why are we forced to learn only evolution in schools? Scientists and science educators have concluded that evolution should be taught in science classes because it is the only tested, comprehensive, scientific explanation for the nature of the biological world today that is supported by overwhelming evidence and widely accepted by the scientific community (National Academy of Sciences 53). As a society that has proven itself wrong time and time again how can we for sure say the “Big Bang theory” is where our ancestors came from and everything around us came to be? The problem with religion is that there are many of them and they each have their own opinions. If creationism were to be taught in schools, it would be too complex to tailor a way for it to be accepted by every one of them. In this conflict of interest, the final
Since the beginning of the human race there has been a lingering question as to the origins of man and how all living things acquired their characteristics. The two main theories that arose over time were Creationism and Evolution, both of which provided very distinct answers to this question. Creationism based its answer on the idea of a supernatural power or being that created the entire universe, man and the numerous other organisms that live within it. While, Evolution theorizes that all living things have the potential to change and grow over time into something new and different. So in other words, one theory suggests that humans and all the organisms on Earth are the result of divine design, while the other indicates that they
For as long as mankind has had the curiosity to gaze at the stars, we have been constantly questioning our origin and place in the universe. From simple, yet elegant solutions (like our world being on the back of a large tortoise) to the more complex pantheons of gods and heavens, humanity’s dedication to classifying and comprehending our universe has enabled us to weave rich and complex mythologies and beliefs. However, in America today there are two prominent paradigms that are shaping how we see the world—Christian creationism and scientific evolution. These two schools of thought, like many other conflicting models of the universe and its creation, have fueled passions and incited spirited rivalries among its most ardent followers and fanatics, but, again like many other opposing beliefs, at the same time it is easy to see how they can be reconciled both within and without oneself. However, many scientists and theologians believe that one of the two is blasphemous and the other is gospel (or textbook) truth. For example, in Scott D Sampson’s essay Evoliteracy, (2006) Sampson denounces Christianity and pushes for everyone to learn the theory of Evolution instead of creationism. While he is correct in wanting a more educated populace, Christianity is not an inherently wrong construct. Similarly, many of those pushing for intelligent design have similarly decried the evolutionary theory as
Since the Age of the Enlightenment, the institution of religion has had to contend with the opposition of science regarding the issues of the origins of the world and of the human species. Up until around the end of the 17th century, the church was the authority on how the world and everything in it had come to be. However, with the great intellectual revolution came thinkers such as Galileo, Copernicus, Bacon, Descartes, and many others who challenged the biblical assumptions with empirically deduced scientific theories. The Catholic Church had a nasty habit of persecuting such ideological dissent toward creationism, calling it heresy and thereby somewhat suppressing a complete upheaval of the Scriptures. For many centuries to come,
Despite great efforts to convince the opposing side, a battle still brews amongst creationists and evolutionists over the beginning of life and the universe, but neither opinions’ palpability can be firmly upheld through scientific manners. Since science can only prove hypotheses that are testable and based on current observations, neither creation nor evolutionary concepts can be proven with irrefutable evidence. However, regardless of the inability to prove either concept, most public school systems promote evolution as a scientific fact. Many students who lack firm beliefs about the origin of life believe what they are taught without giving any personal thought to the matter. Instead of robotically absorbing biased information,
In my opinion Evolution should be taught in school but so should Creationism. I think students should be able to choose which theory to learn in school. None of either theory should be forced on students. The argument between teaching each one is that Evolution is a proven historically fact according to the National Academy of Sciences. The majority of those people who desire for creationism to be taught in the public schools cite that it is scientific. They push for the teaching of creation science which is defined as "scientific evidence for creation and the inferences from that evidence" (Tatina 275). The inferences from that evidence are "sudden creation of the universe from nothing, recent formulation of the earth, creation of man and other biological kinds, a worldwide flood", and
Intelligent design supporters have believed that a low-key approach is in order to be more successful ,rather than simply asking educational institutions to require that intelligent design be taught. Instead, they ask only that schools teach the controversy surrounding evolution, arguing that broadening the discussion will foster critical thought. (Clemmitt, 2005)
In schools today things have been flipped around, for example evolution is okay to teach since it is a scientific fact and can be backed up with proofs and claims, however a teacher cannot teach about creationism because it is a religious belief and under the law schools have to be religiously neutral. But most of the time public schools ignore the whole thing, but in Colleges every biology class has evolution in their curriculum and the professors have to teach it. But even if that's the case, now-a-days I think that the ideology of creationism is being taught less by the churches themselves, though I am not a Christian and maybe because of that, I have been in several preaching sessions for FCA in middle school and club preaching in high school and I have also attended church few times; and I have never heard of creationism until this trial and some of these preachings talked about Genesis but backed away from many aspects of it, so I believe that creationism is being taught less as, in my opinion, as humankind is focusing more on logic than faith. But even so the debate over the existence of evolution is being argued upon lots of times between: peers, coworkers, preachers, atheist, agnostics, and sometimes even parents; and I believe that it is common sense to doubt these sorts of things because it is eventually affects how one may live or how it may affects one’s after life and it's human nature to have different views. But it is okay when one takes away one side of the argument and only is taught one side, and I believe that it should be up to the person which side to be on, but using evolution to justify one's selfishness is also wrong and is just an excuse which is used by the rich to not help the
The objection to evolutionary theory and it's teaching began well over 100 years ago. Charles Darwin proposed in 1859 that populations of organisms underwent evolution through a process known as natural selection. Three years prior to the publication of this theory, in 1856, he wrote of "creationists" in a personal correspondence (Darwin, 1856). The notion that scientific theory conflicts with and rejects religious dogma has been a persistent, pervasive one. Religious organizations continue to push for the acceptance of creationism or intelligent design in school today. Despite the numerous legal cases brought to forth to force the teaching of creationism in public schools, we of the school board maintain that creationism has no place within our schools.
I. Acceptance of Creation is growing in spite of overwhelming evidence proving Evolution There is no easy resolution for whats true and evolution or creationism. It is a complex topic with profound scientific, religious, educational, and criticism. How can a student or parent come to grips with this issue? Evolution vs. Creationism provides a badly needed, comprehensive, and balanced introduction to the many facets of the current debates about what should be taught in a classroom or in reality itself. Evolution relies on scientific facts while creationism clings on biblical beliefs. But the legal and
If the question was posed as to what is the debate between creationism vs. evolution consist of, the thought that it is ‘“God did it” vs. “Natural processes did it,”’ (Scott, 2004) may arise. Science cannot absolutely prove or disprove Creation or Evolution. Yet scientist and the remainder of society use creationism and evolution to prove our existence. Creationist believe in the Christian account of the origin as recorded in Genesis. Creationism is the belief that statements such as “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (NIV) found in Genesis 1:1 and also “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (NIV) found in John 1:1. Evolution is the belief that everything just changed over
In the history of science vs. religion there have been no issues more intensely debated than evolution vs. creationism. The issue is passionately debated since the majority of evidence is in favor of evolution, but the creation point of view can never be proved wrong because of religious belief. Human creation breaks down into three simple beliefs; creation theory, naturalistic evolution theory, and theistic evolution theory. The complexities of all three sides create a dilemma for what theory to support among all people, religious and non-religious.
In an article published in the New York times, by Laurie Goodstein, she revealed that a poll conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, revealed that 64 percent said they were open to the idea of teaching creationism in addition to evolution, while 38 percent favored replacing evolution with creationism. It is important to note by this poll that the idea of teaching our children other theories of how this world was created was supported by more than half of the polled population. It needs to be understood that when these teachings are given the opportunity to be introduced in the public school settings, teachers must maintain a very bias approach as to not sway their students into believing one side or the other but, rather let them decide for themselves through research and study what they will believe in.
The debate between creation and evolution has been around for a long time. For much of it, it has presented a choice between the two. Some claim that you either believe in God or evolution, not both. Others, that you have to choose young earth creationism simply because theistic evolution is not a viable option. Still more present young earth creationism as a naive understanding of both the Bible and science. However, since each position has evidence in support of it and against it, it is in no way true that any of them present us with an undeniable position of definite accuracy. Furthermore, the idea that there is only a choice between creation and evolution is false. Indeed, there are more positions than even creationism and theistic
In order to teach about the earliest man in a nonbiased way, I believe that public schools should not shelter students from either side. It would be a bit unfair to only show one side of the subject matter. I think it would be good to expose students to a perspective they’re not used to; they would be able to have even more knowledge on evolution and creationism. It’s a very debatable topic, but students should understand that neither standpoint can be considered factually correct. Teaching both topics as theories would be the ideal way to approach it. A majority of Americans are not familiar with Creationism, which is why I think it would be practical to teach both theories. On the other hand, evolution is a concept that many people are familiar
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