The Teaching of Creation "Science" Allowed in Wisconsin Schools

[AndJusticeForAll]

GRANTSBURG, Wisconsin (AP) -- "School officials have revised the science curriculum to allow the teaching of creationism, prompting an outcry from more than 300 educators who urged that the decision be reversed.

Members of Grantsburg's school board believed that a state law governing the teaching of evolution was too restrictive. The science curriculum "should not be totally inclusive of just one scientific theory," said Joni Burgin, superintendent of the district of 1,000 students in northwest Wisconsin.

Last month, when the board examined its science curriculum, language was added calling for "various models/theories" of origin to be incorporated.

The decision provoked more than 300 biology and religious studies faculty members to write a letter last week urging the Grantsburg board to reverse the policy. It follows a letter sent previously by 43 deans at Wisconsin public universities.

"Insisting that teachers teach alternative theories of origin in biology classes takes time away from real learning, confuses some students and is a misuse of limited class time and public funds," said Don Waller, a botanist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Wisconsin law mandates that evolution be taught, but school districts are free to create their own curricular standards, said Joe Donovan, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Instruction.

There have been scattered efforts around the nation for other school boards to adopt similar measures. Last month the Dover Area School Board in Pennsylvania voted to require the teaching of alternative theories to evolution, including "intelligent design" -- the idea that life is too complex to have developed without a creator.

The state education board in Kansas was heavily criticized in 1999 when it deleted most references to evolution. The decision was reversed in 2001.

In March, the Ohio Board of Education narrowly approved a lesson plan that some critics contended opens the door to teaching creationism."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/11/06/evolution.schools.ap/index.html


Moving back instead of forward seems to me, absurd.






http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopes.htm

[USMC5831]

I think it is good. What is it going to hurt. Like anything if you do not believe it then ignore the thought of it. I think it is good the schools are trying to broaden the horizons of the youth.



Chris

[AndJusticeForAll]

Originally Posted by USMC5831

I think it is good. What is it going to hurt. Like anything if you do not believe it then ignore the thought of it. I think it is good the schools are trying to broaden the horizons of the youth.

Shouldn't science taught in public schools with public money be based on the scientific model? That is, it can be tested, proven, and verified? There is no science in creation science, IMO.

Teaching creation science as anything other than pure speculation and/or religious theory is wrong in my opinion and it demonstrates how far the religious fundamentalists in our own country will go to subvert the teaching of the modern world.

No way this broadens anyone's horizons. It narrows them, if you are taught to ignore that which you can observe. What you can sense. What you can prove. Science should not be based on what some people believe and then base their theories around.

Do you think Earth was created 6,000 years ago? Creation science does.

[Woodmonkey]

The theory of evolution is just that, a theory. However, it is based on observable data and is subject to change because it is not a fact. Every high school science teacher I know makes it clear to students the difference between fact, theory, etc.

Creationism is based on religious faith. It should not be taught in school, especially in a science class. This raises the issue of which religious faith will be taught, or will all of them be taught (which, IMO, is what should be done). This teaching of religious beliefs should be done in a Comparative Religions class.

Edited to add: Is this supposed to be the teachings of the Fundamentalists who believe that the earth was created in a 7 day period as we know days now, or the 'creator guided evoution' (my belief)?

[AndJusticeForAll]

Originally Posted by Woodmonkey

Creationism is based on religious faith. It should not be taught in school, especially in a science class.

I could not agree more with this statement and I'm glad I don't live in Wisconsin.

Think I'll rent "Inherit the Wind" today.



http://www.filmsite.org/inhe.html

[The_Federalist]

Originally Posted by AndJusticeForAll

Shouldn't science taught in public schools with public money be based on the scientific model? That is, it can be tested, proven, and verified? There is no science in creation science, IMO.

Teaching creation science as anything other than pure speculation and/or religious theory is wrong in my opinion and it demonstrates how far the religious fundamentalists in our own country will go to subvert the teaching of the modern world.

No way this broadens anyone's horizons. It narrows them, if you are taught to ignore that which you can observe. What you can sense. What you can prove. Science should not be based on what some people believe and then base their theories around.

Do you think Earth was created 6,000 years ago? Creation science does.

I have yet to see creationism on the curriculum in any public university course catalog, and if it was I doubt you would find it in Biology, or Physical Anthropology dept.

It is a profound statement when instead you are likely to find it in a Philosophy section.

[Snowden]

Since Genesis clearly states that God created things in what could easily be seen as an evolutionary process, I don't see why teaching one view should or could cancel out the other.

On one hand, we have the big bang theory - which is fine and I believe should be taught, with the added question of "What caused the BANG?" as part of the subject, the point being that nothing bumping into nothing is not enough to start a bang - some force had to be applied. By what or by Whom? (Well, that tells you my answer to that question! ) The two theories do not cancel each other out.

We have man as the final addition - science seems to support this. We have no idea just how and why God created man, but evolution is as good a theory as any other, IMO.

By Woodmonkey: Edited to add: Is this supposed to be the teachings of the Fundamentalists who believe that the earth was created in a 7 day period as we know days now, or the 'creator guided evolution' (my belief)?

I hope it's not this - but it probably is. Shades of the 15th Century!

By AndJusticeForAll: Do you think Earth was created 6,000 years ago? Creation science does.

AJFA, not really. Fundamentalists believe that; but I also believe in it, and I know the world to be millions of years old - billions even. I have never understood how anyone can be naive enough to accept Bishop Ussher's idea of "Bible time." The world being 4000 years old when Jesus was born. It's childish; and of course, our faith is supposed to be accepted "as a child." Fine - "as a child" and "childish" are two different concepts entirely.

Evolution is the scientific study of one way God may have used - searching for proof to satisfy the desire to find this out. Science needs to do this.