It’s been over 20 years and we are still teaching in science class ‘evolution is a choice to believe in and the other choice is the Christian Creation Myth’. Myth. MYTH.
At
this age, you should be smart enough to know this makes no sense in science
class. Ye adults, two or three times as
old, were not that smart.
To some, this was instituted out of fairness. To others, this was about teaching children
what was ‘right’ and the families of the students would encourage them to make
the most ‘mature’ decision of what to follow.
There are several problems with both of these; one of
those problems being me. I was not
raised Christian. In fact, it was not
until after I went to college that I knew anything significant about the
religion. All I understood was that some
people believed in God and Jesus. I was
Wiccan at the time, previously having ascribed to a philosophical version of
the religion of the Greeks (no, really).
One of my godmothers was of the Celtic in faith and the other took faith
from various tribes native to California.
I was close to both.
In all fairness, all religions should be taught to the
rest of the class. If it would be wrong
to exclude how the first woman was created from the rib of the first man, it
would also be wrong to exclude how the first woman was forged in order to
torment the titan that gave fire to humans.
Both hold religious significance to at least one attendant of the class
and to discriminate against a minority, be they Greek Faith or Christian in
faith, would be unfair.
When it comes to what is right, both contain as much
logic in terms of science” none. But if
‘right’ means ‘moral’, there is still the same problem. Which creation myth holds the best
moral? In Christianity, women are told
to serve men and endure pain as punishment.
In Greek, women are a punishment for men disobeying orders because they
had no foresight. How is it either moral
or scientific to demand eternal subjugation and pain on half the population
because of what one person did something they weren’t smart enough not to do a
millennia ago? Is evolution kinder than
either of these, favoring individuals purely as those who pass on genes and
behavior until their influence or family line dies out?
How do morals fit into biology in the first place? How do omnipotent deities or nearly
omnipotent ones factor into mitosis or chlorophyll?
Maybe we should be teaching the obvious answer of keeping science and religion separate instead so the adults can learn from their children what the Founding Fathers decided in the first place?
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