Evolutionism? or Creationism? or both? (Poll)

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What do you think? as for me I am for evolution, I do not think creationism should be in public schools unless its run by some religious order that people choose to place their children into.

Poll: Public Divided on Evolution

http://www.livescience.com/othernews/ap ... polls.html

Poll: Public Divided on Evolution
By Will Lester
Associated Press
posted: 01 September 2005
09:15 am ET


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans are divided over whether humans and other living things evolved over time or have existed in their present form since the beginning of time, according to a new poll.

People on both sides of that argument think students should hear about various theories, however.

Nearly two-thirds of those in a Pew Research Center poll, 64 percent, say they believe “creationism'' should be taught alongside “evolution'' -- a finding likely to spark more controversy about what is taught in the schools.

That controversy could be related to the difficulty of measuring public sentiment about teaching evolution, creationism or the more recent concept of “intelligent design,'' a Pew official said.

“We acknowledge there may be some confusion about the meaning of these terms,'' said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. But Lugo said the findings suggest widespread support for teaching students different ideas about how life began.

“What this basically tells us is that in contentious issues, many people take the default position -- teach both sides and let people make up their own minds,'' Lugo said.

“Intelligent design'' is a movement among some scholars over the past 15 years that says Charles Darwin's theory of evolution -- that natural selection caused gradual biological changes over time -- cannot fully explain either how life originated or how extremely complex life forms emerged. An undefined “intelligence'' must therefore have been involved, they contend.

In the poll by the Pew Research Center, 42 percent of those surveyed held strict “creationist'' views that “living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.'' Creationism generally refers to a literal reading of the Bible's story of the creation of man.

Almost half, 48 percent, said they believed humans have evolved over time. Some of those people, 26 percent of all those polled, said they believe evolution occurred through natural selection, and another 18 percent of all those polled, said evolution was guided by a supreme being.

Eugenie Scott, executive director for the National Center of Science Education, questioned whether the poll was a reflection of support for teaching “creationism'' in school. The center supports the teaching of evolution in schools.

“What the poll reflects is the power of the idea of fairness in American culture,'' she said. “We feel strongly we should always hear both sides.''

Some want to see evolution taught in a broader context. Warren Nord, a professor of philosophy at the University of North Carolina, said it's important for students to learn about evolution in context with culture generally. “Students should understand the controversy,'' Nord said. The different theories “should be addressed in science classes. All science textbooks and courses should locate them in a larger cultural conversation about how to make sense of nature.''

The poll of 2,000 adults was conducted July 7-17 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.


(see website for the actual polling on the article its self.)

My guess is the most primitive apes evolved into early hominids, who were zealous creationists. Later, Homo sapiens sapiens evolved and had brain enough to think.

I do not feel creationism should be taught in public schools, but if it must be then ALL of the religious creationisms should be taught and not just one religious type, what if only one creationism was taught (like Christianity) and your family is Muslim? or Buddhist? or Hindu? or Judaism? or visa versa? and what about the smaller religions like Wiccan? etc, etc.

If ppl who push creationism were allowed time it would be a very short class. They would say X made this/humans etc heeh. The idea can not even be tested and sould be taught in a church not a public-funded school. Theist like captive groups for some reason like jails and schools and during wars and young minds to infect with their mind virus.

I agree - if people want to believe in creationism more power to them - but it should not be taught as scientific fact - because it isn't . . .

But then I've never seen why it is that evolution doesn't fit in with traditional religion . . .

I think that parents have the right to choose whether to have their kids taught creationism or evolutionism. Most parents put their kids in public schools, and not every parent could afford to put their kids through private schools, so yes, creationism should be an option (not a requirement). The teachers could have another class for students that are taught evolutionism, and another for creationism, so that no people are offended.

whoops - i voted yes before i was actually awake.

but then, come to think of it, i think EVERYTHING should be taught to everyone, with obvious exceptions, so perhaps my subconscious knows better than me. learning both sides of a debate is healthy though, i reckon.

I voted No, because, unless the school is going to teach EVERY creation theory from EVERY school of thought (reiligions, philosophy etc), then they shouldn't teach any.
As far as I'm concerned a single religion has no place in schools (except those run by religions of course... and even then). They should be promoting them all equally or not at all.

Though personally, I believe in a mix of both creation and evolution.

GA

There is another religion to consider here. Someone has (as a joke) created the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and if creationism, or it's evil twin brother "intelligent design, " is taught in the schools, he plans to force schools to also teach that we were all created by this Flying Spaghetti Monster!

Niiice

GA

Deleted

As I understand it, the debate is now focused on "intelligent design"
This is much less specific than "creationism", though it doesn't make much more sense.
I have been studying evolution a lot recently, and am really annoyed by the fact that it seems to have been completely left out of my highschool curiculum. (wonderful SC schools)

Something interesting that I have been reading up on is a darwinian model of creativity. The idea is that the brain formulates novel combinations of ideas, then selects the ones that might be useful.
If this is in fact how intelligence works, then it seems that evolution is intelligent design, or vice versa.

The problem is that saying the universe was created throught "intelligent design" does not answer anything. It is the equivalent of saying "lets ignore this question" Where did the designer come from ? ??

I think "design" in itself suggests that SOMEONE created it. Science points towards Evolution and is the best model to explain what we see now and what we find of what has been (i.e. fossils, DNA, etc.).

There is still no evidence that there is no Universal Creator. But the more important point is that there isn't sufficient scientific evidence that there is. Therefore, being equalled as just as probable in science as is Evolution is unwarranted, thus it shouldn't be taught in public schools.

I like the idea of having a seperate class - but I hate that people exclude themselves from knowledge just based on their religion - I think that if someone is truly devoted to a religion then they should be able to expose themselves to an idea and then say 'Oh - that clashes with my religion - I guess I don't believe that idea . . .' - not just ignore the idea because they are afraid their faith isn't strong enough to take it . . .

I love the idea of a religious history class but it would never fly - at least not here in the south - you would have to include things like neopaganism and Muslim religions which would just scare the h*ll out of all the right wing Christians down here . . .[/list][/list][/code]

Sorry - I'm not sure what button I pressed to put all that wierd stuff at the end of my message!