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Goodstein, Laurie. Teaching of Creationism is Endorsed in New Survey

Whenever I see surveys, I often notice how easy it is to distort their findings and not ask the right questions as to why the results came out as they did. Such was the case with this survey, which was a bit of a surprise as the NYT is usually pretty good about that kind of thing. But before I go off on a rant, let's see if any of the rest of you figure out what about this survey bothers me. There's a very obvious question about the participants of the survey that they failed to address, and thus the results of the entire survey are called into question as to their meaning.

I swear, if they forget the principle of the seperation of church and state then I''m running to Canada. stare

(nods) The huge oversight of this entire survey is that they did not compare religious beliefs. Far as we can tell from the article, they didn't even ask for the person's religious background when asking this question. All these survey results say to me, is:

1) The majority of Americans are Christian
2) Therefore it's no surprise the results show the 'majority' of Americans support teaching Creationism in schools
3) Christianity in general is in favor of imposing its doctrine (and religion) on to others, so therefore it's also not a surprise that the 'majority' wish to do so. That doesn't make it right.

What I can't understand, is why people can't talk about having a religious diversity class instead, giving equal time to ten different faiths (with only ONE of the ten being all forms of Christianity). Religious tolerance starts with teaching kids about different religions. I have no problem with teaching that Christians and other religions believe in creationism; the problem comes with putting it in science class where it dosen't belong. But since the dominant religion in this country thinks it's the 'one true faith' it sure isn't going to support what should be the real solution here: teaching religious diversity. Ah well. I'll be sure to teach my kids about different religions if I have them. I know the school won't do it. xp

The thing is, science is the study of the world around us by learning to create hypotheses that can be tested. Evolution is very capable of being proven possible, because we obviously have the ability to study generations of animal and plant growth, and observe any changes from the parent to child, and archaeological research is always being held to learn more about species of the past.

Creationism, while a very valid theory, cannot be tested. It can be assumed to have evidence via the bible, but that evidence cannot go through an experiment and reach a supporting result repetitively, as we have no reliable means of going back in time to see the universe in its earliest days, much less show this in a classroom.

Until creationism even has a way to attempt to draw itself as the only possible concluded source of life, it is of no concern to the scientific world. There should be a social studies elective on Theology if they really want this popularity contest of a creation myth taught, but even then it shouldn't get any more emphasis than Ymir, Tiamat/Apsu, Izanami/Izanagi, or any other cultural beliefs, and finally be seen as equal to other such legends.