Bertster7 wrote:
Turquoise wrote:
Well, I think this thread demonstrates exactly why education should be privatized in America.
A more rational nation would not even have this debate between evolution and creationism, because evolution has a much more realistic basis than creationism.
Given the fundamentalism that exists in our dysfunctional society, I'd prefer that we privatize the market so that the religious nuts can have their own schools while the rest of us can actually learn science.
That's a bad idea. Why should the children of religious nutters not have access to education about evolution. Even if they are prejudiced by stupid religious parents who don't believe in evolution, they should still be exposed to it and not have anyone legitimising this creationist nonsense.
I think it's a disgrace that a highly developed country like the US should even be contemplating seriously teaching creationism to anyone. It's almost on a par with the medieval educational practices under the Taliban. Allowing religion to directly influence the teaching of science is absurd.
I would agree, but here's another weakness in our culture...
The dark side of living in a free country is that you are free to be ignorant here because of the Constitution. While it is a necessary freedom to be able to make your own mistakes and live with them, problems occur when enough people are ignorant.
To put this in perspective, most research shows that roughly half of Americans believe in creationism. Scary shit, eh? We're about on the same level of Turkey in this respect. Islamic societies are some of the few that are more adamant about creationism than we are.
Because of the predominance of ignorance here, we continually face burdens in our public education systems. The state of Kansas, for example, narrowly reversed a decision that would have made creationism officially part of the school curriculum (and would have replaced evolution).
So, the question is... If enough people believe in something, should it become part of the school curriculum due to popular demand? Most of the time, American principles would support this move.
Personally, I think this popular consent idea is starting to show its disadvantages....