First-hand Account of Creationism in the Classroom

I’d like to make this post a bit more personal than my previous ones. My high school years were spent in a private school that taught creationism as the true scientific (and spiritual) explanation of the origins of species, so I was first-hand exposed to the type of education that creationists are trying to place into public schools. As you can imagine, my experience being taught creationism in lieu of evolution has had a profound effect on the way I view this topic; however, I will point out that my views are subject to misinformed bias; I have considered both sides of the debate and my conclusions are based on what I think are rational arguments. Nevertheless, I hope I’ll be able to instill some insight as to just how ludicrous the notion of teaching creationism in public schools really is.

In my sophomore biology class, a large portion of the textbook was designed as an attack on evolution. It set up an impossibly vast variety of straw-men arguments, such as the claim that evolution is the claim that life came from non-life (that would be abiogenesis, and the phrase “origin of life” in the context of evolution is interchangeable with “origin of species”) or the claim that the second law of thermodynamics definitely disproves evolution (it certainly doesn’t do that). The central point that I am trying to get across is that no one in my school who believed in creationism had a clear understanding of what evolution actually entails; for example, they believed that evolution taught that humans are descended from apes, while we merely share a common ancestor.

Unfortunately, the one common factor that seems to inform creationist arguments against evolution is ignorance; neither my teachers nor my classmates had bothered to critically review evidence for evolution in a truly analytical light—they simply brushed any inconsistencies in their creationist views under the rug and would dodge questions that I raised concerning their arguments. It is precisely this type of attitude that creationism perpetrates—a general apathy toward empirical scientific knowledge, as well as an acceptance of dogmatic arguments with no basis. This is why I think it’s so important that we dispel popular misconceptions of evolution, so that we leave behind the intellectual shackles of creationism and simply move on.

UPDATE: One of these days I'll remember to form actual paragraphs on the first go.

Creationism in Europe: A Brief Look

The United States and Europe have very different views about creationism and evolution. Take a look at this blog post, for example. The United States are near the bottom in terms of belief in biological evolution, while a large amount of European countries are at the top. I find such statistics to be very interesting, especially when you take into context European attitudes toward teaching creationism: the Council of Europe, a group dedicated to democratic freedom and similar ideals, released a resolution in 2007 citing the dangers of teaching creationism. The resolution is congruent with what I’ve been blogging about; they don’t consider any form of creationism to be science and are of the opinion that teaching it in the classroom as science is dangerous.

But it’s important to consider that such a resolution, while a good indicator of the overall attitude of European countries has toward evolution, is hardly a definitive statement that encompasses every country’s attitude toward evolution. For example, a surprising amount of British schoolteachers think that creationism should at least be discussed in the classroom. So while Europe does seem to have a better grasp on the issue than America, creationism still has a presence.

I think that the question should be raised: what about Europe gives it more of a stance against creationism than America? I think an important factor is the secularization of Europe. In my opinion, the relative separation of church and state lends Europe a greater scientific leaning. Such an analysis would have to take into account a lot of variables, but I do think one constant remains between both America and Europe: the creationists are in the same vein, with the same arguments. In order to better deal with this debate in America, we should distance our government and legislature, and by proxy our public education, from any religious authority or thought.