Muse – Why Teach Creationism?

The question posed to me over my last entry. And a good one.

Personally, I think we should teach it because we have nothing to fear from it. Being an agnostic, I don’t necessarily believe in it. Yet this existence is one of possibilities. To believe utterly that there is no basis for creationism is a folly when, while there is no true evidence for it, there is also no real evidence against it. And as is often said, lack of evidence for doesn’t necessarily mean it doesn’t exist.

Besides, we teach children about fiction in english classes. Why shouldn’t we teach them possible fiction in science? It isn’t as if I think they should be taught real theism and that creationism is true. I’m against spreading religion in schools. But, I’m not against knowledge about what is believed. There’s a fine line between them. There should be a class that teaches about atheism, agnosticism, Christianity, Catholicism, Buddhism, Scientology, Mormonism and every other religion and pseudo-religion on the planet. It’s a matter of knowing what is and what people believe. Understanding so that when confronted with such subjects, one can look at them seriously rather than looking at and reacting to them in ignorance.

Knowledge is power. The only problem is dealing with the parents who will, for various reasons, rise up against such an idea.