Letters to the Editor
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Geez, Cary. You really blew this one.
You discuss the right for people to think whatever crazy things they want in their personal lives, and I generally agree. This sort of mythological diversity is at the core of our right to privacy. But once you cross over into inflicting those crazy views on kids who trust you and who have no ability to critically rebut your arguments, you cross the line. Young earth creationism is demonstrably wrong, and saddling some kid with these ideas will cripple him/her for a very long time (perhaps for a lifetime). All of modern medicine and biology rests firmly on the evolutionary model. It's far more elegant, instructive and beautiful than creationism can ever hope to be, and it actually reflects reality. The LW needs to follow his instincts and pull his friend back from the precipice before he spirals these poor students down from education to indoctrination in pure fantasy. I feel for those poor kids, even if they won't understand the damage done for many, many years.
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Christian Taoist
Everyone has a different path.
Encourage your friend to search his OWN heart and decide what feels right for HIM (not you). Perhaps he is SUPPOSED to be in that school at that time to reach a particular student - maybe not even about this particular topic.
Your own opinions are full with you own ego but life moves everyone in a different path. For you this teaching is child abuse, but where would we be with Michaelangelo's belief in God? or Newton? or ML King?
If he feels OK with accepting the position, he should not feel inhibited. If he later feels its not right for him, he should feel no inhibition to stop.
You are his friend. Be his friend and let him know to be still, listen and then follow his heart.
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rayinkorea
Shawn, in case you didn't already know, is one of Salon's finest trolls, and any argument with him doesn't get anywhere.
I also live in Asia (assuming you are, as your username suggests, in Korea) and agree with your post on the absurd application of moral-relativistic standards when discussing science. American education just operates in a different paradigm when it comes to science. Students are encouraged to categorically accept whatever they are taught rather than to question, understand or examine scientific concepts. Blindly accepting what they are taught lets students accept what others are taught and discuss feelings rather than trying to distinguish between knowledge and belief.
All of this begins in grade school. Take for example the comparison between the AP system and the IB system, which is the prevailing standard for top-notch secondary school curriculum in Europe and international schools elsewhere. In IB science classes, students need to design their own experiments and test a specific concept. They write exams graded by actual examiners where they have to explain theories and apply them to hypothetical situations. In AP, students are evaluated solely on a final, multiple-choice, standardized exam.
Until schools change the way they teach science and emphasize scientific reasoning and the methods in acquiring scientific knowledge, people will continue to argue that teaching creationism is valid. This is why I think the LW really needs to get to the bottom of what his friend thinks is science and how it should be taught. Otherwise people will continue to try to convince him that he needs to the myth of creationism is "another legitimate point of view".
"Let's talk quietly and get this down to the facts, huh?" -Biff Loman, Death of a Salesman
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He's just playing with ideas
And he's asking you to get on the other side of the net and spike the ball back to him. Of course, it's revolting - if teaching kids is no game to you.
So instead of indulging him in hitting his pretend convictions back and forth, do the truly non-violent thing. Step aside and let him run back and forth across that net himself. When he asks what you think, ask him to remind you what he has shared on this subject himself from the other side. "Wasn't it you who said...?," or "What was it you told me about...?"
Don't fall into the trap of playing the angry atheist. Too easy to be dismissed. A little research into spiral dynamics might help you recognize that he is not where you are (and can't be), but you won't always be where you are, either.
I loved Cary's mention of what we were taught in school. It's so far removed from what genuine science really thinks now, yet the myth we were taught still works as a starting place for people in the rational phase.
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Cop Out
Cary's answer was a total non-answer. The problem is that the friend is being asked to teach religion as science. There is nothing wrong with the creation myth itself, but it isn't science. As a working scientist I have a great respect for all cultural beliefs but they have nothing to do with scientific theory and proof. Evolution is a theory in the same way gravity is a theory. If we called it the law of evolution (like the law of gravity) perhaps it would get more respect. As for how evolution accounts for truely large changes in life i.e. microbes to plants and animals I suggest reading any of Lynn Margulis' books on the subject, such as "Symbiotic Planet : A New Look at Evolution". As with any good scientific idea "evolution" has built on itself since Darwin and we have come to understand far more than Darwin could have imagined about how life on our home planet came to be and how it works now. For an excellent program on why intelligent design is not on a par with evolution as a scientific theory watch the PBS NOVA broadcast, Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/programs/ht/wm/3416_01_220.html
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But they will vote to fund science--or not
We live in a democracy, and those children will grow up to participate in the franchise. If they grow up believing that science is a fraud perpetrated by "them" on the "us" who have the God Given Truth, then they will vote against all sorts of candidates and issues where science is involved.
So, Cary, no--it's not all the same what they believe. And LW--go gently, b/c a doubting teacher may be better than the believing one they'll otherwise have, and perhaps he can be more respectful of science due to his doubts. But push him, if you can. That _Finding Darwin's God_ might be just the ticket.
I recently went on a dinosaur-themed field trip with my son's 2nd grade class, where dino fossils were handed around for the kids to feel. My son got into an argument about the bones with another boy, whose answer was "But that's not real, it's just science."
*That's* the outcome of teaching creationism/ID in church, much less church schools. Science =/= real. Science is a fraud. And when a kid like that grows up to vote--it's a bit scary. More than a bit scary.