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Religion in public schools controversy
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Religion has always been a hot topic in today’s world. No matter where a person may go people are talking about it; except in public schools. School has such a big impact on children because they go everyday. In public schools they only talk about one subject regarding religion, one belief -evolution. Schools should have other options for students to learn about the existence of our world and the lives that occupy it. For example, creationism. Creationism is the belief that the universe and all living organisms originated by acts of divine power, as illustrated in the Bible.
The only theory of creation that teachers are allowed to teach in public schools is the theory of evolution. No other idea is considered and this is not acceptable. Many people think it is closed minded to only teach one religion, but that is a two way street. It is also closed minded to only teach evolution. Someone may argue the reason why they only teach evolution is because if they teach any religion based theory then it forces religion on people. Teaching evolution forces a different belief on religious people. We need to find a way to teach multiple theories.
The Bible is the basis of truth in Christianity. If the Bible says something then Christians typically consider it is true. Just like how most atheists believe that the big bang and
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the theory of evolution is the truth. Teaching creationism is rejected by atheists as random chance is the reason of our existence is rejected by faith based religion. So either way someone is will become offended. Any thing you do in this day and age will offend people so why not just teach more options? The way to do that is to make classes that teach more culturally based theories. Creationism is the absolute truth. It makes more sense that someone can make the world instead of it just appearing randomly in perfect order. What else in the world pops out and is just there? Nothing. The only explanation is that God created the world. If you read Genesis, the first book in the Bible, it immediately starts talking about God creating the world. It says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” He is an all powerful almighty God; anything is possible through Him. Creationism and other theories should be taught in public schools.
It would let everybody be introduced to other ideas and allow the students to learn what they want to learn. This would appease most people. According to Wikipedia there are 2.2 billion Christians, 1.6 billion Muslims, and 1 billion nonreligious/atheists in the world. In my opinion all of these religions are faith based. One could argue that it requires more faith to believe in evolution than it does to believe another faith based religion. Those are the top 3 religions in our world and everyone should be respected and taught to whomever wants to learn them. Same with all other
religions.
Robert Root-Bernstein and Donald L. McEachron, “Teaching Theories: The Evolution-Creation Controversy,” The American Biology Teacher, Vol. 44, No. 7 (Oct…1982). This article, written by Robert Root-Bernstein and Donald L. McEachron sheds light on the controversy of evolution vs creationism in schools and the validity of each being called a scientific theory. The work was created to answer the questions, “Which of these theories is truly scientific and which is a religious belief? Which should be taught in schools?” The article concluded in favor of evolution as a valid scientific theory that should be taught rather than creationism, but also mentioned the worth of understanding the latter.
Evolution and Creationism are both fact and theory but the question is which one should be taught in schools? Only a few school distracts have approved the teaching of evolution because it has more senitific evidence than creationism to prove that it is true. According to a new Gallup poll, just 39% of Americans believe in evolution. The Gallup polls also show that those Americans with higher education believe in the theory of evolution as opposed to those with only high school diplomas. The polls found that 74% Americans with post-graduate degrees believe in evolution theory compared to 21% of Americans with only high school diplomas. The Gallup polls suggest that the belief in the theory of evolution is associated with education. Evolution should be taught in schools because it has more scientific evidence to support it than creationism does. Also, public schools should not teach things that have to do with God, such as creationism, because the Constitution requires the separation of church and state. Finally, if we do not allow schools to teach evolution it would be a form censo...
In the United States, the average child goes through public funded schools that have a basic curriculum. According to the Texas Education Agency, some of the subjects include science, mathematics, social studies, English, and more. Nowhere in the subject is religion included. The basic curriculum is made in order to give students skills, knowledge, and to help develop the minds of the future. In science class, evolution is taught either briefly or detailed. It is taught because it is a popular theory that did not seem to choose a certain religion. So why believe that religion and science can be taught together? The evolution of Earth and the universe can be believed in any way an individual chooses.
Evolution has been taught in all public schools for as long as many can recall. Though the process of evolution is not the only theory, schools have been teaching it as if it is the complete truth, ignoring other aspects and only focusing and targeting on Darwin's theory of Evolution. However, there are still many other ideas that the students should be informed of as well because all are theories, all are hypothetic. Teaching of the evolution theory have yet to be proven reliable and confirmed by all scientists, thus it should not be taught in schools and should be left for students to wonder and discover by themselves.
Until the early 1960s, religion was accepted in most public school systems across our nation. One of the main purposes for school in early America was for religious purposes (Prothero). Benjamin Franklin stated, "It is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand." Thomas Jefferson stated, "The question isn't what religion is true. The question is what religious traditions do we need to know something about in order to be an effective citizen." Something that can be beneficial to our nation should not be taken away. Even though religion offends some people, it should be allowed in public schools because of its influence on America and western civilizations, and its ability to help form closer relationships.
As one can see, the question of whether or not creationism should be taught in public schools is not so much a question of should it be taught, as it is more of a question of can it be taught. Can the Book of Genesis, or even a version of it be taught legally as part of a standardized curriculum? The answer is no. Can Native American versions of creation be taught? The answer is no. Can any idea of creation, subscribed to by any religion be taught legally? The answer is no. Should it be taught? Yes. Where then should it be taught legally, if not in the public school system? Probably, the best environment would be the home. The best teacher would probably be the parent.
Prayer in School: Good or Bad? As secular humanists and groups like the Christian Coalition are at war with each other regarding prayer in high schools behind closed doors in Washington DC, the average high school kid is the one that gets caught in the middle. For years now there has been a heated debate about whether or not prayer should be allowed in school. Every time the argument is rekindled, it ends in a stalemate, and is a topic that campaigning politicians tend to stay away from.
Through many Supreme Court cases, decisions, and official statements, the United States Government has made it clear that study about religion is constitutional (Haynes 2). 3 main cases have explicitly shown the acceptability of religion in school. There have been many statements made Supreme Court Justices and the current president himself stating the permissibility of having religion taught in school. Guidelines have also been written and carried out for the use of religion in the public school system (Guidelines: U.S. Department of Education, 2)
Since the time that teaching evolution in public schools was banned as heresy and taboo for contradicting the Bible, most public school systems today take an opposite approach in which creationism is seldom ta...
Religion in school can be defined as the practice of any personal religious belief or act in a place of education. To say that religion is a big topic of interest to a lot of people in the United States today is a bit of an understatement. The debate over the separation of church and state has been going on without end for years. With many different perspectives on the matter and even more opinions on how it should be handled. Since the beginning many people have challenged the role that religion has played in education. Should schools teach religion? If so, can they do it evenhandedly? Will they misinterpret the religion wrong? How many people would be offended? Would we be better off without it so that it doesn’t cause controversy? The problem is can we truly answer any of these arguments without the opposite side disagreeing? Many of these questions are rooted from the same controversy that is happening in schools today. Aside from the separation of church and states comes one of the vastly debatable topics of education allowing religion which is prayer in school. While a few believe that prayer in school is constructive to the development of a child and their faith, others may conclude that it could completely denounce the faith of a child. Because this is an ongoing controversy further research on whether religion should or should not be allowed in public education is usually boils down to two major points the First Amendment and is religion good for our children? Could we potentially have a compromise or could the two opposing sides meet somewhere in the middle?
In the uncertainty that the modern world is, there is one law that stays petrified in stone no matter what happens: “Things change with age.” No matter if it is in history, science, or even Pokémon, things change as time passes by and this process is called evolution. The theory formulated by Charles Darwin is the belief that all organisms have come from earliest creatures because of external factors (“NSTA…”). School boards everywhere have accepted the theory of Evolution as fact making it essential to be in the curriculums of science classrooms. However, over the years, controversy has arisen as the fact that is evolution is still only a theory with flaws and setbacks, efficiently making other theories (i.e. intelligent design) a viable alternate in the classroom. The law, on the other hand, had a different idea about these other theories with numerous bans them from schools, claiming them to be against the second amendment. Despite the bitter debate of rather or not it is valid and right for teaching (primarily alone) the theory of evolution lies as being the most reliable and accurate way to teach how the modern world came to be.
While students are attending public schools they should be aware of their religion options. The student should have the right to practice their religion as they please, just on the own time. Yes, religion plays a huge part in molding a person but, should be practiced when the time is available, not in a classroom setting. The government should have the ability to control the protection of the students that just want to learn. The capability to regulate the religious practices while attending public educational institutions should be left to the government. Faith, religion and belief, usually are three words that are used to describe one situation, although these words have three different meanings. To have faith in something or someone you must first believe in it and also accept it as well, but have a belief without evidence. Religion is a belief in a heavenly superhuman power or principle, such as the almighty or creator to all things. Everyone has faith and belief, but not all believers believe in the almighty. Allowing religion into public schools while everyone attending not having the same belief is unfair, unconstitutional and is complicated to teach to a verity of students.
Christianity is a religion that many people are a part of, including myself, but there is a few peers at our school who use it as an excuse to condescend, harass, and discriminate. These people give many a negative view of what Christianity is and give some the belief that all Christians act in a similar way. I think that if we could educate some of those guilty of this issue we could stop it all together. This issue needs to be changed because if we do not try to stop it, our school is at risk of being shrouded with a cloud of discrimination.
Students should be taught in public schools instead of evolution. Most cosmologists now agree that the universe began some 13.7 billion years ago in an event known as the Big Bang. Theoretical physicist and nobel prize winner Steven Weinberg’s description of what the Big Bang would have looked like, and since he’s an atheist we can be sure that there isn’t any believer-bias in his description. “ In the beginning there was an explosion, and in 3 minutes, 98% of the matter there is or ever will be, was produced. We had a universe. For 2,500 years, most scientist agreed with Aristotle on the idea of a steady-state universe, that the universe has always existed with no beginning, no end, but the Bible disagreed. In the 1920s, Belgian astronomer George Lemaître, a theist said the universe jumping into existence out of nothing in a trillionth of a second in an unimaginably intense flash of light is how he would expect the universe to respond if God were to utter the command in Genesis 1:3, “ Let there be light.” In other words, the origin of the universe unfolded exactly how one would expect after reading Genesis, and 2,500 years, the Bible had it right and science had it wrong. All of which points to a God that
Imagine what the world would be like if all schools taught religion. I think that the world would be a better place, especially if all students believed in what they were learning about. However, what if schools were forced to teach children about all religions equally? I think that it would cause a lot more confusion. People wouldn’t know which of the religions to believe in. Dan Dennette is an America philosopher, an evolutionist, and is also known as one of the “Four Horsemen of New Atheism.” Dan Dennette has been in several broadcasted debates, has received several awards for his research and understandings, and has been made more famous through his Ted Talk, called “Let’s teach religion- all religion- in schools.” In his Ted Talk he tries