U.S. News Debate: Should Schools Teach Creationism?

There's a monumental difference between how math is taught and how art is taught. Math is generally taught as objective fact, whereas art is generally taught as subjective. In other words, math is meant to be absolute and irrefutable whereas art is open to interpretation. In art classes, students are (hopefully) taught to consider all perspectives - and perhaps more importantly, they're taught (again, hopefully) that no one perspective is necessarily the "right" or "wrong" way of looking at art.

So if we can teach art this way - and students can fully understand the value of subjectivity and acknowledging multiple perspectives - then why can't religion be taught this way? You can tell someone what creationism is without trying to make them believe in it. Unfortunately, when people hear the phrase "teaching creationism" they immediately assume that such a teacher must also advocate creationism.

This is not necessarily true in all cases. Believing in some "god" does not prevent one from being able to explain to a friend what atheism is. Likewise, an atheist can explain what creationism is to an agnostic. That agnostic can relate the same information to others.

There is no natural law or doctrine which forces humans to teach in a forceful, persuasive manner. I don't see why creationism can't be taught in public schools - at least in higher grade levels - so long as teachers are responsible enough to remain as objective as possible. The same goes for atheism, agnosticism, etc.

When I was first told what abortion was, I wasn't told that it was wrong OR right. I was told what it was - that's it. Interestingly, it was a teacher who informed me about abortion - and that teacher never once swayed me one way or the other. To this day, I still retain an open perspective on the topic.

There are various reasons for and against teaching creationism in school - I don't really want to comment either way. My goal here was to debunk the apparently wide-spread myth that it's impossible to teach objectively.

Dan Rhoades of PA 6:30PM April 07, 2011