First of all, I agree with chiroptera, most of this isn't on topic, especially all of this nonsense about strawmen and credentials, I can't even follow who started that. But, there are two items brought up that are on topic, first why the points in the book should be taught in the classroom, and second, whether there is a conflict between the Bible and evolution.
First, why should these points be taught in school? Because they are correct.
Really? Show me one piece of evidence that supports the claim made in this book and I will shutup.
I think this quite clearly state how trees and humans are similar.
rahvin writes:
They both use deoxyribonucleic acid to store inheritable traits, as opposed to alternatives like RNA. They both consist of cells, which have similar organnelles (as well as many different ones). There are far more similarities than you seem to think. Both humans and all species of plants have a common ancestor in the incredibly distant past.
As for all the discussion of the big bang, I will neglect that, since evolution doesn't concern itself with the big bang. In fact the book in the OP doesn't talk about the big bang. The point is that you can very easily see that all life is related and that life evolves, without knowing where it comes from. The origin of the earth, life, and the universe is an entirely different question, and one that isn't even taught in a typical evolutionay biology lecture.
If you have proof to the contrary please let us know
By the way, who is "us?"
As for the evolution conflicting with faith topic, now you have some explaining to do. You need to show how one of these two points:
platypus writes:
1) One Family Tree unites all of life and
2) Species change through time and place
conflicts with your religious belief. That is the whole point of Roughgarden's book, that neither of these two statements actually contradicts any portion of the Bible. In fact, many portions of the Bible tend to support these statements. If God created both plants and animals, then aren't we all united in a big Family Tree? Isn't this actually a Christian message?
You hear evolutionist says we are descedant from apes and monkees. Sure, but that's not the point. All of life is related, not just human's with monkees. If you hug a tree, you're hugging a relative, a very distant relative, but a relative nonetheless." Dr. Joan Roughgarden in Evolution and Christian Faith