should creationism be taught in schools?

oh geeze. time to read h2g2 again. i don't remember it very well, and there's a movie or something coming out now...

I know of ones that wan't to remove "in god we trust" from money because they feel it is inappropriate.I know of religious people that are adament about maintaining the seperationyou could ask these people:
Page not found - Americans United

why just atheist?why not any other faith? ... islam ?

I just want an exemption.Those of us who had to go through relearning it when it was changed should get a 'by' this time. Let the rest go through what we went through but let us be.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

I know of AU.org but they're not a Christian organization and I doubt they get much funding help from Christians.I'm all for organizations that promote it, I'm a card carrying member of the ACLU, my question is "Where are the Christians doing their part to protect it?" In my opinion they should be worried that there are large movements within their ministries that are bent on undermining the protection that separation awards them.

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why just atheist?

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Because I was responding to Mick's suggested disclaimer.."should include a disclaimer saying that a large number of atheists believe that the content of the bible is a load of bollocks."

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why not any other faith? ... islam ?

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It could be any faith or lack thereof, no reason to focus solely on atheists. When muslims begin a public activist campaign against Bible publishers that significantly interferes with annual Bible sales, I'm confident an Islamic disclaimer would appear.

Then the question is are middle school kids mature enough to absorb anything from the scientific method? I am a tutor in college and there are college students that I tutor that have trouble understanding some of the simplest concepts in science. My worry would be that if we introduce it too early it might scare them away and make them vulnerable to christian indoctrination.

I would look to schools in other nations to see the answer to that. It seems that most european schools are more difficult than american ones at many levels.perhaps if they were challenged in middle school they wouldn't be floundering at college.

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand RebelAAmerican.Zen[Deist
{{{Buddha walks off laughing with joy}}}

my point was they would likely know the answer to your question, seeing as that is their business.

money, not pledge

So you want it off money but still in the pledge? Okay, that's a lot easier. I don't have to relearn anything and that's important at my advancing age. _{is there some logic in that?}

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

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It's special because it's a high profile and controversial subject.

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It is not controversial within science, though.Shouldn't we teach science in science class?

I disagree completely. Creationism is a completely relevant topic for any science class. First, it is a matter of political controversey that is not going to go away simply by being ignored. Second, evolution is one of the most successful scientific theories we have -- discussing the objections of the creationists would be ideal to explain the nature of science in general, and how the theory of evolution has passed all of the tests put to it in particular. Finally, creationism itself is a wonderful example of pseudoscience -- going through some of the tenets of creationism would be a great way to explain to the students what they should be watching out for.I think that talking about creationism would be a great pedagogic tool to bring the students to a deeper understanding of the theory of evolution.

Those are all excellent topics for 24.00 Problems of Philosophy or 24.03 Relativism, Reason, & Reality, but what should we be teaching in science class? At the core, science is a very specific observational study. I don't see any real purpose in relating it to theology in the class room.If we apply that to every chapter of a high school biology textbook there would be footnotes for every other word regarding what various religions *feel* about it. I don't think it matters if they're used as tools to further solidify evolution, it's just not science in my opinion. I may be wrong.

Your argument appears to be that, by virtue of their guaranteed freedom of speech, private companies can publish lies. But the same guaranteed freedom of speech means that school book publishers are required to withhold the truth.