How about teaching evolution at Sunday school?

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Originally posted by Tranquility Base:
Churches are non-government instituions and so can decide what they teach themselves. Government sciecne educational organizitons should teach distinct alternatives that are known to explain phenomena.

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aggreement with slight ammendment.Government science educational organizations should teach scientifically credible alternatives...

Originally posted by Tranquility Base:"What's non-scientific about showing that:1. All known examples of observed evolution, including that on rapid generational entities such as viruses and bacteria, do not demonstrate anything other than allelic variaiton or loss of function.2. Life today and the fossil record show very few transtional forms.3. Genomes are showing us that gene families, as well as anatomies, are mosaically spread throughout life."Nothing unscientific here. However, alternate theories need to go through the proper scientific avenues (peer review, etc.)before they are adopted into a curriculum (I'm not saying yours have not, I don't know). A responsible school board will find out what what the mainstream scientific community thinks about the research and conclusions."There is absolutely nothing unscientific about the above except that you despise the connotations it carries."I don't think I've declared what I despise but I do need to clarify my position. I believe in a creator. For me, the bible is a spirtual guide as opposed to literal historical text or scientific manual.
I am comfortable, in general, with the position my particular Protestant denomination takes (Prebyterian Church USA)."however, it is not necessary to understand the Genesis account as a scientific description of Creation.""We conclude that the true relation between the evolutionary theory and the Bible is that of non-contradiction and that the position stated by the General Assemblies of 1886, 1888, 1889 and 1924 was in error and no longer represents the mind of our Church."EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE Primary Reference: GA Minutes 1969: 59-62
Denomination: PCUS CONCLUSION FROM THE STUDYPresbyterian Church (U.S.A.) - Page Cannot be Found[This message has been edited by ddg, 11-13-2002][This message has been edited by ddg, 11-13-2002]

Given the complex issues of evolution, young age group involved (k thru 6th at my church), limited time frame, and questionable intructor qualifications I would discourage evolutionary debate in the sunday school classroom at my church. However, in the US, churches are free to teach whatever is consistent with their theological perspective.