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From: berman@psuvax1.UUCP (Piotr Berman)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.religion
Subject: Re: Schools and Churches
Message-ID: <1793@psuvax1.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 14-Sep-85 17:41:22 EDT
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Posted: Sat Sep 14 17:41:22 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 17-Sep-85 05:21:09 EDT
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> >Evolutionary theory may not be absolutely necessary, but if you're going
> >to treat origins, teach evolution in school and creationism (whichever
> >variety you espouse) in church.  See above.  Very few (I've since been
> >corrected) churches teach evolution, leaving schools as the ONLY place
> >to learn the theory.
> 
> But why should one view be compulsory and tax supported and the conflicting
> on not?  Many churches teach nothing with regard to origins.  Students
> who don't go to church's that teach creationism or no church at all will
> only learn one side of the issue.  Also, public schools are NOT the
> only place to leard evolution.  There are universities and private schools
> as well.
> 
> Paul Dubuc 	cbscc!pmd

Paul, name a single school that teaches geology without evolution.
Is there any university like that?  Creationism is provably inferior
theory to evolution, if you treat both as theories:  a better theory
allows you to predict things that you have not seen yet.  Have you
ever heard that hydrocarbons may be found in sedimentiary rocks only?
But what does it mean sedimentiary, if you do not assume that the Earth's
crust was formed in hundreds of milllions years?
One of the things which should be learned in school is what does it
mean to be a theory.  A theory has assumptions and conclusions.  
Conclusion may describe the facts which we know so far + the facts
which we do not know.  The quality of predictions is one of the measures
of the quality of the theory.

I intend to send my son to a public school and I want to have a value
for my tax money.  In particular,  want him to learn some decent biology
and some elements of Earth science.  Of course, I can teach him those 
things myself, but what about parents without university degrees?

Piotr Berman