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From: friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.origins
Subject: Re: creation or evolution in schools
Message-ID: <800@psivax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 21-Oct-85 15:21:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: psivax.800
Posted: Mon Oct 21 15:21:25 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 26-Oct-85 07:30:40 EDT
References: <1619@umcp-cs.UUCP> <2363@sunybcs.UUCP>
Reply-To: friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Organization: Pacesetter Systems Inc., Sylmar, CA
Lines: 34
Xref: linus net.politics:10998 net.origins:2485

In article <2363@sunybcs.UUCP> Col. G. L. Sicherman writes
>
>Of course it's not.  What difference does it make to kids whether
>they're descended from Eve and Adam or Java Man?  Will this "knowledge"
>help them get jobs as surgeons or stevedores?  Will they feel better
>believing that their great-grandparents a thousand times removed were
>simians or sinners?  Will they hang their parlor walls with pictures
>of a naked couple or an orangutan?
>
>Schools don't teach what's actual or important, they just teach what
>they can.

	This applies only if you think education has the *sole*
purpose of preparing a person for a job. If this is the case then why
even bother teaching science except to those who intend to make a
career of it? But perhaps education might have some other purposes.
like teaching people to *think*, or providing some general
understanding of the nature of the world we all live in. In that model
there is a place for science in general education, and if science is
to be taught it should be taught as accurately as possible.
Evolutionary theory is central to much of modern biology, to leave it
out is to emasculate the whole science.
	What I would hope would come out of teaching biology as a
part of a general education would be a greater understanding of our
natural world and of our close connection with it. As unique as we are
we are *still* animals and subject to the same natural "laws" as other
animals. By understanding that the animals are our brothers we might
get to a place were we can live on this planet without destroying it.
-- 

				Sarima (Stanley Friesen)

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