In Grantsburg, Wis., the school board has passed a motion to teach \various theories/models of origins"" in science class alongside evolution and big bang theory. Students there must learn forms of creationism.
Grantsburg is the latest city in a growing trend toward teaching alternate origin theories as legitimate science in science classes, rather than distinguishing it as a religious belief. Intelligent design curriculums, which have also been recently approved in Georgia and Pennsylvania, seek to teach the concept that everything is so complicated that it must have been created by an intelligent force. They also represent a particularly dangerous pattern in our Wisconsin school districts.
People become outraged very quickly when matters of religion and state coincide, especially regarding schools. It is easy to be upset when the state sanctions any dogma, be it political or religious. But that is not the great threat here.
Creationism as a science is a weak one. There is overwhelming evidence against it. Evolution details a distinct path of complex and explainable steps that have led us to the present. While there is evidence that explains more than one model of evolution, the evidence for an intelligent creator is nothing more than the argument, ""It would be easy to explain a lot of things by saying a god did them.""
This argument is not meant to suggest that no credence should be granted to creationism. However, within the traditional realm of scientific theory, there is little that can be said for this theocentric view. The vast majority of scientific experts agree on one general model as to how the world got to where it is now. To say that creationism is a scientific theory on par with evolution is granting license to anyone claiming their belief system is ""scientific."" Scientific study always involves experimentation and discovery. Religion is the study of what we take on faith. A clear separation should be made between the two, otherwise, education becomes muddled between fact and dogma.
A respectable scientific education is founded on its difference from religion. And a city in Wisconsin is about to educate its children right out of understanding this distinction.
