Teaching Creationism in Schools

School systems are struggling with the dilemma of whether or not to teach creationism as an alternative view to evolution theory. If, as many scientific creationists believe, God's message is important in defining the content, aims, and conditions of educational practice, then creationism does belong in the classroom. However, those who propose that creationism is not science, and that "creation science" is a misnomer, are opposed to the intervention of religion into the public educational program; after all, public educational programs should be separate from concerns of the church.

Despite separation of church and state, religious ideologies are hardly ever without consequences for the practice of education. Fundamentalist Christians who support a creationist theory will differ from liberal Christians who have no problem reconciling their religious lives with evolutionary theory. Those who say that only Darwin was right, and that creationism is really "anti-science," will be at total odds with adamant creationists; somewhere in the fray are the scientific creationists who use scientific terminology to prove that only life can come from other life.

The phrase scientific creationism came into use in the early 1970s after a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1968. After the court's 1968 decision which overturned the 1928 Arkansas law banning the teaching of evolution, it became increasingly clear to creationists that they would get into the public schools of America only by

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t of nothingness--life from inanimate dust. In addition, educators should be aware that "many paleontologists are now admitting in print that the fossil record has not yielded what Charles Darwin predicted it would over a century ago" (34). Parker maintains, "Despite episodic press hype, scientists have never found a fossil halfway between fish and amphibian or reptile and bird" (34). If such is the case, can educators in the public schools selectively perceive the fossil record at the expense of their students' knowledge? The over-riding difference between creationists and evolutionists concerns the origin of life. Creationists believe that only life can come from life. On the other hand, evolutionists, who hold that everything can be explained by material and motion, believe that life comes from dead dust (the big bang theory). One final note concerning challenges to evolutionary theory is in order. "The essence of evolution is mutations," as one Calgary participant put it (34). The difficulty for evolutionists is that most mutations are destructive, not even allowing the mutated animal to survive. The fact that rare, useful, and transmissible mutations may allow better survival is not considered by the creationists. A

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