Monday, 10 July 2017

Creation of evolution

As a non-US biologist I am always amazed at the creation-evolution debate in the US. For me the debate has the looks of WWI: more and deeper trenches, bigger guns but no winner. Instead of fighting the previous war US biologists might try a more modern attack.

The creation-evolution debate is not and should not be made a legal battle. Lawyers do not understand biology nor religion and they are not supposed to. This is a marketing war: a war of words, maybe even a war of worlds. Biology teachers can only survive if they are the fitter species. What creationists use is called FUD-marketing: Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. Battle and beat the FUD.

How? I learned how by reading Were Gods Cosmonauts (Von Däniken), the Old Testament, writings of Sung Yung Moon and the ancient Greek, the Edda and more. While being a teenager.

Teach Creationism! What? Teach creationism. Teach critical reading by providing creationist information. Do not call it by any other name - it is creationism. Discuss the gaps it fails to explain. Because evolution (as any science concept) is always a theory and not a fact.

Let your students find the arguments, let them find by facts that evolution is the better, more smart theory. Let the students create their own evolution theory, not by teaching evolution or creationism but by letting them explore truth.

Teach that theories are the basis of science, not facts. Facts exist only when a theory is proven to be at fault. That all zebras have stripes is a theory not a fact - one non-striped zebra defuncts the theory and that's a fact. Teenagers are not stupid, do not teach them what to think but how to think.

Never counter that evolution is a fact, it isn't. Teach that evolution is, like any real science, a theory and that it should be!

Evolution is not an alternative truth, Mr. T, it is a valid theory.

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