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!
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.
