Did these so-called Biology teachers get their degrees from a cracker jack box? They may want to review the actual definition of evolution and then teach the kids what is proven and not a bunch of hokey b.s.

Well that is pretty sad. Sounds like a lot of Biology teachers need to take a refresher course on what is and is not a valid scientific theory.

I don't care what people's personal beliefs are but are being short changed if their teachers are teaching such notions in science class.

Oh well, anyone serious about perusing a career in science will quickly realize how misguided their high school teachers were any ways.

Well, given the fact that the only observed type of evolution is micro evolution, it's sad that 1 in 8 DON'T teach Creationism.

"Well, given the fact that the only observed type of evolution is micro evolution, it's sad that 1 in 8 DON'T teach Creationism."

And the only observed type of creationism is...... oh wait, their is not observed type of creationism.

Teach science in science class, teach religion is Sunday school.

Evolution is just a theory. It has not been proven. To teach it and only it would be near sided. America's youth should be presented a range of theories and told that the answer isn't known for certain. To lie and tell them that we fully understand the process that has lead to the world today is to do them a disservice.

The same uncertainty should be used as when presenting other parts of the natural world that are not fully understood (string theory, the theory of light as sometimes a wave, sometimes a particle, etc.).

The people who know evolution to be 'true' would have none the Earth to be flat not long ago. That is not to say it isn't true, just that it has never been proven true.

"Teach science in science class, teach religion is Sunday school."

It's easy to look at creation and ID as Sunday morning curriculum as is the classification of anything having to do with God should stay as far away from science as possible. That's an instinct among many people today. The misunderstanding is that science and God are two completely separate things, when in fact most people who believe in God believe that they are completely related.

My point is this: those of us who believe in God, believe that He created everything....including science itself. He gave us the minds to understand it, the curiosity to dig deeper, the intellect to form theories, and the intuitiveness to believe or not believe.

If we believe that God created science, how would us saying HOW He created it to work not be teaching science in science class? If we use our beliefs to explain how we understand things to be, why keep them separate when it comes to explaining how we understand things to be?

"Evolution is just a theory. It has not been proven. To teach it and only it would be near sided. America's youth should be presented a range of theories and told that the answer isn't known for certain. To lie and tell them that we fully understand the process that has lead to the world today is to do them a disservice."

I believe you mean "one sided". In any event, you mischaracterize the theory completely. No credible scientist has ever stated that we completely understand the process of evolution. On the contrary, it is creationism that claims perfect knowledge of what transpired and when. I have read creationist arguments, and not one of them holds up to any scrutiny.

As for teaching "all sides", science teaches the side that has the evidence to back it up. As new information comes in, theories are changed to incorporate the new data, or discarded entirely. If creationists want their beliefs to be taught in biology class, they need to make some predictions, test those predictions, and submit their findings to independant peer review. If their findings are confirmed, then they will have a leg to stand on. Until they do that, they should stop whining.

To lary316,
With all due respect, please understand that your quote

"The misunderstanding is that science and God are two completely separate things, when in fact most people who believe in God believe that they are completely related"

is problematic on two fronts: First, you are only speaking for people "who believe in God"; second, one of the beautiful things about science, aside from its success as a human endeavor, is that it isn't affected by what "most people" do or do not believe. It is fiercely independent, as are most religions. Science is as immune to the numbers of the masses as much as faith ought to be.

"Evolution is just a theory. It has not been proven."

Evolution is not just a theory, it is a scientific theory. The difference is profound. A scientific theory is based on evidence and in the case of evolution mountains of evidence. Any scientific explanation that describes how something works MUST always be referred to as a theory as it can be revised or added to as more data becomes available . The name theory in scientific terms does not imply that there is question as to its validity but only to its completeness. We can never claim to know EVERYTHING about any given subject.

"To teach it and only it would be near sided."

Science deals only with scientific theories, I am not aware of any scientific theory competing with the theory of evolution.

"America's youth should be presented a range of theories and told that the answer isn't known for certain."

If you want to have philosophy taught in public high school than suggest it at your next PTA meeting, but science classes should only deal with those theories than have scientific evidence to back them up.

"To lie and tell them that we fully understand the process that has lead to the world today is to do them a disservice."

No one claims to fully understand processes in the scientific field. In my experience claims of complete understanding are only made by religious groups.

"The same uncertainty should be used as when presenting other parts of the natural world that are not fully understood (string theory, the theory of light as sometimes a wave, sometimes a particle, etc.)."

String theory is not currently testable and as such is considered by many to be pseudoscience until such time as the technology exists to tackle the question. Evolution is a completely different story, it has been tested extensively.

"The people who know evolution to be 'true' would have known Earth to be flat not long ago. That is not to say it isn't true, just that it has never been proven true."

Scientist never argued for a flat earth, the church did. Scientists would have examined the evidence and when they did they concluded that the earth was round.

"The misunderstanding is that science and God are two completely separate things, when in fact most people who believe in God believe that they are completely related."

No scientists do not misunderstand at all. They know exactly what those of faith believe it just isn't relavent. Science doesn't deal with belief it deals with evidence. The two are seperated by subject matter (natural vs. supernatural) not personal opinion. Many scientists are also religious but their faith and their profession do not mix.

The primary issue with this subject is that both sides are often too biased or too ignorant to have any sort of decent exchange of ideas. That, and this subject is really too big for anyone to effectively argue about in one paragraph in the comments section of this website.

The truth of the matter is, Evolution is a theory. I'm not saying I disagree with it because modern scientists don't fully understand every aspect of its existence or because I'm blinded by my own religous beliefs, but in the thousands of hours of research I have put into this particular topic, I have found a great number of discrepancies within the theory itself.
For example, if most (more than 98%) dinosaur species were COMPLETELY wiped out within a single generation (by whatever proposed extinction event you choose), how could the Theropod family (what scientists have deemed the precursors to modern avian/bird species) which was completely erradicated still manage to reproduce and evolve over millions of years if they were all killed in one mass extinction.

Also, on another note, there are a couple million (catalogued) species of animal alive to this day. It is theorized that 96% of all life that ever existed on this planet is already dead. Do the math, out of the millions of pooible fossil samples they should have access to, they can barley make a connection between a handful of species, in the 586 million years of fossil records we have access to.

The truth of the matter is, Evolution is supported with INTERPRETED EVIDENCE, not true, definitive, clear cut evidence, therefore, those that

Also, as many others stated before, science and God are not incompatible, at least not to anyone whos put some thought into it. EVERY event that takes place in this universe can be reproduced artificially. As humans, our constraints to achieving some of these feats are time, resources, power consumption, current level of advancement, etc.(we could build a planet piece by piece, much like legos, out of raw atomic material, protons electrons and neutrons, its just that our sun as well all neighboring stars would burn out before we finished). But humans are small compared to the universe. To any who believes there can be inteeligent life throughout our universe, this shouldn't be hard for you to understand(even from a scientific standpoint). Why would it be so impossible for a being existing on a completely different scale/plane (possibly multi-dimensional, not carbon based) than humans be incapable of doing these things. I understand the counter argument, that there's no evidence to support the claim. That would be false. Much like evolution, Gods existance is supported through interpreted evidence. The real reason both sides don't recognize the other sides evidence as valid is because they're BOTH blinded by their faith in their beliefs.

Anyway, what I'm really saying is that theres nothing wrong with having a theory, its great that we live in a country where differences in opinion can be supported and discussed in an open and comfortable fashion. So, all I'm saying is just open your minds a little to all the possibilities, do all the research before you make a choice.