Creationism vs. Evolution
Two days ago, a news report came out of Oregon about a part-time high school biology teacher who was fired only after eight days on the job for including Bible references in material he provided to students. There were also reports that he showed a PowerPoint presentation linking Nazi Germany, Planned Parenthood, and evolution together. The Sisters School Board released a statement that Kris Helphinstine deviated from the curriculum of the theory of evolution and in doing so was fired. Helphinstine said "Critical thinking is vital to scientific inquiry" and his his purpose was to get his students to think critically about the subject. Adding to Helphinstine's defense, he argues that he did not teach creationism in any way and purposely stayed away from teaching that to his students. After our discussion in class this week about the role religion plays in discrimination suits, do you believe the Sisters School Board was in error by firing Helphinstine? For the interest of discussion, lets say Helphinstine did not discuss creationism directly as he claims, do you think his Bible references were enough evidence for the school board to relieve him of this teaching duties? Let me know what you think.
posted by Vaughn Ganiyu at
11:25 PM
3 Comments:
The powerpoint has now been made public. Folks should review it before making up their minds.
If it is a public school I believe any reference to the Bible would be ground for termination. I went to a public school and teaching evolution was a requirement. For those of you who went to private schools, were you taught evolution or was it only creationism? I think we all agree that in order to make the best decision, with regards to what we believe, all view points should be considered. I would not mind taking a course at a public high school that included multiple religions views, and Darwin's view on how all species and our planet came into existence. Would anyone else enjoy taking this class?
After wasting way too much time looking at his public powerpoint, I think that the board was drastic in firing Helphinstine. Granted I did not hear what he said in class related to religion, but neither did the board. It seemed to me that he was presenting provocative information in an effort to get a response from the students. Obviously, the commenters in the articles are not scientists. While the whole Nazi-Planned Parenthood connection had lots of graphic pictures, it seemed clear to me that Helphinstine was attempting to indirectly teach that there is variation in human populations and then show the role that this variation has played in history. The other power point presentation about humans seemed to be asking the students to consider evolution as a mechanism. And as a response to your question Ryan, I went to private school and was taught evolution in my science classes. My school followed the policy that science should be taught in science classes and religion in religion. I think the only problem with your proposed class is that it mixes science and religion. They are two different philosophies and do not aim to achieve the same goals. Science is testable. Religion is not. Of course, they overlap in some ways, but teaching them as if they are simply different approaches to looking at one thing is not accurate. (Sorry, can you tell I've thought about this for awhile?)
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