[Buddha-l] Fighting creationism

[Stefan Detrez]

I see nothing wrong in teaching creationism in school. It's an 'explanation'
of how the world has come to be. The only thing on which I insist is that it
be taught in classes like 'the history of ideas', 'cultural history', or
anthropology; not biology, cosmology or any scientific class.

Banning it altogether is kind of Inquisitionesque and will reinforce its
'value' for believers. Let there be room for it, next to the creation myths
of the Hindu's, the Japanese, pre-Christian Slavic peoples, African creation
myths, etc. It's guaranteed to lose its 'scientific' power when compared.

Creationism is a theory, but not a scientific one. It's scientific mythology
or mythological science, whichever. By analogy, no one is going to 'explain'
the women's emancipation wave in the sixties and seventies by claiming that
it was prophesied in Hansel and Gretel's fairy tale, where Gretel pushes the
old woman in the oven, thereby ending some sexist tradition. And no one will
insist that Hansel and Gretel be thaught in a scientific class even if there
were some fancy 'scientific' theory to support it. It's ridiculous!

I still wonder why religious thought should be treated as untouchable for
critique, 'because it's religious thought'. We have already come so far that
we wonder whether there is room for creationism to count as a scientific
theory.

Realizing its mythological and non-scientific origins, I guess that's where
the debate ends.

Stefan
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