Christians get a bad rap because we question evolution, but maybe we wouldn’t question evolution if there were some undeniable facts the support it.

I don’t think that Christians get a bad rap for questioning evolution or anything else. Some are criticized because they don’t offer evidence that backs up their counter arguments. It’s important to question things. That’s what science does. But it’s also important to back up your alternative explanation with physical evidence.

You should also consider that a great many Christians have no problem accepting evolution as a good explanation for the world as it appears around us. They fully believe in the divinity of Jesus and the rest of their core beliefs. They just don’t think Genesis should be taken literally.

As for “undeniable facts,” unfortunately there is no such thing. Any fact can be denied by people. People can deny anything and they do deny things that are obvious to others every day. People can and do deny that the Emperor has no clothes. No amount of evidence, no matter how compelling can force anyone to accept something as a fact. I have watched people deny that their loved one has committed a serious crime. They see a video of the person doing the crime, they see the stolen merchandise in the person’s possession, the blood on their hands, even hear the person confess in detail to the crime, but still they deny, “No no, it’s not so, not one of my family.” Denial can trump reason easily.

So although evolution is rich with compelling evidence, none of it is an “undeniable fact” that can overpower some people’s ability to deny, if that’s what they choose to do.

As I’ve said before on other threads, there are people who follow their ears, and people who follow their eyes. Those who follow their ears believe what their authority figures have told them. Those who follow their eyes go out into the world and see for themselves. Children all follow their ears at first, believing whatever their parents tell them. As they grow up, some of them begin to switch to following their eyes instead. When what they see in the world around them does not match what they have been told they have a crisis. Will they believe what their loved and respected family and clergy have told them or will they believe their own eyes? A remarkable number of them actually go back to only following their ears, denying what they themselves saw. The ability to deny is very powerful. But others cannot go back. It is often very painful for them, but they must go forward. Younger people watch this painful crisis and some of them avoid their own crisis by never looking too closely, too broadly or too long.

Christians get a bad rap because we question evolution, but maybe we wouldn’t question evolution if there were some undeniable facts the support it.

It’s kinda like atheists wanting undeniable miracles before they will consider the concept of God.

I do hope that eventually you choose to educate yourself a little more about the theory you’re criticizing, since you really don’t seem to understand it very well at all.

(I’m assuming you’re American)

Maybe Americans look like monkeys, where as Kiwis (or at least people from New Zealand) have no resemblance to monkeys and apes….

Um, no. Although it does help explain why monkeys (and, even moreso, apes) and humans do look very much related.

Evolutionary theory ties together certain elements of fields that otherwise wouldn’t appear related.

Like monkeys to humans?

To be fair to teachers, even without the pressure of the evangelicals, it is enormously hard to teach science in the way it “ought” to be taught. To present open-ended experiments, thoughtful questions, and really press the bounderies of conventional ways of thinking, is difficult even in a well-funded school with bright and attentive students. By way of contrast, my ex taught seventh-grade science in an inner-city Baltimore school for a year, and it was nearly impossible just to get the kids to sit down for the full class period, much less have them run experiments or have any meaningful dialogue. This is a case where even getting the kids to memorize the list of facts would have been amazing–we’re talking kids who were (barely) reading at a second-grade level (and this is where Chicken, above, does have somewhat of a point…good reading and math skills are vital to have a good science education, and sadly we don’t often get that in a lot of schools).

*sigh* The problems we face as a nation in regards to education are so deep and so intertwined, that it’s hard to know sometimes even where to start.

Okay, I’ll bite.

First, see Richard Wade’s comment above for a wonderful explanation of why it is important to teach science to kids (and adults, too). Especially as the technology of our societies increase (and becomes a topic of political discourse), it is vital that Americans be able to understand scientific methods and processes, and make informed decisions about them.

Yes, reading and math are very important, but not everything. If all you want your kid to be able to do for the rest of his/her life is run a cash register, then I guess you could just stop there. But if you want him/her to be able to problem solve, come up with innovative ideas, and be generally able to make informed decisions…knowledge of the ability to properly test ideas is critical.

And evolution is a cornerstone of biological knowledge. I realize quotes aren’t arguments, but I’ll just mention the essay “Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution” (written by a Russian Orthodox Christian, no less!), which is true. Evolutionary theory ties together certain elements of fields that otherwise wouldn’t appear related. It’s an enormously useful tool in understanding our world. To ignore its influence in a science class, because of the fear of offending certain segments of the population, is ludicrous.

And since when is the teaching of evolution the cornerstone of scientific knowledge?