Should public schools in the US teach creationism in addition to or in
place of evolution? As a scientist I have to say "no," though
I'm preaching to the choir in this weblog.
Often in the news we hear of states and school districts that try to
pass laws to teach creationism in schools? We should
fight these attempts but we need
to do so in a careful manner. Scientists should not impose the
truth on school-age children, that will make us no better than the
creationists who wish to impose their version of the truth. Instead we
need to explain the reasoning behind evolution, the same holds for
any scientific principle we teach. For example, I can't expect
students to trust me when it comes to the Church-Turing thesis but
instead I need to lay out a careful argument why the thesis must hold.
One should not force students to accept evolution, rather lay out the
arguments and let the students learn to believe evolution on their
own. Only then will they become true believers.