It All Traces Back to Kids

          While discussing the court case, Kitzmiller vs. Dover, and watching the documentary about it, I continued reverting back to one thought: it all traces back to kids. A lot of people are taken to church the very first Sunday after they are born. There is no way to explain to these children what religion is and ask them if they want to go to church. They have no choice. So they continue going to church and attending Sunday school. They continue taking in the word of God without questioning anything because they are young and that is what they have always done. Personally, I didn’t start second guessing what I was learning in church until I started taking confirmation classes in sixth grade. Up until confirmation classes, Sunday school was all about forgiveness and joy and Jesus loving everyone. Then you walk into confirmation and the teachers tell you things you can and can’t do, and you learn about the “evils” of homosexuality, sin, and evolution. Maybe it was because my parents never pushed religion on me and had talks with me about homosexuality, but when those topics were brought up in my Sunday school classes I knew something was wrong. I didn’t agree with the things I was being taught, and I wasn’t going to sit there and say I believed in things that I didn’t. I was lucky enough to have parents that let me make my own decisions. Even though I wasn’t sure exactly what I did believe in, I knew I couldn’t continue being a Lutheran. Ever since then I have been taking in information about religion and science and I am still learning things about my belief system and myself.           

            Some people are raised in a strict religious atmosphere and are never exposed to anything else. They didn’t have a choice in the beginning and they might not have ever gotten a choice depending on how strict their parents were or how strong their faith was. There is nothing wrong with having a strong faith, what I have a problem with is the fact that these kids usually aren’t allowed to learn anything about things like evolution. So when they get to science class and the teacher brings up natural selection or evolution, they automatically go into defensive mode and refuse to learn about it, instead of opening their minds to something new and at least thinking about it. This isn’t completely their fault though, they were raised to believe that evolution is wrong and learning about it is wrong, so naturally they aren’t going to accept it being taught in school.

            Evolution is often referred to as the theory of evolution. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, a theory is defined as “the analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one another.” Evolution is a big idea formed from many scientific facts. It explains processes in nature that didn’t just occur millions of years ago, but are still occurring now. There is no reason it shouldn’t be taught in high school science classes. Even if it does go against certain people’s religions, there is no reason why they can’t learn about it. Religion should be taught in church and evolution should be taught in schools. They are totally different and are taught differently and serve different purposes. I understand that religious parents argue that they don’t want their kids learning about evolution at all, but just because they are learning about evolution, doesn’t mean they have to accept it. I think they should be taught evolution in order to be able to make an educated decision for themselves about what they believe or accept. It is ignorant to go through life never learning about evolution.