"Intellectual child abuse: when kids are taught they’re just animals in an evolutionary process. This morning I taught kids the creation/gospel message!
The young people today in Alabama learned they’re not made in the image of an ape — they’re created in the image of God."
As someone who was initially raised as a Christian, I know that these attitudes are all too familiar. When I was younger, I was sent to a private Christian school for first and second grade. I do not remember much of what I had learned there (I think I may have blocked some of it out) but the spotty memories I do have involved coloring in pictures representing Bible verses. I wan't allowed to watch The Wild Thornberrys because one of the character's names was "Darwin."
My point here is that people like Kevin Ham are people who live in complete fear of information that conflicts with their preexisting worldview. Even worse, they will pass this fear on, along with delusions of grandeur that humanity was modeled after some supreme being. In my opinion, it is more humble to acknowledge the possibility that we arose from lesser beings. Let us just hope that the children that Ken Ham "teaches" will find their own truth.
I'm so sorry for the problems you had at school, Ashley. Abuse can come in many forms and one of the major ones is Religious Abuse.
ReplyDeleteI would like to ask you to read more about Ken Ham and the creationist movement, though. Many creationists, myself included, do not feel threatened by the truth or by empirical science. We believe that children in schools should be presented with both sides of the argument(and there is an argument with almost equal support from the scientific community on both sides).
I believe Ken Ham was rejoicing in the fact that he was able to present the other side of the argument to kids who had probably never heard it before.
No one can know, scientifically, exactly what happened at the beginning of the universe. The best we can do is study what evidence we can find and formulate hypotheses about what might have occurred.
My biggest issue with Ken Ham in this situation is that he claimed teaching kids evolution is "intellectual abuse." I think "intellectual abuse" can be defined as teaching just ONE idea as absolute truth and punishing an individual for coming up with different ideas/theories. Some scientists who subscribe to the theory of evolution do this as well, but many (like Neil Degrasse Tyson) acknowledge creationism and add the caveat that they could always be wrong and that they invite others to question what they say. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't thing Ken Ham does that. Thank you for commenting, and I will make sure to check out some of his writing to see if I am wrong! :)
DeleteI completely agree with your definition of "intellectual abuse."
ReplyDeleteThere are many people on both sides of the argument(myself included) who realize that thinking individuals need all the information from both sides so that they can form their own opinions.
If you read textbooks in public schools, however, they not only usually just discuss evolution, most of them present it as scientific fact and some mock anyone who believes otherwise. (which I think fits the definition of "intellectual abuse")
The Answers in Genesis website has a great deal of information about the arguments that go on about evolution and creationism. Their articles are argumentative and therefore assert that they are right and the opposing view is wrong (which is standard in argumentative writing, debates, etc.), but they also present the evolutionists' side of the argument and the scientific theories that they believe disprove evolution.
Creationists embrace reality-based science lessons(rather than "live in complete fear of information that conflicts with their preexisting worldview"), but we believe that those lessons tend to disprove macro-evolution.
Textbooks in public schools portray evolution as a theory (though it is asserted to be a very sound one). But how it is taught certainly depends on the teacher. I had a chemistry teacher in high school that asserted that chemistry (and science in general) are too complex for a universe without a god. I had a biology teacher who taught evolution, acknowledged creationism, and then brought up points in favor of evolution and questioning creationism.
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