by Edwin Rydberg

Created on: November 16, 2008

Incidentally, to clarify, I believe the question is intended to imply 'why teach evolution in science class, but not creationism in science class'. A question constantly brought up by creationists. The emphasis on science class is important because many schools already have religion studies classes, the proper forum where creationism is taught. Creationists aren't satisfied with this, however, and want their mythology taught in science classes also. Despite, apparently, having little idea of what science is really about.

Before beginning, we must differentiate evolution from origin theories. In some societies these seem to have become hopelessly entwined. But this is not accurate. Evolution simply means 'a process of change'. Origin is clearly the beginning. It is true that evolution theory presents an origin for humans-evolving from other primates, but this is only one facet of this theory. Evolution in a Darwinian sense, presents a very powerful tool for understanding the change of genetic structure with respect to challenges from the environment. The origin of humans is only one feature that falls within the theory, and the origin of life itself is technically outside of any theory involving the change in DNA/RNA over time (although the basic principles may still be found to apply, studies are ongoing).

But let's get back to why evolution is taught in the science classroom and creationism is not.

First, it's very true that science has not proven evolution theory. Science, by its very nature cannot prove anything. Scientists gather information to support or refute a theory. When enough information is presented (via carefully constructed experiments or through empirical observation) that theory becomes mainstream and the leading candidate to explain the natural phenomenon until such time as another theory or a modification of the existing theory is developed that explains the data better.

Many creationists will then argue that creationism explains the data better. And here is where we differentiate the realms of religion and science. Simply put, for a theory to fall in the realm of science, one must be able to devise experiments to test it. If such experiments cannot be devised or are clearly not reasonable (ie: creationists claiming that you just need to ask God) then the theory is not scientific. You must be able to perform the experiment under carefully controlled conditions. As hard as it is for Creationists to believe, a properly constructed scientific experiment

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