Nasty Canasta wrote:It seems pointless to get into long-winded arguments about evolution vs creation. The bottom line is that you need to have faith to believe either explanation.
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Others will believe whatever the scientists tell them, even though as individuals they likely don't understand it, or more to the point, have no way to verify that what they are told is factual. Moreover, many people choose to bag creation even though they have never bothered to study the subject deeply.
And here we are again, in a world in which people hold differing truths, and which happens to be the world we actually live in. Makes you uncomfortable, right, sg?shitegeist wrote:Good grief. With apologies to Chuangt2u, I’m not one of those who believe all opinions are created equal, because this is exactly where it gets you.
There's a mass of people who believe that creationism is "the truth", and another large group who believe the theories of evolution are "the truth".
Are all the ones who don't believe as John Doe does either "wrong" and living a life of gullible stupidity following their religious leaders, or wrong and headed for eternal damnation following Dawkins et al?
Doesn't this prove my point?
The harsh reality is that for any given issue, there are people whose opinions are worth paying attention to, and people whose opinions are worth absolutely fuck all.
Strange as it might seem, I agree. But. Who's to say which is which? It would be straightforward to see that re the skanks vs the boffins at CERN, but that's a simple matter for me, at least. It has to be said though, that said skanks themselves will continue to believe that they are right, and may well convince others of the same.
Nothing touchy-feely or sentimental about it. Just an acknowledgement that what people call "truth" varies wildly. Societies do collapse, we're living in a reconstructing one right now.Notwithstanding touchy-feely sentiments about “respecting opinions” and suchlike, all of us implicitly acknowledge this reality and act accordingly; if we didn’t, society would collapse.
The creationist will not change his view any more than will the follower of Darwin, and to deal on a daily basis with either or both of them, it needs to be a given that those differing opinions are respected.
Dealing with people in day to day life is where I'm coming from. Weird, wonderful, and sometimes downright freaky to me - their truths are their truths, and those truths will govern their decisions and actions... rightly or wrongly in my eyes.
Creationism? Total Guff for me, and what a steaming pile of it!
But creationists won't have that, now, will they?
To return to the OP's point, to reflect that in a classroom - both sides would need to be represented impartially and equally, and the students left to make up their own minds.