What the public wants in school

Eugenie Scott said that what the public wanted in schools was reflected in the numbers in this survey.

In 1997, 44% of those surveyed believed that God created humans in their present form less than 10,000 years ago. 39% thought humans developed over millions of years with God’s guidance. Less than 17% believed in evolution without God.

In 1999, 16% of those surveyed believed in Creationism only, 13% believed in Creationism plus Evolution as valid science, 17% thought of Evolution as a science and Creationism as religion, and only 20% believed that we arrived here by Evolution only, with 5% having no opinion.

What the public knows was reflected in these percentages:Who gave the Sermon on the Mount? 34%Who ruled Jerusalem in Jesus’ time? 35%What is the first book in the Bible? 49%Where was Jesus born? 64%What does Easter celebrate? 74%Where is the human genome? 25%

These pathetic percentages reflect a ‘faith based’ society and not a data driven one. We need to educate our children in rational thinking without losing their spiritual and artistic qualities. Life is not black and white. We must learn to judge situations, knowledge, and activities by facts, not by belief only. Aristotle said, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”