# Society: Do schools in your country teach evolution?



## french4beth

I just found this article on thefreedictionary.com under the "This Day in History" section:


> *Tennessee Biology Teacher Found Guilty of Teaching Evolution (1925) *John T. Scopes, a Tennessee biology teacher, was tried for violating the Butler Act, a 1925 state law banning the teaching of evolution. This so-called "Monkey Trial" became a flashpoint for debate among religious scholars and scientists as well as the general public. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100, though the verdict was later reversed. Despite the outcry stemming from the case, the Butler Act was not repealed until 1967.


 
Here's the text of the Butler Act:


> "That it shall be unlawful for any teacher in any of the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of the State which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals"


 
Is evolution taught in your country's schools? Did you learn it as a student (either recently, or not so recently)?

I learned evolution as a scientific principle as part of my public school education.

I don't want to start a huge religious debate, this is simply an enquiry on my part.



Sounds like the 'intelligent design' theory (a blatant oxymoron, in my humble opinion) is a case of history repeating itself.


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## übermönch

In the Bundesland of Hessen in Germany we do, or at least we did in the Biology lessons in the 6th grade. This actually caused an uproar of two baptistic girls from our class. 
There also are protestant and catholic christianity lessons. I've never participated in these, but I guess they teach intelligent design there. Laws of education vary in different Bundeslands, for instance in Bavaria each classroom must contain a christian cross so biology lessons could be different there aswell.


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## maxiogee

> "That it shall be unlawful for any teacher in any of the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of the State which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals"


Is that the actual wording?

It states that it shall be unlawful to "do X" and to "do Y instead". This would appear to make it unlawful to "do Y". 
The words are few, and simple, and not very open to any other interpretation.

PS
As far as I know Irish schools teach evolution.


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## panjabigator

I have never learned creationism in any school.  I really dont think religion should at all be incorporated (except education about different faiths) into public schools...even my own!


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## maxiogee

panjabigator said:
			
		

> I have never learned creationism in any school.  I really dont think religion should at all be incorporated (except education about different faiths) into public schools...even my own!



But for some people, pan-gate, creationism is fact. Undisputable as gravity, or the square on the hypoteneuse.

It used to be believed that there was a substance called phlogiston, contained in all things and released upon burning. We now know that it never existed.
Creationists believe that evolution will one day be proved to be wrong.


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## LCyeah

Alright we don't want a debate. This was simply an inquiry, but in my school creationism is neither taught nor disreagarded, but evolution is hinted upon. 

Of course, Darwin never said we _came_ from monkeys...


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## french4beth

maxiogee said:
			
		

> Is that the actual wording? *Yes, as far as I can see...*
> 
> It states that it shall be unlawful to "do X" and to "do Y instead". This would appear to make it unlawful to "do Y".
> The words are few, and simple, and not very open to any other interpretation.


Several sources show this exact wording.


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## LCyeah

I learned that from my Biology teacher last year.


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## maxiogee

LCyeah said:
			
		

> I learned *that* from my Biology teacher last year.



If you don't quote from the person to whom you are responding, we can't know what you learned last year.


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## GenJen54

I went to Episcopal day school through my ninth year (fourteen years old), then moved to a Catholic school for my last three years of high school.

If recollection serves, the science classes taught evolution and were based on the factual scientific evidence of evolutionary theory. 

The religious classes, which at the Catholic High School were required, covered matters of religion from "World Religions," to specific Catholic-based study and philosophy (non-biblical). Creationism was offered as a matter of discussion in the religion classes, but the science classes stuck to evolution.

It seems strange that this push for creationism in the U.S. comes mostly from protestant evangelicals, and is intended for public school systems. 

I personally feel matters of science should remain in classes of science, and matters of religion should remain in classes of religion, thereby allowing those who choose to explore a religious point of view to do so without forcing others to do so. 

In my personal beliefs, evolution and God/god's creation co-exist very well. To me, I absolutely believe some all-powerful deity (or something much bigger than ourselves) created this Universe and everything in it (including Man). But I also believe that this "creation" was a one-time deal. The Universe and everything in it has since "evolved" on its own. Even man has "evolved" since our original creation.

*Edit:* Items in purple added to clarify my original thought as a response to Etcetera's post, below.


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## Etcetera

When I was at school, we still use the old textbooks which were written in the Soviet times, so the theory of evolution was presented by the authors of our textbooks as the only right. Our teacher chose not to press the matter, though - it seems to me that we just skipped the chapter which was dedicated to evolution. 
As for me, I'm a Christian, so my attitude towards Darwin's theory is predictable.  But as for evolution itself... GenJen figured it out just brilliantly! 


> In my personal beliefs, evolution and God/god's creation co-exist very well. To me, I absolutely believe some all-powerful deity (or something much bigger than ourselves) created this Universe. But, I also believe that this "creation" was a one-time deal. The Universe and everything in it has since "evolved" on its own, even man.


I believe man was created by God, though.


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## tafanari

Does the theory of evolution even teach how life began? I learned that evolution explains the variety of life not how it actually began which, as far as I was told, is not completely clear.


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## LCyeah

maxiogee said:
			
		

> If you don't quote from the person to whom you are responding, we can't know what you learned last year.


 
Excuse me, I was posting that message adding on to my own previous one, but someone posted before I got to. I should have just edited it, appologies.


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## maxiogee

tafanari said:
			
		

> Does the theory of evolution even teach how life began? I learned that evolution explains the variety of life not how it actually began which, as far as I was told, is not completely clear.



Indeed. Even the Bible-creationists don't explain "how" the other animals were made. It seems that only humanity was made from clay. Their God put the breath of life in the man (*and not into the woman). It seems that the animals got a different kind of life.


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## zebedee

maxiogee said:
			
		

> Is that the actual wording?
> 
> It states that it shall be unlawful to "do X" and to "do Y instead". This would appear to make it unlawful to "do Y".
> The words are few, and simple, and not very open to any other interpretation.



I think if you read it again, you'll see that it doesn't offer Y as an option "to do Y _instead_". 

It states that it's illegal to do 2 things:
1)to teach any theory that denies Divine Creation (X)
and 2)to teach, instead [of Divine Creation], that man has descended from a lower order of animals (Y) 
so yes, they meant that to do Y was also unlawful.


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## maxiogee

Point taken —> almost  Creationism and evolution from a lower order can both be taught!

What's a _lower_ order of animals? 

And, it doesn't say that Creationism *is* to be taught.


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## LCyeah

french4beth, you unwillingly started a debate


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## rocioteag

Well, in México, we learned evolution in all schools, private and public, catholic and non.

The only difference, is that in religious schools, we also learned creationism.


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## moirag

It seems incredible to me that there have been some incidents of schools teaching creationism rather than evolutionary theory in Britain. It seems to be a case of American imports and a religious Prime Minister in a country which is usually very secular.


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## ireney

We were taught about the evolution theory and its 'off-springs' (I mean the newer theories in evolution) in biology and the story of the Bible in religious studies (which was more or less catechism to the Orthodox dogma of the Christian faith).


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## mytwolangs

They do touch on evolution a bit in science classes where i went to school (in america) but they don't realy get into how humans evolved. 

They have to be very careful with stuff like that on count of the religion is schools debate.


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## helli

moirag said:
			
		

> It seems incredible to me that there have been some incidents of schools teaching creationism rather than evolutionary theory in Britain. It seems to be a case of American imports and a religious Prime Minister in a country which is usually very secular.


I totally agree...
Are there really people in this day and age (religious fanatics aside) who still believe that the world was created by a supreme being just a few thousand years ago or whatever???
I think a better question would be: "Do schools in your country teach anything as crazy, illogical and backwards as creationism?"


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## ireney

french4beth said:
			
		

> I don't want to start a huge religious debate, this is simply an enquiry on my part.


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## helli

In that case, simple answer: yes (and I even went to a Catholic school).


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## panjabigator

So teaching creationism in schools is really just unique to the US?


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## Cath.S.

rocioteag said:
			
		

> Well, in México, we learned evolution in all schools, private and public, catholic and non.
> 
> The only difference, is that in religious schools, we also learned creationism.


Same here in France. As a kid I did all my primary schooling in a Catholic school run by nuns and we were taught creationism as part of religious, not biology, classes, and later I moved on to the public school system where we were taught evolution and nothing else.


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## Libby_Kiwi

I was raised in a Christian family, and went to a public school, where we learned about evolution in science class.  I saw no conflict.  I think I was at _University _before I realised the debate was so heated (yeah, I had a sheltered upbringing).  I just assumed that evolution was all part of God's great plan; that was the way he made us in His image.  God is infinite, why shouldn't He take a few thousand years to perfect His creation if He wants?


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## Chazzwozzer

They teach evolution in Biology lessons, yes. 

In Turkey, at the end of the first year in high school, students choose what they want to learn in the following years. There are five options: _Math-Science, Turkish-Math, Turkish-Social Science,_ _Languages_ and _Sports._

Of course, I will be taking language classes in the following years. I will study English, German, Turkish and literature, linguistics and so on.

That's too bad that I cannot take Biology classes anymore. It was my favorite class this year. _Math-Science_ students will study Biology four hours a week and they have a whole unit about evolution.

I remember that we also learned some about evolution this year, even we actually don't have it in the first year.



			
				LCyeah said:
			
		

> Of course, Darwin never said we _came_ from monkeys...


We did not, even. We just share the common ancestor with monkeys.


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## coconutpalm

A simple answer: yes! 
Please note that I come from China, a non-religious country. Generally we don't have such a "problem" as to whether we should teach it or not. I'm not quite sure whether people in Tibet and muslims have such a problem with it, but as far as I know, they don't.


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## Outsider

french4beth said:
			
		

> Is evolution taught in your country's schools? Did you learn it as a student (either recently, or not so recently)?


Yes to both questions.

Human evolution was adressed very lightly in 7th grade History. Later, because I had chosen to study science, I learned evolutionism more exhaustively in the 12th grade. This was some two decades ago.


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## hsannolav

Yes.  I went to Catholic school from Kindergarten to Grade 12 (in Canada), and we were taught creationism in religion class, evolution in biology class.  The great thing about it was that, in religion classes, our teachers would constantly open up discussions and get us to explain how we can defend the theory of evolution while at the same time remaining true to Catholic tradition.

As a result of this, like GenJen, I grew up believing that both theories could exist side by side -- I don't really see a conflict between those two ideas (i.e. I believe in both).


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