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Jewish School Removes Evolution Questions From Exams
Alain Williams writes "Religious sponsored ignorance is not just in the USA, a school in Hackney, England is trying to hide the idea of evolution from its pupils. Maybe they fear that their creation story will be seen for what it is if pupils get to learn ideas supported evidence. The girls are also disadvantaged since they can't answer the redacted questions, thus making it harder to get good marks."
Then don't send your kids to a Jewish school. Religious freedom is part of that whole "freedom" idea that some folks are pretty fond of.
"Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes." - Mahatma Gandhi
I'm pretty sure schools should get into some deep shit if it was found out they were tampering with the state exams.
The whole point of having a standardized state exam is so we can know that all the kids have the same knowledge base more or less.
Meanwhile, they can't build madrassas fast enough.
We won't be wrapping ourselves around any axles over whats being taught there, will we? Homophobia, anyone?
Science has long proved that Jews have evolved from cockroaches.
This sort of practice is common around the world. People with religious/political vested interests trying to manipulate common knowledge at the school level. Don't they know wikipedia exists? how long can you give the school kids your "make believe"?
________________________________
"Give me a better theory and I shall burn this one myself "
--- Charles Darwin
Wait, so the school decides what questions they want on their exam, and people are complaining?
All the students are sitting exactly the same are they not?
"The examinations body, OCR, says it was satisfied that the girls did not have an unfair advantage. It now plans to allow the practice, saying it has come to an agreement with the school to protect the future integrity of the exams."
"The Department of Education meanwhile has asked for assurances that the children will be taught the full curriculum."
If they're still being taught the stuff, what's the problem. No exam that I've ever done has every single sentence that a teacher has ever said on the exam paper in question form.
It's a girl's school, there's no extra sexism angle as might be implied by the summary.
I dont udnerstand, why are these people so against evolution? Dna mutation happens becouse theres error in replicating them or some radiation particle hit it... Who is there to say that random particle is not act of God, that its right there, at right that time, to hit that gene and cause mutation into it...
Funny how overboard some religous people go... God gave us brain so we would use it to study this marvelous universe he created for us..
I'm not denying evolution, but while we are at the topic, let me ask a related question.
Let's assume that we have an ant, say a RockMonster ant. Then we have another specie, BigAss RockMonster ant, which we have found being evolved from the RockMonster ant. So far so good. The question: what makes evolution split the species into these two clearly distinctive species, instead of, say a hundred different species which are something between RockMonster ant and BigAss RockMonster ant?
That's not mainstream Judaism. That's a Haredi institution. They're not just anti-evolution. They're anti-TV, anti-Internet, anti-movies, anti-newspaper reading, anti birth control, anti public library usage, anti knowing the language of the country they're in, anti wearing colors, anti female equality... The sect is set up to give kids no option other than to stay in the Haredi community and overdose on religion for their entire lives.
It's a lot like Shia Islam, down to the beards. There's even a Haredi group in Canada that wants to move to Iran because Canada won't let them abuse their kids.
...beyond the fact that someone wants to deny evolution.
What answers are being changed, on what test?
Why bother to give the test at all if you don't like the material on it? Is it a government-required test? For what purpose? Is the government really OK with these arbitrary changes by the school?
The summary is pretty horrible, in terms of journalism, and the original article not much better.
Religious sponsored ignorance...
and that's where I stopped reading...
To have place to teach the Rules of Acquisition to its pupils
The entire POINT of reproduction is to make little copies of our selves. If you are trying to remake other people's children in your own image, you are working against the core principle of life on this planet. Meiosis copies our genes, education copies our memes. These people are keeping their religious dogma within their religious community where it belongs. The US constitution, the UN declaration of human rights, whatever the equivalent is in the UK, are designed TO MAKE SURE PEOPLE CAN DO THIS. They are constructed so that people can educate their children without interference from ideas outside the group, INCLUDING YOU. Practically, this is a good thing, because it's the only thing stopping the crazies in Texas and Kansas and North Carolina from forcing their religious dogma on all of us. Morally, well, the I'm-right-and-you're-wrong stance doesn't have a moral foundation. If you have a problem with the meme, fight the meme. Don't go violating people's innate rights (the right to reproduce) that's interfering with your defense of another innate right (the right to the best education possible, for your definition of 'best').
Captcha: amorist
They were caught in October.
http://www.secularism.org.uk/n...
I find it amusing that through the decades and centuries some fundamentalists, religious groups etc simply do everything they can no to not change.
Resisting change in new and interesting ways. They come up with new counter arguments, new legislation proposals, new interpretations of the same old texts.
That very same behaviour is evolutionary in nature. We need no other explanation to demonstrate that evolution as a fact is quite well grounded in fact.Sure there are gaps in our ability to explain everything but every time we have stepped forward and discovered something, solved what was thought to be impossible etc the arguments against evolution then evolved with the discovery. Much like the "Irreducibly complex" malarkey.
So some sect/faction/aspect/cult of Judaism or some other belief want X removed or have removed it from their school. Good. Evolution at work, they are one step closer to removing themselves from the gene pool. While some religious groups may have 11 - 15 kids per family religion overall is in decline.
We can argue these points on slashdot, religious people can counter argue and millions will read and judge for themselves -all very evolved.
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
In most religions its a womans "duty" to have as many kids as possible regardless of the effects upon her health. "Go forth and multiply" was one of the biggest pieces of social propaganda ever divised.
And seriously what the fuck up with the UK and this stupid policy? They could learn a thing or two from the French on this - education should be secular. There should be no religious dress, no segregation by sexes, no exemptions from subjects on religious grounds, no indoctrination into religion and no pandering to the sensibilities of religion in any way shape or form. In the long term this will mean far less religious whackaloons which can only be a good thing.
Hitler should have finished the job.
In England this may be incidental, but in the Netherlands, it is institutional. Questions about evolution are up to this day not allowed in Dutch highschool exams, as ruled by law.
This is shocking and I am outraged. I cannot believe, in this day and age, that anyone would be so ignorant as to force Slashdot Beta on an unsuspecting user.
Can you elaborate please ?
Don't understand all the excitement about this "event". I am surprised that a Jewish school would teach evolution anyway. As a matter of fact, I was taught that evolution was a theory, not a law. So, if it's not a law, why teach it as fact? Perhaps make reference to the theory, but don't get excited when institutions don't put a lot of credibility in long expouced non proven theories.
Not entirely true w/r Dutch exams.
http://www.examenblad.nl/exame..., page 13-14 for those who can read Dutch.
We did have a period in time where it was indeed entirely removed from exams and even in the above 2014 biology syllabus it uses weasel words to describe what a student needs to know about evolution for exams.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
... we've found some heresy - we the larger society, that is.
Let's hound them and shame them, because that shows how modern and tolerant we are.
And it makes us feel so deliciously superior ...
p.s. "period of time" where evolution was not on exams is roughly somewhere between mid 1990's and mid 2000's. It was in the news around 1995/1996 and I could find practice-exams with evolution in them starting 2004.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
In England this may be incidental, but in the Netherlands, it is institutional. Questions about evolution are up to this day not allowed in Dutch highschool exams, as ruled by law.
This is where a link is welcome
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
He was then, because of the way he was brought up and the time he was living in. I bet he wouldn't be now. These days, science and religion are mutually exclusive. Unless you want to be labelled a 'crack pot'. People didn't know any better then. They do now. Religion has had it's day..... time to grow up and move on.
School children should be taught *facts*.
If it's a religious owned/operated school, save the mythology for the theology class. Be fair, make it a honest comparative religions class, so they can see how their stories compare with the rest.
For public schools, leave the mythology out entirely, except in the historical context.
Teaching kids the mythology encourages them to grow up to be adults that believe the mythology. They fail to grow up and learn in the real world there is a cause and effect relationship.
The last thing I need is someone coming into my office asking for help, and then praying to their deity to solve it. When I fix their problem, they'll thank their deity, who didn't have a thing to do with it.
I swear, if one more person prays for a fix, I'm going to stop working. Let the deity of their choice fix it, and I'll go helping other people.
Ya buddy, your deity works in mysterious ways, that's why you still can't log into your email, and your application server is still down. Keep praying, maybe it will miraculously recover. Ha.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Are we the debtor or the creditor here?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Of course they're going to ignore the 500 madrassas in England which do precisely the same thing and seek out the only Jewish school they could find than shriek and moan and predict the Evil Jew Menace (tm, BBC) is going to destroy all of civilization. This is what they do every day.
It's spreading, Id rather hoped this kind of shit was going to stay on the other side of the pond :(
Lifesigns: Present Hair: Escaped Age: Increasing
Go figure.
Jews are not atheists and have a bible.
Who would have guessed that a nation wrought by God himself would deny Evolution.
Is the world coming to an end?
What's next? Will Christians believe Jesus rose again from the dead?
Will Jewish delis refuse to sell pork?
C'mon people. Get with it.
As long as all their examination pupils forfeit the marks from those questions, and if the school's reputation suffers as it slips down the league table, and if the government withdraws all public funding from the school for failing to follow the national curriculum.
The school is supported by a small religious community that is comfortable in its separation from the modern world ---
or more precisely, the modern world as the geek chooses to define it.
I am profoundly wary of using the power of the state bring everyone around to a uniform secularist world-view. In perfect confidence that world-view will be the same as your own world-view.
It has been tried before, after all.
OP: "Maybe they fear that their creation story will be seen for what it is "\
uh, yeah, the term is poetry. It's a poetic story, like a lot of the Old Testament (as Christians call it.)
That makes you ignorant.
You're stupid for adding cultural bias and bigotry which turns your comment into trollism.
Then again, this is Slashdot...image a Beowulf cluster of those!...
The good news is nature will select those with superior understanding of the natural world, so the problem self-corrects. It's a vain attempt by MAN to maintain power and control of weak minds. This process unfortunately has claimed many millions of lives and will claim many millions more, but it is in its last desperate attempts to remain viable as a governing entity. God will be pleased.
As science gets less clueless in time, further flaws are discovered to evolutionism, which still need to be answered before we can tell evolutionism is as widely accepted as 1+1=2.
So, creationism or evolutionism are still a matter of opinion. And yes, creationism is at the base of most religions. For centuries. Nothing new here.
Best would be that both, main theories are taught in schools. Unfortunately, at the moment, one is being forced to children and the other, just dismissed. Funny how one school leaning the other way generates so much outcry. One school which most of your children will not attend, too.
Some time ago, people fought to change school teachings that the world is flat. Is creationism or evolutionism our flat world ? Science has not yet been able to prove either way, even if it has its preference. Some scientific theories have proven to be useful, even before they could be proven. Is it the case of evolutionism ? Doubt it.
In the meantime, its just a faith versus non-faith struggle.
And many slashdotters commenting here are just denying the most basic right in democracies to agree to disagree.
PS: sorry for bad english, not native langage
Perhaps the religious critiques and criticisms could be left to Us making comments in order to not piss of Those of Us Who interpret Genesis differently than the stereotype?
I went to school in the 80s, and just about everything they taught us about evolution has subsequently been discovered to be wrong, or fraudulent.
Moths on trees in England? Fraud. Piltdown man, Java man et al. Fraud. ... yeah, required the input of humans (e.g. intelligence).
Selective breeding of dogs? Uh
The picture of the horses all going from small to large in a nice neat progression? Turns out it's not in chronological order. (D'oh!)
Any fossil find coming out of China has to be automatically suspect, because there are too many rurally good artists earning too few dollars over there. Fossil fraud is a big industry for them bilking the tourists.
The Leakey's seemed to be the only ones left with any credibility, but then I found out they're picking bones out of a 2 mile radius area with multiple human, chimp and gorilla skeletons scattered around ... then there's the problem of reproducibility, because nobody is ever going to be able to reproduce their results. The other big problem is that even if they're right, this recent explosion of ancient human ancestors has a big problem because of that one family they found in the cave. E.g. instead of a dozen different subspecies, it turns out that they all fit within the margin of error of a single species. Ooops.
The other problem has to do with how evolution is reported. I heard a criticism of evolution that it's just a bunch of "Just so" stories, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_So_Stories and when you're looking for it - BAM! Every single report seems to fall into this category. It's brutal. Now that's not to say the underlying science is good or bad, but the _reporting_ on that science is fraught with issues.
Plus there's the whole money/prestige thing that was the driving force behind all those frauds last century. Problem is, it hasn't gone anywhere, it's still there.
Other than perpetual motion machines I can't think of any other scientific endeavour that is so consistently wrong. I won't be surprised at all if it turns out that one day we wake up and evolution is just like the steady state universe, where one day all 'right thinking' individuals were supposed to believe one thing, and then the next day they were told they were wrong, only idiots would believe that and in fact we're supposed to believe something completely different.
The sad thing is that for otherwise reputable scientists like Neil deGrasse Tyson as soon as they become a 'science spokesperson' it seems like every second word out of their mouth is something about evolution and how great it is and how we should believe in it. Well hold on there sparky. Firstly, isn't your area of expertise astrophysics? Tell me about some cool star/space stuff and I'll listen, otherwise you're a false authority. Secondly, my science is based on skepticism, not blind belief, not being told what I 'should believe' because some authority figure told me so. Seems like sometimes the difference between the science pundits and the religious preachers is not so big after all.
There's a difference between spouting utter nonsense like you did, and reality, which we live in. Just because you believe in fairy tales doesn't mean you should.
... learn ideas supported evidence.
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." -- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Wait, so the school decides what questions they want on their exam, and people are complaining?
Yes because in the UK the exams are not written by the schools but written by a central exam board so that the standard is consistent across the country. The same happens here in Alberta, Canada. By redacting the questions the school is preventing the students from being able to get any marks for those questions. I the exam board produced a paper where sufficient questions were "objectionable" then every pupil at that school would automatically fail the exam.
While the exam board might be ok with it because it offers zero advantage to the students the school inspectors ought to be all over this since it is grossly unfair to the students and may prevent them getting into university. We already have laws which limit religious freedom when it comes to refusing medical treatment for children because it harms them and frankly we should have similar ones when it comes to science education for exactly the same reason.
That *maybe* just maybe religious/evolutionary teaching should be done at home and not in schools???
"Religious sponsored ignorance..."
Really? Biased much? True Darwinian evolution is true change of kinds. One form to another. Not a dog changing into another dog. Or a bacterium changing into a variant bacterium.
Show the world all the intermediary forms between kinds, then there's a valid debate.
And even when that does happen, it doesn't negate that the whole Evolution theory can still be divine-based. I mean, Big Bang theorists STILL can't tell us where all that matter came from at the Big Bang...but they can say that matter doesn't create out of nowhere (scientifically).
Darwin even believed in divinity.
Think about it.
A people with no science, no math, only rudimentary educations wanted to know how we came to be.
The creation story is as good as any as it ascribes the instant the universe began as a moment of light from darkness (big bang).
Then the heavens and earths were separated (cosmic dust swirling together to form the first planets).
so on
Creation of man - from dust (carbon is our #1 atomic element in our makeup, water is the primary molecule).
Creation of woman - borrowed a rib (really a partial piece of dna from a hermaphroditic Adam, to separate the sexes into male / female)
Tree of knowledge - free will and the reasoning to question everything.
Cain and Able went out into the world to take their wives from the people that existed (earlier form of home-erectus that were not as evolved as Adam and Eve and their sons).
So, go ahead and teach evolution - it certainly falls in perfect alignment with the creation story, if it were updated for a modern people.
It's not their fault they were born to crazy parents.
There is no creationism in government public schools in Israel (hasidic schools are a different matter). Biblical stories are taught in bible studies and nowhere else. ... 20+ years ago) I did not hear a whisper of evolutionary biology as well. All I know about it is self taught.
However... In 18 years of basic and high school (in my day at school
An obligatory disclaimer as an observant Jew, I can think of no one in my social or academic circles who would support or condone such a move. Sadly, the extremists ruin things for everyone.
Keep the faith, share the code
Really?
The one that was used for thousands of years? The simplest form of the story that could actually be understood by a simpler people?
Yes we've evolved, yes we've advanced in our understanding, that doesn't invalidate the creation story at all. You just need to broaden your senses and fill in the gaps that were left because of the simpler times and people without the knowledge we have today.
Jewish teaching is all about asking questions. The entire religion is asking questions and challenging the answers. What this school is doing is wrong.
No one has seen what you have seen, and until that happens, we're all going to think that you're nuts. - Jack O'Neil
Actually, it's not even restricted to religion
There's 7 billion of us. No matter how stupid the idea, chances are there's at least a few tens of thousands that fervently believe it.
Noting worse than religious scum diddling kids minds.
They think its some kind of beneficial substance. Only a percentage actually believe it enough to come in contact with it though. Who knows, maybe it is some kind of naturopathic treatment for something.
A few things,
1. ideas should not support evidence, evidence should support ideas, I think the grammar in the main post is goofed, or there is a word or two missing.
2. There is not a single place in the Bible that says that God did not create man through evolution. It says that God created man in His Image. God is infinite, so he has infinite images. So evolution is totally possible. However, Macro evolution has much less evidence than micro evolution, and since no one can explain what happened in the Cambrian explosion, than macro evolution is much less credible as a result of that.
Seriously, only Sith deal in absolutes. God is not a Sith so He can have evolution and creation too. beats me why no one else can.
The papers are being deliberately mishandled by the teachers. It doesn't matter that the effect of the mishandling does not increase the marks *. The exam board should refuse to mark every one of these papers and blacklist the teachers from ever administering exams again.
* Note: as far as they know. How can they be sure that there is no cheating going on?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Evolution is a theory and has so many missing links or holes in it.
Teach it. Teach everything.....no one says the kids have to believe it. While your at it teach the weaknesses of Empiricism in a Philosophy class.
For most people, knowledge of evolution is not something that helps them get through their daily lives. Is it useful for society as a whole? Sure. Do we need to keep having stupid flame wars about it every time some people some where else decide not to teach it? Probably not.
I'm guessing close to 100% of the 'evolution facists' (facist as in trying to control other people's thoughts) have never done anything useful with their knowledge of evolution.
Maybe they fear that their creation story will be seen for what it is if pupils get to learn ideas supported evidence.
Maybe the headmaster had a stroke or psychiatric condition that caused him to do it. Maybe it happened because you touch yourself at night. Way to fight ignorance with ignorance, you stupid fuck!
So freedom of choice only works for your choices? Of course!!!
How do you like the idea of the relgious majority on Earth telling you that you are living a wet dream and them makes you stop!
The entire universe and the dynamic relationships between living and nonliving is evidence for God.
If kids had a say in their education, my nephew would want a teacher who knows whether The Flash could beat Superman in a fight, and I strongly suspect that he'd want a teacher that sees things the way he does. But eventually he'd require someone with the complete line on every possible superhero matchup.
Evolution would be discussed, but only with regards to Bruce Banner becoming The Incredible Hulk, and then only with a very detailed list of things that Hulk could conceivably smash. He'd probably want Spiderman in there, too, but not happenin if I have anything to say about it.
The Rabbinical Assembly decided in 2006 that evolution is a thing and that it should be taught (http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/resolution-intelligent-design-and-freedom-scientific-inquiry). It seems odd that the resolution is so focused on what look like American institutions when, according to their about page, they're an "international association of Conservative rabbis".
What's really odd is that the biggest religions in the U.S. are all based on a single book that says that evolution did happen.
In the Eden narrative, the humans consume something that changes their structure such that the lifespan of all their offspring are shortened. It's a mutation, it's not natural selection, but it might as well be speciation because it is passed down to offspring 100% of the time.
If on the other hand you want your youngster educated in science, send them to a school which promises to teach science. You can even send your kids to both and try to help them resolve the contradictions. Gee, what a novel idea - I oughtta patent it.
Oops - wrong thread.
Go back to the dark ages, de-evolve into less intelligent people and re-vitalize your beliefs in sky bully.
"religious ignorance" = you are the ignorant one: the first to use the insults loses. Fact is, there is no evidence of life-by-incremental-changes. Darwin RAILED against jumps but there it is: life with neither the time nor the ability to exist. Instead of insulting those who choose to not repeat unproven theories (i.e., lies), commend them for thinking for themselves instead of believing what everyone else says.
Cranky educator.
If you are wondering why Christians, Muslims and Jewdaists hate evolution so much, it's because it breaks their belief that humans are pefrect (made after the image of god). So, the belief that humans are not capable of evil and that it's some devil doing it is shattered.
They don't allow the girls the same rights as the boys? What is this, 1930?
"Maybe they fear that their creation story will be seen for what it is if pupils get to learn ideas supported evidence."
What would that be? I see nothing wrong with accepting the creation story in a theological context and evolution in a scientific context. I totally agree evolution should be taught in school over creationism since the context is science. But I also detest snide comments such as this.
Too bad there arent things like books or the internet where people can learn alternative explanations of things.
This sig is not paradoxical or ironic.
Amongst other news, Amish children are not taught Ohm's Law, nor are they allowed access to the internet. Shouldn't there be some sort of cap on this thing called "Freedom"? Isn't it better that the STATE choose how kids are raised? Far better than letting their religious zealot parents indoctrinate them into some fairy-tale superstition, we should take the children away and teach them all to be statists and nihilists, like every well-adjusted westerner should be.
You have the freedom do anything you want to do, as long as what you want to do is what I want you to do.
That the school did this is old news: it broke back in June 2013 (http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2013/06/evolution-problematic-for-orthodox-jewish-faith-schools). What's news is that the government has said it was OK to do this.
for over 60 years we've been fed BS regarding 20th century history, why stop there?
If these Jewish kids are being "indoctrinated", and that upsets you, you should be cutting your wrists at the thought of America's public education system. If you believe in a big bang KABOOM shit appeared explosion, you my friend have been indoctrinated.
I'm sorry to burst your over inflated bubble, but we have no clue where we came from, even science can't explain it. We have theories, and more theories, and more theories, all stacked neatly on top of each other. These theories are constantly being disproven, readjusted, and re-tweaked.
Ever heard of Alexander Vilenkin? The biggest problem with the education system isn't what's being taught, it's what isn't being taught. Children should be exposed to a multitude of theories and explanations so they can make their own mind up. We need to stop trying to control what people think just because we think it's right.
Instead of "well my theory explains it better than your theory so we should just pass a law so only my theory gets taught." We should go to "well everyone has an opinion, I guess the best thing to do is teach both sides so people can decide for themselves."
It'll never happen though. People that think they know best are just the worst.
students in public schools were taught to sing tha praises of president Obama? Remember the song "mmm, mmm, mmm Barak Hussein Obama"? I'm pretty sure a significant number of parents in America are not big fans of that... or how about the schools indoctrinating kids into "going green" supporting "renewable energy" or "gay pride" or anti-gun attitudes ANY other thing the left is pushing in the schools? If you think it's a shame kids are indoctrinated, that's fine... but be equally ashamed when it's from another direction, or else you are actually not against indoctrination at all... you are just against traditional/historical/religious/etc views.
You might think it's sad to see some parents raise their kids to belive humans have dignity and purpose, but I see it as child abuse to teach kids to support socialism and "gun control"... those kids will pay higher taxes and have less freedom for the rest of their lives based on the crap they are being spoon-fed in those government-run schools.
See? It's a matter of perspective. I think the single most abusive thing you can do to a human being is to teach him or her that human beings are just evolved animals... with the automatic and obvious implication that some of us are more-evolved than others... the obvious implication that we can make people better through selective breeding... and the further obvious implications that we can treat each other as animals, and that when we die all we face is nothingness (and therefore "anything we can get away with" in this life is something we've "gotten away with" - so if you think you can get away with it, DO IT).
Of course evolution should no longer be taught. It is a very bad theory.
wwed?
That's a hackneyed belief.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
First, ot seems to me that Jews are somewhat more tolerant of different views on things than others of the Abrahanic tradition, Christians and Moslms; there seems to be a dialectical approach to dogna in the training of young Jews. Still because Jews, Christians and Moslms share the same roots, they can make the same sort of mistakes when their faith is a source of power. I call that mistake "The Sin of Abraham". It is the myth that any one tribe or ethnicity or group of mankind is more select than another, spiritually, or in the eyes of God. It is an idea that should be expunged from religion and why it is so important to western religion is a matter of historical empire and ethnocentrism that should be discouraged. It is surely the unassailable basis of all of the friction between the world religions that share it, and it is a myth as bad as Creationism.
It does not surprise me that some Conservative Jews would deny evolution, just as Christians and others might deny it. Creationism is a rehtorical position whose sole role is to protect dogma based on an authoritarian use of Scripture. It is based on using faith as a argument by force and is a testiment to the weakness of a faith that does not rest on morality by deed rather than moral authority in which an elite gets to abuse others. It is better to do right by deed than by prescription or order.
Any quiz questions on the New Testament?
Teaching kids nonsense like this is detrimental to their development in many areas. Sadly, when US parents murder their children for religious reasons, the courts have basically said: "shame on you, try not to kill them the next time". When they do kill them the next time the courts have again said: "Shucks, that wasn't nice of you. Give us your wrist so we can slap it, and don't do it again".
Religious fruit-cakes in the US have far too much liberty in abusing their children. Bastardizing their education should not be one of them, neither should killing them, but apparently that is almost OK.
>> Which one is correct? Teach the controversy!
There is no controversy to teach. If there was, schools should teach it. So far though, only one theory has ever been proposed, so schools have to teach that. If another one ever comes along, of course they should teach that too.