But what you think maybe happened is not science and is not fit for a class that teaches science. You or someone has to go out and find compelling evidence for it to make its way into science and history books. Evolution is not an opinion or a policy. Evolution is a theory substantiated by mountains of evidence and corroborated by mountains of data in other scientific disciplines. Creationist hypotheses fail to pass the bar.
Also, regarding agnosticism, most agnostics just haven't gotten up the courage to get off the fence. Or more accurately, they haven't moved down the fence to the end where atheists sit. Few atheists claim there is no god with absolute certainty. They merely state that is seems unlikely to the point of extremely improbable, based on logic and evidence.
"It's a definite belief that nowhere in the universe is there an alien species that corresponds to the characteristics of a 'god'."
That is profoundly incorrect. It is a conclusion that no plausible evidence or even a compelling hypothesis for a god has been presented. "The Giant Teapot in Space" is an analogy that illustrates this well. You may say to me that there is a giant teapot orbiting a distant planet in the universe somewhere. I lack the means to prove conclusively that there is no giant teapot anywhere in the entire universe. That's not how science works. In order for me to consider there is a giant teapot somewhere, you have to provide a claim to that effect and that claim must work its way through the rigors of scientific method. At any point along the way, your hypothesis may fall flat, or it may be changed upon the results of attempts to falsify it.
I'm leaving aside your strange assertion that a deity must be an alien species, which seems specific to your interpretation of the universe. Most atheists disagree with your characterization that we have a 'definite belief' there is no god. Most atheists state that no reasonable evidence or argument for any of the many, many gods people have believed in.
I recently reconnected with my best friend growing up, after a gap of 20 years. In the span of that time, I became an atheist, and a student of logic and science. He became an Evangelical Christian, a Young Earth Creationist, and a biology teacher at a private Christian high school that receives their science curriculum from the Discovery Institute.
These groups work together, convinced they are doing what is right, to indoctrinate young minds that secular education has been taken over by atheists like Aldous Huxley and Richard Dawkins, hellbent on disproving the notion that the Bible is a historically and scientifically accurate document. Like most advocates of pseudoscience they also claim the rigors of scientific method prevent one from having an open mind. They also claim that our current scientific process keeps out sound alternative theories like Creationism, both unintentionally and by an intentional conspiracy.
The main problem, as I see it, is that both the students and the teachers are instructed that they must not question their narrow interpretation of the King James Bible and all the contradictions and mental contortions that belief system requires. To doubt the "Word of God" is to invite eternal damnation. Unlike most modern Christians, who have morphed their religious thinking into a kind of fuzzy deism, where anything truly awful in the Bible is an allegory or a misunderstanding, the strict King James Version believer must not question, and indeed has a moral obligation to force God's word and God's law on this nation, which is clearly a Christian oasis created by and watched over by the Christian God. Following this mandate, only that which affirms that the Earth is a few thousand years old and that a flood wiped out everything that wasn't on Noah's Ark is the truth.
And it just gets crazier from there, unfortunately, but I won't delve into that topic since it deviates from the OP.
Since most people misunderstand what science is, this large percentage of Christian Americans see this movement as proof of a conspiracy that atheism is trying to remove truth from the educational system and other areas of society, because that truth is religious in nature. They perceive science as a debate that can be won, and science class as a conspiracy that is attempting to undermine truth and morality. And as a result, those of who are not willfully ignorant are destined to spend a great deal of time, energy and money keeping religious dogma out of science books.
I am glad I don't have signal on my phone there, although I know where to go if I must do a little drunk-texting, for example, the deep playa via art car. But I tell the world I have no signal there and I refuse to even try to look at my email if I'm sitting in a camp with wifi.
But I keep my device with me. The iBurn app for iPhone and Android is amazing. During whiteout dust storms, I was able to help several people figure out where they were going. I could always look down and see where I was on the map, and because it lists all the camps and all the scheduled events, I got so much more out of my time there.
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Why settle for bad when you can have much, much worse? Sincerely, China
But what you think maybe happened is not science and is not fit for a class that teaches science. You or someone has to go out and find compelling evidence for it to make its way into science and history books. Evolution is not an opinion or a policy. Evolution is a theory substantiated by mountains of evidence and corroborated by mountains of data in other scientific disciplines. Creationist hypotheses fail to pass the bar.
Also, regarding agnosticism, most agnostics just haven't gotten up the courage to get off the fence. Or more accurately, they haven't moved down the fence to the end where atheists sit. Few atheists claim there is no god with absolute certainty. They merely state that is seems unlikely to the point of extremely improbable, based on logic and evidence.
"It's a definite belief that nowhere in the universe is there an alien species that corresponds to the characteristics of a 'god'."
That is profoundly incorrect. It is a conclusion that no plausible evidence or even a compelling hypothesis for a god has been presented. "The Giant Teapot in Space" is an analogy that illustrates this well. You may say to me that there is a giant teapot orbiting a distant planet in the universe somewhere. I lack the means to prove conclusively that there is no giant teapot anywhere in the entire universe. That's not how science works. In order for me to consider there is a giant teapot somewhere, you have to provide a claim to that effect and that claim must work its way through the rigors of scientific method. At any point along the way, your hypothesis may fall flat, or it may be changed upon the results of attempts to falsify it.
I'm leaving aside your strange assertion that a deity must be an alien species, which seems specific to your interpretation of the universe. Most atheists disagree with your characterization that we have a 'definite belief' there is no god. Most atheists state that no reasonable evidence or argument for any of the many, many gods people have believed in.
These groups work together, convinced they are doing what is right, to indoctrinate young minds that secular education has been taken over by atheists like Aldous Huxley and Richard Dawkins, hellbent on disproving the notion that the Bible is a historically and scientifically accurate document. Like most advocates of pseudoscience they also claim the rigors of scientific method prevent one from having an open mind. They also claim that our current scientific process keeps out sound alternative theories like Creationism, both unintentionally and by an intentional conspiracy.
The main problem, as I see it, is that both the students and the teachers are instructed that they must not question their narrow interpretation of the King James Bible and all the contradictions and mental contortions that belief system requires. To doubt the "Word of God" is to invite eternal damnation. Unlike most modern Christians, who have morphed their religious thinking into a kind of fuzzy deism, where anything truly awful in the Bible is an allegory or a misunderstanding, the strict King James Version believer must not question, and indeed has a moral obligation to force God's word and God's law on this nation, which is clearly a Christian oasis created by and watched over by the Christian God. Following this mandate, only that which affirms that the Earth is a few thousand years old and that a flood wiped out everything that wasn't on Noah's Ark is the truth.
And it just gets crazier from there, unfortunately, but I won't delve into that topic since it deviates from the OP.
Since most people misunderstand what science is, this large percentage of Christian Americans see this movement as proof of a conspiracy that atheism is trying to remove truth from the educational system and other areas of society, because that truth is religious in nature. They perceive science as a debate that can be won, and science class as a conspiracy that is attempting to undermine truth and morality. And as a result, those of who are not willfully ignorant are destined to spend a great deal of time, energy and money keeping religious dogma out of science books.
It is a hallmark of the internet age to offer one's expertise and knowledge on a subject, even when one has neither.
I am glad I don't have signal on my phone there, although I know where to go if I must do a little drunk-texting, for example, the deep playa via art car. But I tell the world I have no signal there and I refuse to even try to look at my email if I'm sitting in a camp with wifi. But I keep my device with me. The iBurn app for iPhone and Android is amazing. During whiteout dust storms, I was able to help several people figure out where they were going. I could always look down and see where I was on the map, and because it lists all the camps and all the scheduled events, I got so much more out of my time there.