Argumentative Case: Evolution

Have you ever thought about the things we teach at our public schools? How everything that is said to a student has an effect on the way they think or understand things. How are we sure that we teach them everything they need to know? And who decides the purpose or requirement of each class given? Education is to enlighten the young and naive to better their purpose in our society; and by teaching them both Evolution and Intelligent Design it give them more knowledge and a different way to look and examine things. Many people believe Evolution should only be taught in schools because it is a scientific theory and does not involve people’s religious issues. Yet, there is a certain amount of faith involved in just believing that we possibly mutated or evolved. And this thought that we all evolved from one organism is very difficult for many to grasp. Most people wonder well if we mutated from this organism where did this organism come from and how did it get there?

A famous scientist Charles Darwin suggests that “The development of life was from nonlife according to ‘Natural Selection’”. Meaning that over thousands or millions of years, genetic mutation has allowed certain species to grow and prosper; while others became weak and didn’t survive. But how do we explain life from nonlife? There has yet to be any life created out of nothing. Scientist have had a problem finding a transitional to support their theory. And the Theory of Evolution is continually changing over time because their evidence does not all line up. So why should we only teach that in our schools? Yes it is a huge possibility of how the universe may have been created; yet, it is not the only possibility. What happens when there are students who go to public school and only believe in Intelligent Design? They are then forced to only learn about Evolution. This can be an issue because this child knows there is more than one possibility of how the universe was created and doesn’t believe in the one they are being forced to learn.

So how is that fair for the child to have to learn something they don’t believe in when their belief isn’t being taught. Yes, their parents may want to send them to a private school to learn about Intelligent Design but if they can’t afford it why is that possibility eliminated in public schools. Shouldn’t we allow both to be taught? Henry Morris of the Institute for Creation Research stated in an article that “There are strong scientific reasons why both Evolution and Intelligent Design should be taught in public classrooms, it gives arguments for pros and cons for each”. Giving the children the chance to be able to contemplate what they truly feel was possible or not. They can even study each side in depth until they have reached a conclusion of what they believe. Also it may cause fewer problems with parents complaining about their child only learning about Evolution. As for Intelligent Design, This is a touchy topic because there are many possibilities of people fully believing it or turning away from this idea based on their religion.

But if you look at it without involving religion you can see that this concept makes perfect sense. There are certain things in life that are so complex that they had to be made somewhere or by something. In my English class readings Mr. William Dembski discusses bacterium flagellum and he states “It has forty complex proteins and the absence of any one of these proteins would result in the loss of motor function” (128). It is so perfect the way all those proteins work together that without one little thing its function stops completely. It’s crazy how every little thing has a vital role in this flagellum. With this kind of complexity there is no explanation of a perfect mutation like that. If this were a mutation there would be many thing changing over time and not nearly so many perfect ones. So the only way to explain this level of complexity is with Intelligent Design. Something had to have put that together in such a way that it works perfectly without a flaw. Also, there are other proofs of Intelligent Design besides complexity.

There are writings from the past that are linked to historical events and show evidence of a more intelligent being. Since the idea of a more intelligent being can’t be proven or disproven it should not be ruled out. The argument is about what should be taught in schools; Evolution or Intelligent Design? Scientist believe only evolution should be taught because it is a scientific theory. Evolutionists argue that you can’t prove Intelligent Design so it shouldn’t be taught. Well, you can’t prove Evolution either; yet, it is still taught in our classrooms. So why shouldn’t we teach Intelligent Design just because it is not proven. Neither of these has been proven, so neither of them should take priority. These are both very strong ideas and both highly believed in. So why can’t we teach both? I read an article by Kerwin Thiessen where he states “The ‘First Amendment’ gives a sense that we should present students with all the available data”.

If parents want their children to learn about both this should be taught in all public schools as well. Education is about expanding the minds of our youth and exposing them to new ideas and new ways to think. If we only teach them one, they will see things only a certain way. But if these students know there is more than one option it gives them so many more angles on how they can see life and consider all the possibilities. No one can prove a hundred percent that the earth was created a certain way, so why do we only teach one possibility. If we only teach Evolution to the students they will always think we came from a single celled organism and over a long period of time we continued evolving until we finally evolved from monkeys into humans. So they will view the world according to that teaching. They will probably rule out the other possibilities because if it wasn’t important enough to be taught in school it must be wrong. So for them Evolution is the only way. So far there has yet been proof of transition from animals to humans.

So Evolution may or may not be true. But should our youth only see life in one way? Or if we only teach them about Intelligent Design they will believe in a greater being creating us and they will think the idea of us evolving is silly and doesn’t make sense how we can change that drastically. Yet, if we expose them to both ideas we will be giving them the option to choose. Some adults have yet to decide what they believe in so if we teach our pupils now there will be many years that they will have to study each side and choose for themselves what to believe. But it will at least open their minds to all the opportunities and ideas that could have happened. Professor Michael Reiss, director of education at the Royal Society, said in an article that “Excluding certain different scientific explanations was counterproductive and would alienate some children from science altogether”.

So if we are truly trying to benefit our youth we should open the doors to both ideas. We want education to prepare our children for when they have to enter the real world so they will know what they need to know to get buy and benefit our society. It only makes sense to give them every opportunity to learn something new. Give them the choice of how they view the world. Everyone will see life differently and if certain people disagree with Evolution or Disagree with Intelligent Design this gives them the opportunity to learn both. They think and study about the possibilities and they can either change their belief or stick with what they believe in and just have a better knowledge of what could have happened. So we should teach them both Evolution and Intelligent Design to help them grow, learn and decide for themselves how they view the universe.