In a much glossed over piece of news, it recently came to light that Beau Schaefer, a long-time biology teacher in Libertyville, Illinois, was caught teaching Creationism to students. While the school board has stated that it does not condone the teaching of Creationism, it has also refused to fire the teacher. Supposedly Schaefer’s behavior is considered ‘remediable’. This is being said despite the fact that Schaefer has not apologized for teaching evangelical Christianity in a biology class instead of the current, prevailing theories of science.
Creationism is a flawed understanding of how the mechanics of universe works with its origins in an ancient monotheistic religion. At the dawn of human civilization we had no knowledge of the structure of nature, and because of this we made up stories about how our wondrous world was built. Now that we have begun to peel back the layers of this formerly obsequious mystery there continue to be luddites that revile humanity’s newer, better understanding of the structure of our universe. These Creationists are glad to use the technology and medicine that modern science provides, yet scorn the theories it produces.
Why is this? Creationists have made the strange mistake of taking the Bible literally. This is a stupefying act, as even within a single translation of the Bible there are mountains of contradictions and obvious alterations of the ancient text. It is from this pretext that Creationists believe they can take religion, a philosophical enterprise meant to incorporate meaning to our existence, and assert that it is science.
But what about Intelligent Design? This supposed school of modern science has been much touted by Creationists as a valid scientific theory devoid of religious overtones that comes to the same, basic conclusions as Bible-based creationism.
Before we go any father, we must dispel this myth. Creationism and Intelligent Design are not two different concepts. Intelligent Design is simply an attempt to remove the most blatantly Christian fingerprints from the theory of Creationism. It was specifically tailored to do so.
