First Amendment Under Attack

One of my colleagues recently did an editorial on whether or not creationism should be taught in our public school system. Their idea was that because evolution was a theory and not a fact, that creationism, another theory, should also be taught in schools. The issue at stake, or at least the one in the article, was about whether or not the First Amendment allows for religious theories to be taught at public schools.

While the author of the article didn’t come out and state their stance, I believe they were leaning towards allowing creationism to be taught in public schools, based on the fact that the First Amendment disallows the Federal government to establish a national religion. They make several good points about how each is just a theory, and thus with neither proving to be correct, both should be taught.

The main issue that would arise is that if a religious doctrine, or theory, is allowed to be taught, then we must open ourselves to allow ALL religious doctrine and theories. Why should the Christian theory of creationism be taught and not Muslim, Buddhist, or Hindu theories? It is hypocritical to say we don’t like the theory of evolution, we want creationism to also be taught, but we don’t other people’s versions of creationism to be taught too, we only want our theory of creationism to be taught. We can’t allow religious theories to be taught in public schools unless all religious theories were taught, otherwise, the exclusivity of all but one religious theory being taught in public school creates a government established (approved) religion; something the founding fathers would never want.