Religious deference taken to extremes

Obviously, the school allows this “opt out” for a reason- that the community has asked for it in the past. But what interests me is why things like fossils might be a threat to some people’s faith, religious grounding, and ultimate hold on their children.
What is at the core of this fear of critical thinking and reasoning- of understanding all sides of issues and allowing us to make our own conclusions? Its about fear of change and of the unknown- yet I believe that facing change and new obstacles only makes you stronger. So what kind of children are growing up in a community guarded from challenging ideas? What will happen to them when exposed to situations they can no longer “opt out” of?
This fear of sticking to community that one considers “normal” happens in every community- white flight happens in large cities; ethnic neighborhoods develop; and teenagers try to keep up with what’s “in”… etc.
Many books and movies talk about this psychological need that we have to build walls to protect our sense of the norm- take “The Village” for example- an extreme situation where families developed under a false sense of reality to protect children from the outside world of strong emotions. But we act on these fears every day in some sense, but its truly unfortunate when this fear manifests itself into the innocent education of young minds.

Matt -

In answer to the question, “why are schools trying to teach kids things they do not know,” I’ll have to assume when you say “they” you mean “the schools” because of course the very purpose of tutelage is to impart previously unknown knowledge. Anyway, the theory of evolution is hardly a “bunch of praddle” – it has withstood the test of time and is supported by mountains upon mountains of scientific evidence. You are clearly in no way familiar with the theory of evolution or the evidence supporting it. It’s most unfortunate that you (and so many like you) are content with the answer to any scientific question being “God”. If you were to look into scientific thought, you might see (as I and so many other scientists have) that the answers nature provides are so much more beautiful, elegant, and wondrous. If it is simply that you’re in some way “offended” by the idea that humans share a common ancestor with other Great Apes… I’m sorry. Science doesn’t particularly care whether or not it offends you.

Allowing parents to opt their children out of commonly accepted scientific fact is simply not an option in our society today. I’m unable to determine where the blogger is from, but here in the United States (which I will assume is his location as we seem to be the only Western country to be offended by the theory of evolution) we are behind almost every other first world country in the areas of math and science. This is utterly unacceptable, especially in this, the Information Age. If you do not wish your children to learn things that are almost universally accepted in the scientific community, then you are free to pay for them to attend a private school or to homeschool them. If you do choose one of these, enjoy yourself as you search for a college that will accept them – many colleges are now starting to refuse to accept science credits where Creationism is taught in place of evolution.

I think this is great. We NEED under- and non-educated kids so we have a work force. These kids can do my laundry, serve me at restaurants, and live on the sucky minimum wage.

Evolution isn’t some hare-brained scheme that might be true. It is the best, and currently ONLY way to explain how we came to be. There ARE transitional fossils. There are answers to the way the eye came to be. Bananas are not a good example of the theory of design.

If you want to sit in the dark and be ignorant, fine. But don’t expect the rest of us to sit in the dark with you, or let you bring the dark to us.