Americans Believe Flaws of Evolution Should Be Taught in Classrooms

A new survey from the Discovery Institute showed “that an overwhelming 93% of American adults agree that ‘teachers and students should have the academic freedom to objectively discuss both the scientific strengths and weaknesses of the theory of evolution.’” Teaching young people to blindly accept evolution without alerting them to the major problems with the idea doesn’t encourage critical thinking. It’s nothing but indoctrination. Teachers should have the freedom to tell their students that evolution is far from proven and that there are many inconsistencies with the idea.

It can be “career suicide” for scientists to dare to question evolution—even if they are doing so on solid scientific grounds!

This survey also revealed that “88% [of Americans] agree that ‘scientists who raise scientific criticisms of evolution should have the freedom to make their arguments without being subjected to censorship or discrimination.’” Sadly this is not a reality for many scientists. It can be “career suicide” for scientists to dare to question evolution—even if they are doing so on solid scientific grounds!

The survey report also showed that in America,

• 84% [of Americans] believe that “attempts to censor or punish scientists for holding dissenting views on issues such as evolution or climate change are not appropriate in a free society.”
• 94% [of Americans] believe “it is important for policymakers and the public to hear from scientists with differing views.”
• 87% [of Americans] think that “people can disagree about what science says on a particular topic without being ‘anti-science.’”
• 86% [of Americans] think that “disagreeing with the current majority view in science can be an important step in the development of new insights and discoveries in science.”

We live in a day when a handful of very vocal secularists are trying to limit religious and academic freedom for all Americans. It’s interesting—and encouraging—to see by the results of this survey that the vast majority of Americans don’t agree with them regarding limiting academic freedom in our nation.

One particular group is trying to limit academic and religious freedom by attempting to bully public school districts into being afraid to take school field trips to the Ark Encounter in Northern Kentucky. The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) recently sent out a threatening letter to over 1,000 school districts within a reasonable driving distance of the Ark, urging them not to violate their “constitutional obligations” by bringing kids to visit the Ark.

This is nothing short of bullying the school districts into doing what FFRF wants. There’s nothing unconstitutional about bringing children on an educational trip to the Ark. Bringing kids to the Ark doesn’t mean the school endorses as truth everything they see anymore than taking kids to a stage production or art museum means the school endorses every theme and viewpoint. As attorneys from the Center for Religion Expression told me,

Once again, FFRF is wrong. Public schools are free to take students on field trips to any place they find educationally beneficial, which can include parks, museums, and even churches, that have religious connotations. The Constitution demands the state be neutral—not hostile—toward religion. To deny students the unique opportunity to see and experience a full-scale model of Noah’s Ark—just because its existence is described in the Bible—would be decidedly hostile.

To encourage schools to stand up to the bullying of groups like FFRF and their attempt to limit academic and religious freedom, we’re offering a huge discount to all public school groups who visit the Ark Encounter or Creation Museum for educational, historical, or recreational purposes—only $1 per student and accompanying teachers are free! (To take advantage of this offer, students must attend public school, and the trip must be booked through the public school as an official public school trip.) Just call our customer service line at 855-284-3275 to book the school group.

We hope many public schools will take advantage of this offer to exercise their academic and religious freedom here in America.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.