When the Press Doesn’t Understand Religion

Huntley criticizes the GOP for the conservatives move to push creationism, but then says the following:

Teaching intelligent design in a school science lab makes as much sense as having Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species required reading in Sunday school.

The statement is just dumb. Evolution and religion aren’t mutually exclusive. Catholics, Episcopalians, Methodists, the main branch of Lutherans, many Baptists, The Presbyterian Church USA, and UCC just as some examples all accept evolution. Teaching the Origin of Species in the Sunday School classes might very well make sense in a discussion on interpretation and the physical world versus the revealed word.

The problem with teaching creationism isn’t that it’s not science and science classes are for science. Religion deals with science quite often and understanding science and the scientific method is a good lesson in Sunday School for most.

The problem is that by setting up the two as somehow mutually exclusive it completely misrepresents the issues surrounding science and faith. By setting them up as polar opposites Huntley confuses the issue more than clarifies it adding to a problem that the press has covering religious issues.

0 thoughts on “When the Press Doesn’t Understand Religion”
  1. I disagree. It’s inappropriate to teach Creationism (or its jazzed up cousin Intelligent Design) because it isn’t science . It might be appropriate to talk about it in a philosophy course or literature.

    But I do agree that Origin of the Species could be taught as part of a Sunday school class.

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