Creationism research paper.

faust9

Hey all.



First off I don't want to turn this into a Creationism/religion vs Evolution/secularism topic. What I would like is a little help if possible. I have to do a research paper and I chose the subject: Should Creationism be taught in public schools--If so where?. Any links to articles, stories, writups, or books would be greatly appreciated. I'm allowed to use credible internet sources (Court TV, Print Newspapers with online editions, and the like) as well as one "internet" resource ie. one crazy baseless site if you will. I've found a few books (two on creationism and two which debunk creationism) as well as a couple of old news articles. I've also decided to review the Scopes "Monkey Trial" as the historical base for my paper.



That's about it. Any help in gathering information would be much appreciated.



Mucho Gracias

anna mated

The largest sites Ive found



www.answersingenesis.org

www.talkorigins.org



May Jesus be your guiding light



MarcUK

brussell

A good website from a liberal christian perspective: http://www.religioustolerance.org/evolutio.htm. It always has a ton of good info about religious topics.



I'd also use http://www.findlaw.com to get Supreme Court cases like Epperson v. Arkansas and Edwards v. Aguillard.

rampancy

Oh no...not again...



Anyway, I'd recommend two sites aligned with talk.origins -- The Panda's Thumb (named after a famous essay/book by Stephen Jay Gould) and Talk.Design, specifically targeted at the contemporary "Intelligent Design" movement.



I'd also recommend the book Scientists Confront Creationism, and the more recent Tower of Babel. Both offer very good arguments against the Creationist/Intelligent Design movement, and offer good points as to why bringing Creationism into the classroom would be a bad idea.



For the Creationist side, I'd recommend Philip Johnson's "Darwin on Trial", and Michael Behe's "Darwin's Black Box", in addition to The Genesis Flood, by Whitcomb and Morris. These three books are, IMO, the foundations of the modern Creationist movement.

midwinter

You should probably also take a look at the material generated by the Kansas school board decision a few years ago (which has since been overturned, I believe). Here's a Google search for it.



One angle that never seems to get discussed in all of this is the Christian-centric nature of the arguments about teaching creationism, when you could make a reductio ad absurdam argument that in order to teach creationism, you'd have to teach all of the major creation stories from all of the major religions. Where, in other words, do we draw the line with regards to which creation stories get taught?

rampancy

Quote:

Originally posted by midwinter

One angle that never seems to get discussed in all of this is the Christian-centric nature of the arguments about teaching creationism, when you could make a reductio ad absurdam argument that in order to teach creationism, you'd have to teach all of the major creation stories from all of the major religions. Where, in other words, do we draw the line with regards to which creation stories get taught?

One of the essays in Scientists Confront Creationism that gave me a chuckle directly adressed the point you make. If we are to give "Equal Time" to ID/YEC/OEC theories, then why not teach Native American Creationism? (with respect to both North AND South American peoples), or Japanese Creationism?



The answer that seems to be given is that there isn't "scientific proof" for them...which then leads to what the scientific proof is for Creationism...from what I've read, that pretty much reveals what the true agenda is for Creationist activists.

faust9

Thanks for the info thus far.



The format of my paper will go like this:

1. Short intro: Discussion of Scope trial


2. Discussion describing the three main views on creationism (thanks for the additional angle mid)


3. Discussion on the theory of evolution


4. Thesis--Should Creationism or its alter ego Intelligent Design be taught in public schools--if so where


5. Discussion of thesis including my view on the subject


6. Conclusion

Thanks for the links and books thus far. I appreciate that y'all are giving input from both sides whether you subscribe to one or the other.

faust9

Ohhh, another good angle thanks rampancy. I may start off by reciting another view of creationism as a fact to "shock" the reader.

midwinter

Quote:

Originally posted by faust9

1. Short intro: Discussion of Scope trial


2. Discussion describing the three main views on creationism (thanks for the additional angle mid)


3. Discussion on the theory of evolution


4. Thesis--Should Creationism or its alter ego Intelligent Design be taught in public schools--if so where


5. Discussion of thesis including my view on the subject


6. Conclusion

I'd actually suggest you shift that organization around a little. Something like this might work:



1) Very brief discussion of the current debate about creationism in schools and a clear statement about what you're going to contribute to this discussion. Use this to frame the essay.

2) Discussion of evolution and the history of the debate (e.g. the Scopes trial)

3) Discussion of main theories and voices out there now. Tie back to current debate.

4) Discussion of the *implications* of the question you're on about and your two cents' worth.

5) Conclude by returning to the current debate.



I'm suggesting this because you'll wind up with a much more interesting (read: nuanced) discussion if you avoid the impulse to frame all of this in a binary question and instead recognize and talk about the complexity of the situation.



Anyway. This is all off the top of my head. I'll be glad to help if you need any.



Cheers

Scott

outsider

Skeptic magazine has an article about this EXACT topic in their latest magazine. has a breakdown of all levels of evolutionists and creationists and everything in between.