Religion has no place in class

By: Paolo Ramos / Staff Writer

For a nation founded upon the principle of separation of church and state, it is astonishing that even in 2011 the debate to incorporate religion into public schools is still an ongoing process.

The nearly equal balance of proponents on both sides of the argument is an indicator to the stagnation of the educational system in our country in its effort to provide a substantial, and more importantly, unbiased education to its youth.

It is equally unfortunate that the conservative right, which decidedly wields tremendous influence over the general public, refuses to yield from its pro-religious platform and its application to public schools.

Young Americans, by the very principles outlined in our Constitution, are entitled to an education grounded in scientific facts and concepts, not medieval religious beliefs.

Texas Governor Rick Perry, one of the forerunners for the Republican presidential candidacy, has been quoted labeling the theory of evolution as a “theory with gaps in it.”

Perry, along with other GOP candidates, has reiterated his disdain of the concepts proposed by Charles Darwin regarding the origins of life. In a similar vein, the candidates have also all but dismissed the scientific method in the classroom with intentions of replacing it with a more religiously influence curriculum.

Minnesota representative and GOP candidate Michele Bachmann has even proposed a bill to legalize the teaching of intelligent design in her home state, an extension of her disbelief in mainstream science.

Perry is not wrong in stating that the theory evolution does have gaps in it. However, the gaps do not imply the lack of cohesion, but rather missing pieces of a nearly whole puzzle.

Scientific discoveries have exhibited strong support of the theory. Evidence from several bodies of science including paleontology, archaeology and genetics, have all indicated evolution as a measurable and observable phenomenon.

These findings cannot be ignored, and most certainly cannot be removed from the classroom. If concrete evidence is replaced with a frivolous religious agenda, the already failing educational standards in the United States will continue to fall.

The aforementioned knowledge, though still filled with gaps, provides knowledge of our world that religion simply cannot. The scientific method has hardly failed to improve the quality of living for the human population, let alone enrich our understanding of the several phenomenon of our planet.

It is this knowledge that has a rightful place in our public schools, and the fact that there is a significant number of Americans who would do away with it is disappointing.

America has already fallen behind significantly in global standards of education. This is a direct result of the confusion caused by the needless banter between the religious and practical factions of our government with regards to public education.

If America is to rise from the ashes up into the higher echelons of education, then it must reinforce concepts and modules of learning that are grounded in empirical methods and not from antiquated religious teachings.