[Oz-teachers] intelligent design

[Carolyn Nightingale]

A wise person once said that there is no difference between true science and
true religion.

The way we understand our world has changed vastly over the last millenium.
How much does "science"  teach us about our world today that is different
from even fifty years ago? What will scientists state as fact in another
hundred years? Another thousand? I think it's pretty pompous to "believe"
that scientists have got the origins of everything all worked out.  Maybe
many of us  feel more comfortable in the "sure knowledge" that we originated
in single-celled bacteria, or somewhere else that science states as fact,
even if there are gaps and unexplained parts, and even if "the facts" will
be reinterpreted in a few years, decades or centuries. For some of us, if we
read it, it must be so. What constitutes a fact, after all? Like anyone
else, I get excited when something is discovered, or a new explanation for
something is proposed, but, in my opinion,  it's a tiny bit of a really
really big picture.

I don't wish to offend anyone - everyone has the right to believe what they
will.  I believe God did it, but I'm not sure how he employed natural
processes to bring it all about.

What to teach?  In primary school in Queensland, I don't really have to
teach anything more than adaptation, and I'm glad about that. I don't think
I'm alone in this. There are many different belief systems in my classroom,
and all are respected.  It's a safe place. Can we teach anything at all
without consideration of a student's culture and beliefs? It's interesting,
and worth arguing about.

Carolyn

  -----Original Message-----
  From: oz-teachers-bounces at rite.ed.qut.edu.au
[mailto:oz-teachers-bounces at rite.ed.qut.edu.au]On Behalf Of David Westaway
  Sent: Sunday, 4 September 2005 8:36 AM
  To: 'Professional community for teachers'
  Subject: RE: [Oz-teachers] intelligent design


  This link goes straight to the Q&A page.

  http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/qa.asp



  Dave


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/oz-teachers/attachments/20050904/e9243931/attachment.html