Evolution on Trial

CNN is reporting that the Kansas Board of Education has scheduled six days of courtroom-style hearings to determine what school children should be taught about how life on Earth began. As CNN reports:

Kansas has been grappling with the issue for years, garnering worldwide attention in 1999 when the state school board voted to downplay evolution in science classes.
Subsequent elections altered the membership of the school board and led to renewed backing for evolution instruction in 2001. But elections last year gave religious conservatives a 6-4 majority and the board is now finalizing new science standards, which will guide teachers about how and what to teach students.
The current proposal pushed by conservatives would not eliminate evolution entirely from instruction, nor would it require creationism be taught, but it would encourage teachers to discuss various viewpoints and eliminate core evolution claims as required curriculum.

Is there a centrist position on this? Of course.

Let’s teach our children how to think for themselves. Let’s teach them how to evaluate the evidence (or lack thereof…. detractors of evolution often argue that evolution is an invalid theory because it cannot be verified. I’d argue that both theories lack 100 percent verifiable evidence). And, let’s teach them how to reach conclusions for themselves.