Some Thoughts, Suggestions on Teaching How Earth Was Born

May I have the last word regarding the controversy surrounding the teaching of creationism by Capistrano Valley High School’s John Peloza? Specifically, I would like to propose a compromise between those who advocate teaching creationism in public schools and those who do not. My compromise is that, after the teacher has finished teaching evolution, he turns to the class and makes the following speech:

“We have just spent several months studying the theory and supporting evidence of the theory of evolution. Even though we have just scratched the surface, deductive reasoning seems to point to this theory as being correct. We will now give equal treatment to the theory of creationism. The theory of creationism is that everything in the world was created when God wished it to happen. The foundation of this theory lies not on deductive reasoning, but on faith. This being the case, any questions you might have about this theory can be answered by saying: ‘Because that’s the way God wanted it.’

“So which theory is correct? Unfortunately, neither theory will ever be able to ‘prove’ the other theory to be false. This is because they are based on two separate and contradictory axioms (reason and faith) which describe how the universe operates. Thus, we cannot make an objective evaluation of which theory is correct, so we must resort to a subjective one. Therefore, if you believe that the foundation of the universe rests on deductive reasoning, you should probably choose evolution as the correct explanation for the existence of living things; if not, you should probably choose creationism.”

I can’t see how the evolutionists or creationists could object to the above treatment of creationism in the schools. Enough!

GARY L. DYE, Irvine