A Vexing Problem Solved, Free of Charge

Here's a clever idea that came to me while I was responding to a recent post by Echidne.

Suppose that in American public schools, all biology classes were to devote a day or two to exploring creation myths from around the world.

It'd be the sort of compromise that shows America's cultural pluralism at its best. Science would admit that it can't logically prove or disprove the existence of God, and fundamentalist Christianity would admit that there are multitudes of competing religious explanations for life on earth, and would also concede that many Christian sects have no problem with evolution.

Hell, the teachers could even discuss intelligent design for all I'd care, so long as they make it clear that ID theory is just as compatible with Buddhism, and Islam, and Judaism, and Hinduism, as it is with Christianity.

It seems reasonable to me. If fundamentalists want kids to be taught about "Young Earth" theories based on Biblical literalism, they'll also have to let them hear about how Pan Gu took his broad-axe and split open the black egg of the Cosmos; and about how the cow Audhumla was formed from thawing frost, and licked a salty ice block until the hair of Buri, the first man, appeared; and about Oparin's even more fanciful vision of "chemical evolution"; and about the rich pleasures and voluptuous horrors of Echidneism (the one true faith); and all the rest of it.

At the end of the discussion, the teacher can say, "Those are some of the theories about how life got here. Now, for the rest of the semester, we're going to talk about how it works."

There you have it...the problem's solved, and everybody's happy!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll tackle Israel and Palestine...

PS: Just for the record, I was being kinda facetious here. I know this isn't going to happen! But the thing is, we get locked into hopeless struggles all the time by letting opponents choose the terms of debate. The issue here isn't that Lefties want "atheism" taught in schools; the issue is that a certain subset of Christians wants to stop other types of religion from being discussed. If religion ends up in public-school curricula, it's got to be balanced; one form of it can't claim a privileged position over all the others. A comparative discussion of origin myths is education; teaching "Young Earth" Biblical literalism is indoctrination. If you want to win a debate, you need to go beyond simple "either/or" opposition, and start appropriating your opponent's strength. Instead of saying "You can't have this," you say, "You can have this under these conditions," and let your opponents reveal their true agenda by rejecting it. We come across as the bad guys by "stifling faith." So we need to make it plain that neutral discussion protects all faiths, and it's actually the fundies who are trying to limit religious freedoms.