The only thing creationism accomplishes is destruction.
Every 10 years, the Texas Board of Education votes on how to change the state’s school curriculum. The Texas Board of Education is comprised of 15 elected members, and as you could have probably guessed, the vast majority of them are right-wing Christians. Among the many propositions that were voted on, one was the addition of creationism into Texas’s public school curriculum. Creationism is the literal belief in the account of creation given in the Book of Genesis. Creationism denies the theory of the evolution of species. The teaching of creationism in public schools is wrong on many levels.
Firstly, the “theory” of creationism is scientifically incorrect. Countless scientific errors can be drawn from Genesis (not to mention the bible in general), which can be understood due to the advancement of scientific discovery since the bible was created. Lets observe a few scientifically unsatisfactory concepts from Genesis. Genesis states that God created light 3 days before the sun and the stars. This is impossible because daylight is caused by the energy emissions from the sun (a star). The bible also states that earth was created before the stars. This is incorrect because earth is billions of years younger than many stars. While earth is scientifically concluded to be about 4.7 billion years old, astrologists have discovered light from many stars that have been analyzed to be up to 14 billion years old. The bible also states that the earth was created in 6 days and humans and animals in less than 1 day, whereas science concludes that the earth and all life has evolved over billions of years. Regardless of the innumerable additional scientific inconsistencies that can be found in Genesis, teaching creationism in schools is not only intellectually harmful, but it is also psychologically damaging.
By teaching developing minds to accept the literal interpretation of the bible, students will be damaged mentally and emotionally. First, students will learn to accept ideas despite the lack of any factual backing, which will handicap their intellectual ability. Many will get the idea that solely because many other people believe something, regardless of how fallacious it is, it must be true. Next, students will get the impression that if some parts of the bible should be literally interpreted, then why shouldn’t others be? The bible also states that homosexuals, fortunetellers, people who don’t listen to priests, people who hit their father, non-believers, followers of other religions, people who work on the Sabbath, and many more innocent people must be killed, so why shouldn't this also be taken literally? Also, the bible commands many acts of self-sacrifice necessary in order to go to heaven after death. By obeying the literal messages of the bible, it may force the individual to live life in a way that he or she does not want, in hopes to enjoy an unproven and unrealistic afterlife instead of enjoying reality in whichever way makes the person happy.
Despite all of the harmful effects of teaching creationism, these are not the underlying factors of why creationism should not be taught in public schools. Anyone who wishes to accept, teach, or learn about creationism should be able to -- if someone wants to be self-destructive, they should be able to do so as long as it does not impose physical harm onto anyone else. One should not have his or her money forcefully taken and given toward something that he or she does not want. Texas is proposing to use the money forcefully taken from all Texas residents and to use it toward teaching creationism, which is wrong as it forces a number of individuals to spend their money toward something against their wishes. As Thomas Jefferson agrees, the foundation of individual rights and the key to a successful nation is "the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it."
