Brian+Y’s+OpEd+Article



Creationism vs. Evolutionism  For almost an entire century, there have been debates about the teachings of creationism and evolution in schools just because people think that these two fundamental ideas contradict each other. As a previous student at private school for the first 6 grade levels I was only taught creationism until I began attending public school where I was given a wide scope on evolutionism. Only after that did I consider that there was a possibility that evolution could be true to some extent. At private school the biology book that I had in 6th grade taught evolution but I was told to ignore these words as well as the fact that there were millions of years that the Earth had existed. I was taught that the Earth had only existed roughly 4,000 years which seems absurd to me right now. One reason that both of these beliefs are very different is that evolutionism means that animals adapted and became a new species over time such as a bacteria eventually becoming a human after millions of years of changes. However, in creationism I was taught that God simply created each animal for its own purpose and that every single animal existed at the same time. As I learned more about evolutionism though I started to comprehend it more and realized that it made more sense than I had given it credit, I started thinking that maybe both creationism and evolution could go together if God created animals and allowed them to evolve. I would like to see schools teaching both evolutionism and creationism to students so that students get an opportunity to decide for themselves whether they believe in one idea, the other, or a combination of both. I don’t think at public school students should be forced to learn that evolution is the only way that animals became the way they are. I think that the teachers should also say something like, “.Another popular theory of how animals ended up the way they are is that God decided to create all of the animals at the same time and besides that some people believe that God created the process of evolution.” Now having been exposed to both theories, I feel more engaged to see both sides of the argument. Neither theory is wrong or right. It really is about taking the material and formulating your own conclusions. That’s where I am in this pattern of exploration. Was I created by science or in the pages of someone’s manuscript? At this point it really doesn’t matter. Maybe both beliefs are correct. Nobody can quite say for sure.