Posted by
WindCaller on Thursday, August 02, 2007 3:34:20 AM
There exists in the world today something called the Marketplace of Ideas in which ideas, like products, are introduced for public consumption. Those most popular, and most valuable, will remain while lesser ideas will be discarded.
In this setting, it would certainly seem plausible that a government (ours, for example) would endorse a certain set of ideas: those ideas which would help that form of government to continue to future generations. Sadly, this is not the case in the United States of America. For nearly fifty years, our country has conducted an idea experiment that has proved detrimental to our national health.
In the 1960's, an idea which had served this country well for its entire history was removed. That idea was the free expression of religion. The fact that prayer and Bible reading were removed sent a clear message: no longer would our government endorse religiosity in the United States. The fact that our beliefs had just gotten us through two world wars didn't seem to matter. Religion was the idea of the past; evolution was to be the wave of the future.
And what a future it's been! In the last fifty years, we have seen divorce rates sky-rocket along with un-married pregnancies, drug use, suicide, homicide, etc. In fact, every negative indicator has went up since 1960, and every positive indicator has gone down. In the 1990's, SAT scores got so low that they re-vamped the test. Our children are litterally getting dumber by the minute! Yet the amount of money we keep throwing at the problem keeps going up. It seems an election cycle doesn't go by without a new bill being passed on education, yet the problem keeps getting worse.
The classroom is the Marketplace of Ideas. It's the first place where people begin to grasp the bigger world around them. And in this marketplace, the Big Idea is the idea of evolution. Evolution has replaced the Bible and prayer. And when someone talks about "Intelligent Design", that's just a feint to establish a National Church. But if creation and evolution are opposites, doesn't that make evolution the State-sponsored Religion?
In countries where evolution has been the majority-accepted philosophy, not one of them has become more liberal in the freedoms they allow people. Evolution has always been used to oppress people. It was the excuse Adolph Hitler used in the 1940's to kill nearly six million Jews. He believed the blond-haired, blue-eyed person was the highest evolved being on the planet.
If evolution is true, why has it destroyed so many lives? Aren't we taught that truth is supposed to be a good thing? Isn't truth right up there with justice and honesty? And if the Bible is false, why have so many lives been made better by it? Look through the pages of our nation's history, and tell me which has been more successful...the Bible, which saw us through every major conflict we've ever faced, including two world wars, or evolution, which was what our nation embraced when we faced Viet Nam? Which idea has led to the greater success of our country? Which idea has led to our greater long-lasting happiness? After 50 years, I think it's time to scrap evolution.