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Concept
Creation and evolution in public education
Summary
The status of creation and evolution in public education has been the subject of substantial debate and conflict in legal, political, and religious circles. Globally, there is a wide variety of views on the topic. Most western countries have legislation that mandates only evolutionary biology is to be taught in the appropriate scientific syllabuses.
History of evolutionary thought and History of the creation–evolution controversy
While many Christian denominations do not raise theological objections to the modern evolutionary synthesis as an explanation for the present forms of life on planet Earth, various socially conservative, traditionalist, and fundamentalist religious sects and political groups within Christianity and Islam have objected vehemently to the study and teaching of biological evolution. Some adherents of these Christian and Islamic religious sects or political groups are passionately opposed to the consensus view of the scientific community. Literal interpretations of religious texts are the greatest cause of conflict with evolutionary and cosmological investigations and conclusions.
Internationally, biological evolution is taught in science courses with limited controversy, with the exception of a few areas of the United States and several Muslim-majority countries, primarily Turkey. In the United States, the Supreme Court has ruled the teaching of creationism as science in public schools to be unconstitutional, irrespective of how it may be purveyed in theological or religious instruction. In the United States, intelligent design (ID) has been represented as an alternative explanation to evolution in recent decades, but its "demonstrably religious, cultural, and legal missions" have been ruled unconstitutional by a lower court.
Although creationist views are popular among religious education teachers and creationist teaching materials have been distributed by volunteers in some schools, many Australian scientists take an aggressive stance supporting the right of teachers to teach the theory of evolution, unhindered by religious restrictions.
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