Ouch my brain

[ExRetailDrone]

Because churches don't usually get money from the government

By this thinking, public schools should not be able to be forced to teach anything religion-based since there is supposed to be a separation of church and state. Public schools receive government funding, so that separation should be enforced. The operative word in all of this is should.

[BigGiant]

I have no problem with requiring that any teaching of evolution must stress that it is theory

Make sure then that you teach that gravity is only a theory, Newtonian physics is only a theory, and basically all of science with the exception of most Mathematics is nothing more than a theory, because the evidence to support evolution is about as vast as is the evidence that supports Newtonian physics and gravitational theory.

[fireheart17]

By this thinking, public schools should not be able to be forced to teach anything religion-based since there is supposed to be a separation of church and state. Public schools receive government funding, so that separation should be enforced. The operative word in all of this is should.

Reminder folks, this is Australia. Also, private schools tend to get government funding which really really really sucks IMHO as they're pretty much double-dipping.

Make sure then that you teach that gravity is only a theory, Newtonian physics is only a theory, and basically all of science with the exception of most Mathematics is nothing more than a theory, because the evidence to support evolution is about as vast as is the evidence that supports Newtonian physics and gravitational theory.

Read the comments in the link I posted. One bright spark argued that because Pasteur, Newton and a few other scientists believed in creationism, that evolution is only a theory and that since it's a theory, that therefore creationism should be taught in science classes as well.

[Rapscallion]

I have no problem with requiring that any teaching of evolution must stress that it is theory,

In scientific terms, a theory is a hypothesis that has been tested time and again and found to be accurate, with occasional minor alterations. Quite honestly I don't know if it's been proven to theory level, but I'm happy to accept it.

If a public school can be forced to give equal time to creationism, why aren't churches in the same states forced to give equal time to evolution? For that matter, if a teacher can be forced to discuss religion, why cant a minster be required by law to spend x% of his sermons instructing his congregation in algebra?

It's the separation of church and state that's observed by one side, but not the other. I don't know how enshrined that separation is in the US, though - any ideas?

Rapscallion