This article first appeared in Radical Sages: An Evolution of Spiritual Action, May 29, 2005.
Banners fly in our schools once more as the armies of Evolutionists and Creationists face off against each other: the canons of academia and the pews armed and aimed. In the middle Truth stands, blasted from both sides. For what are we really teaching the children in this battle of who is right?
As a teacher, I like to believe I am guiding those under my auspices to think in a way that looks at any idea from a variety of perspectives, and to teach them by example to be comfortable in not knowing. Instead, I see children being taught exclusively in a dualistic manner that either something is right or wrong, true of false. After all, education has become nothing more than taking tests where no ambiguities have a place. Oh, if life was so simple! But it is not. We come to conclusions based on a handful of facts. In the case of Evolutionists and Creationists, the former looks at the hard data of what our limited senses have gathered and the latter at what their holy book tells them.
Because we generally do not like to be in the place of unknowing, we find the truth and then defend it with all our might. With this limited mode of thinking we become a something and those who disagree become others: Believers and Infidels, Democrats and Republicans, Patriots and Traitors, Conservatives and Liberals, Saved and Sinners, etc. What we get is a society of people who are not thinkers but reactionaries who are easily manipulated by others who pull on emotional strings. Just look at our political process now. How many people look at issues by themselves? Most will vote by joining some camp. “You are either with us or against us,” is a rallying cry said or unsaid from all too many camps.
So when an emotional issue comes up, which we could see as another opportunity of looking at reality from a variety of perspectives, such as: whether we exist because of a Big Bang and the subsequent rippling of evolution or because God created us in seven days, we meet the ideas with fear. Each side pulls out syringes of authority and shoots our children with the indoctrination of their truth.
Let us trust our children, especially our teenagers who want to critically examine the world around them (ask any parent!), to come to their own conclusions that are free to change as they grow and continue to question. Let them view such great questions about creation from not just one or two viewpoints but from a plethora of views, (the Hindu’s or the Hopi’s or the Mayan’s or the Taoist’s or the many other jewels) and let them come to appreciate the differences and the common ground of each.
Maybe when we trust our children and not impose upon them our beliefs, but lovingly place before them the mighty thoughts of humanity, we might have a society of free thinkers who want to keep learning. But do we really want such open-minded citizens that will question what we tell them is true? Perhaps that is the real issue.
Janaka Stagnaro 2005
www.janakastagnaro.com