Introduction
Biological evolution refers to descent with modification. Biologically, descent is taken to refer to the concept of passing traits from one generation to another while on other hand modification is regarded as the change in the composition and frequency of the gene.This is the concept through which the modern species have evolved from their ancestral species as a result of change in frequency of genes of species over many years.These changes of frequencies are passed to the next generation as they are inheritable (Darwin 102)
Meaning of the word theory by scientist
It is a statement of facts which are proved and general. Scientific theory develops from extensive research and scientific data that have accumulated to support its proposition.A good example of a scientific theory is evolution theory. There are many physical evidence and applied scientific technology that support it. When a theory is applied in scientific principles it represents a proposition that is neither proved nor disproved, but contains a lot of evidence that points to its existence. Scientific theory provides explanations of the observations that have been made. It is through such observations that enable scientist to deduce facts which they use to come up with theories. Moreover, investigations are carried out to find out whether these facts are true or not. Generally the term theory can be considered as those principles that try to explain some facts, while a fact taken to refer to some truth that have been confirmed to such an extent that it is not logical to doubt them(Darwin 113).
There are many theories on evolution e.g. Charles Darwin theory which states that all life is related and all organisms came from a common ancestor. Evolutionist today argue that evolution is a fact and the only issue is on the processes involved in Evolution and therefore the term theory is only used when explaining how life evolves(Moran par. 2-5).Evolution is important as it help us to understand the history of life. It enables the mankind appreciate the similarities and the differences of different organisms that exist.
Teaching of Evolution in Kansas
In 1999, the state board of education adopted standard in science that eliminated evolution from school curriculum, but did not do away with the teaching of a controversy theory.On May 2005, another debate was raised that did not encompass about the biblical creationism, but on intelligent design. These hearings which were arranged by conservative Christian board of education were held in Kansas in United States. They occurred from fifth to twelfth May 2005.The parties involved comprised of the Board of Education of Kansas State and the Science hearing committee. The topic of discussion was changing the way evolution and origin of life would be taught (Wilgoren par. 5).
Intelligent designers believed that the life on the earth are the intended work of the creator and cannot be explained beyond the supernatural power and called the teachers and board of the school to come up with other viewpoints concerning the origin of the earth instead of using evolution. During the hearings, evolution was critically analyzed and the participants came with a conclusion that evolution is not a proved theory meaning it is a mere hypothesis from definition of the term theory. Therefore, the science students were advised that evolution is not a fact and hence cannot rule out a theistic source.
Teaching of evolution in public schools
According to my own opinion and some insight from the information I have received from Kansas hearing on Evolution, Evolution should be taught in public schools reasons being; The participants on the hearing agreed that it is a theory and from the definition of theory one can only come up with a theory after doing a lot of research and the likelihood of the facts found to be true are very high. In addition, evolution forms the fundamental principles of biology and since biology is an important subject evolution should be taught (Robinson 1). Moreover, it is related with many subjects like geology and medicine. It is from evolution knowledge that doctors understood why cancer became resistant to anticancer tablets. We can learn many facts even when there is no evolution, but evolutions combines all these facts and help us to come up with better theories. It is clear from the findings that most of us believe that God is the one that created the Universe, but this should not limit us from exploring other possibilities since creation is based on belief which cannot be proved and most of people who were arguing on teaching creationism and doing away with evolution did not provide facts. Therefore, since we cannot prove creationism and disprove evolution we should teach both of them.
Conclusion
Evolution should be taught in schools so that we may raise scientist who can be able to give answers to most of the challenges we face today, but we should not at any time let student doubt the presence of the supernatural power that led to the origin of life. Therefore, we should teach it to allow future researchers that may embark on investigating other controversial issues that contradicts what majority believes in as in the case on evolution theory.
Works Cited
Darwin, Charles. The origin of species. The TalkOrigins Archives, 1909. Web.
Moran, Laurence. Evolution is a fact and a theory. The TalkOrigins Archives, 1993. Web.
Robinson, Brooks. Beliefs of the U.S public about evolution and creation. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, 2009. Web.
Wilgoren, Jodi. Politicized Scholars Put Evolution on the Defensive. New York: New York Times, 2005. Web.