Florida's Darwinian Interlude

By Ben Stein

I don't know about anyone else out there, but I'm getting a little frustrated with  our education system, and based on the tone of this article so is Ben Stein. More and more we are being told what we can and can not do and what we can and can not talk about in schools when it comes to religion and science. According to Mr. Stein, in 2008 the state of Florida wanted to pass a law that would not permit anyone in the school system, such as faculty or students, to discuss how life on earth began weather it be by a higher power or a scientific hypothesis. However it would be permitted to discuss the Darwinian theory of evolution. They ended up dropping the pursuit, but I'm not sure how long it will be before someone in another state will try and bring it up again.

As we all know, when the Europeans first came to America they did it because they wanted a change in the way they lived. One of those changes was they wanted the freedom to worship (or not worship) however they pleased. What happened to that freedom? Now you can't pray or talk about God in schools or the work place because you might offend somebody, but children are being taught the theory of evolution in some schools. Even in college. In order to continue my education I was required to take a class that taught the theory of evolution. But no one seems to care that that is also offensive to many.

In the last paragraph of this article Ben writes a sentence that I very much agree with. "Freedom of inquiry is part of freedom of speech." To me this means, I can believe in whatever I want, and my neighbors can believe in whatever they want, and we can still live side by side in peace.