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At what age did you learn about evolution?

One of the counter-blows the Creationists try to pull when I criticize them for indoctrinating small children is, "evolution is indoctrination".
Which is ridiculous for several reasons. One of them being; religious indoctrination starts at the age of five (with most people I've talked to) and the school I attended started on evolution when we were thirteen.

But maybe that's just me. Do you remember when you were first taught the theory of evolution?

MLinoge 7 Feb 2
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0

I don't remember learning about evolution in school at all, but them school was a long time ago for me.

1

My religious indoctrination began at age 4.

Evolution is a bit harder to pin point as I learned it in bits and pieces. The entire theory of evolution was never taught to me in any school. I got a piece here and another piece there, and as the pieces came together to form an over all picture it made a lot more sense than the religious version.It really could not be considered any kind of "indoctrination" in any way.

1

At 5 They showed us the concept. At 6 They explained it more. By 9 They have covered the basics and taught Darwin.

Evolution isn't anti-religion. However denying it is Anti-Science.

1

Evolution was taught in our high school, but anyone with open ears would have known about it way before that through radio, television, books, magazines and newspapers. It was even discussed at the Baptist Church where we went. The consensus there seemed to be that no one knows how God creates, and that God could well have created through evolution. So far as the seven days bit in Genesis, it was said that a day could have represented a billion years for all anybody knew.

What concerns me more than the indoctrination of children into creationism is the apparent indoctrination of adults into a dogmatic attachment to an outmoded theory of evolution. Evidence shows clearly that the way we were taught evolution in school is incorrect or incomplete, and that evolution is not driven only by random mutations and natural selection. There seems to be very little interest in epigenetics. Apparently most people have their fake world views well protected and don’t want to be bothered by worrisome evidence to the contrary.

1

I don't remember how old I was when I was first taught about evolution.

The more important difference is that evolution is based on science, while creationism is based on mythology. We need more science and less fantasy.

1

I started asking questions about things in the bible that did not make sense when I was eight years old. I did not learn about evolution until I went to college at sixteen. I learned about Darwin and dr. Leakey at that time.

2

I was baptised and brought up, fairly loosely, as a Catholic. It never occurred to me that creation was what really happened, although I didn't have the vocabulary it was, to me, a metaphor for something. Evolution always seemed sensible, again to me, and the two were never in conflict as they were fulfilling different needs in different areas. Obviously that's not the issue for most people.

1

I the UK there was/is a long standing system of education , in which biology was taught with evolution being one of the last things taught, so that many, except those who took the advanced options, never reached it. Yet as R. Dawkins often points out, evolution by natural selection is very easy to understand, child's play in fact, since it is logical and children do not find logic hard. Yet they are given the hard details of biology to rote learn first, which is off putting for many, especially without the underlying system which explains it. There is no doubt that the church which is very powerful in our education system originated much of this.

4

Not really. But I've been teaching it in my high school science classes for the last 30 years. My students come to me having heard of evolution, may not understand it or know its nuances. But definitely know it exists. Would quit my job before I ever taught or gave credence to creation scientism.

The sad thing is though. Why do they have to wait for high school ? Evolution is so easy when the mind is young and fresh, and what better story is there than the story of life on earth, and what small children do not love stories.

@Fernapple agreed

3

I don't know, but I do remember when I was 7-8-9 talking to a friend, and we both agreed that evolution must have been the way god did things, lol. We sensed science was real, but we also sensed we should not be crossing adults on the idea of god--so we split the difference.

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