Turkey's new school year: Evolution out, jihadism in for elementary school kids

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

wonderful to see children in Turkey are spending less time learning about that trashbag Kemal Ataturk.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

wonderful to see children in Turkey are spending less time learning about that trashbag Kemal Ataturk.

So you believe children should be taught to memorize prayers in American public schools?

Turkey is an overwhelmingly Muslim country. As long as non-Muslims can opt out of having to learn the Quran and associated Muslim things, I don't see a problem.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

wonderful to see children in Turkey are spending less time learning about that trashbag Kemal Ataturk.

So you believe children should be taught to memorize prayers in American public schools?

Turkey is an overwhelmingly Muslim country. As long as non-Muslims can opt out of having to learn the Quran and associated Muslim things, I don't see a problem.

So you'd be fine with teaching Jihad to children just because "muh majority"? And oppressing scientific facts like evolution is ok too? Come on, Erdogan is absolutely atrocious, don't try to defend him just because you have something against Ataturk.

First of all, evolution theory as we generally know it is just that - a theory. Teaching it in public schools as fact without presenting any alternatives is giving it legitimacy it doesn't deserve. Also, you saying that this is 'teaching Jihad to children' betrays your lack of understanding of what Jihad is.
http://islamicsupremecouncil.org/understanding-islam/legal-rulings/5-jihad-a-misunderstood-concept-from-islam.html?start=9

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

(for the hundreth time)

a scientific theory does not mean the same as the regular word theory...from the wiki

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Evolution is a fact.  As much of a fact as jet engines, Heliocentrism or the physics that make your computer work.  Science is a thousand times more sure of it than they are that human pollution is going to cause large scale changes in regional climates in the future.  Evolution happened and is still happening and will always happen naturally.  That doesn't mean there is no god and that shouldn't make your religion wrong.

I think evolution still happened to some extent and animals obviously haven't been the same since the beginning of time. But I think god served as a big guiding hand. Present day evolution theories generally deny that possibility out of hand.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Science denies a lot about your religion, like a virgin birth is impossible, people don't (tend to) come back from dead, walk around for a few weeks, then fly away.  You can put your personal spin on the ability to walk on water, but you can't put your personal spin on Evolution?

I understand there are people that give you sh**t for it, but ignore those bastards.  It's acceptable to believe in God and science, these things are not mutually exclusive no matter how much extremists from both camps might scream that they are.

I don't believe science and religion are incompatible. In fact they are perfectly complimentary in some circumstances. I love science. I however disagree with a definition of 'science'  that completely takes conventional evolutionary theory as gospel, no questions asked.
I would find it impossible to deny some of the people of the creationist side of the debate have utterly nonsensical views on the topic, however. The Earth isn't 6,000 years old.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Frankly, parents ought to have the right to determine what their children learn unless there is a major overriding reason for the state to interfere. Otherwise we get this creepy Orwellian vibe of the state 'owning' children. Frankly, evolution isn't anywhere near important enough to intervene. If the bulk of parents don't want their children learning it the state should respect their wishes.

While I generally agree with the first part, I don't think I can agree on the second.  Sure, for sh**tty authoritarian hell holes like Turkey in 2017 it probably don't matter too much if they learn proper science or not, but what about Alabama in the 70s?....probably now too sadly.

See, this is where progressives lose me. Proponents of this argument usually assume that it is self-evident that evolution is so important and rarely explain why parental opposition to it must be ignored.

A lot of modern medicine, and understanding of climate change is dependent upon evolution. Also it's incredibly unfair to discriminate against children for having ignorant parents.

You ignore the value of cognitive dissonance. Creationism is by no means a handicap to life.

Your latter point is exactly the kind of malarkey I'm talking about. This sort of reasoning could be applied to all sorts of authoritarian stuff. I don't think they would have done their kids a disservice if they didn't want it taught to them in state schools.

This^
Sidenote atop all of that: homeschooling ought to be legal in Turkey. Sadly it isn't? Dunno for sure, online sources conflict on the issue.