Why do we even teach evolution?

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I don't have anything against education. As a matter of fact, if I won the lottery and didn't have to work anymore, I'd be a professional student for the rest of my life. I love learning. Some people like to study very narrow subjects – something like Russian literature. These might not be very practical degrees to have when you look for a job but, if you like Russian literature, then go for it. Studying evolution is sort of like studying Russian literature. No, it's actually more like studying Big Foot. There's no practical use to it, really, but if you're interested in pseudo-science, then the theory of evolution is for you. I won't stop you – not that I could anyway – but I do object to the way evolution is being taught in many public schools now.

Some years back, I read a New York Times article that cited a supposed dilemma faced by a FL biology teacher. Read the dramatic narrative:

ORANGE PARK, Fla. — David Campbell switched on the overhead projector and wrote “Evolution” in the rectangle of light on the screen.
He scanned the faces of the sophomores in his Biology I class. Many of them, he knew from years of teaching high school in this Jacksonville suburb, had been raised to take the biblical creation story as fact. His gaze rested for a moment on Bryce Haas, a football player who attended the 6 a.m. prayer meetings of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in the school gymnasium.
“If I do this wrong,” Mr. Campbell remembers thinking on that humid spring morning, “I’ll lose him.”

My first thought is the Constitutional concern that a public employee sees it as his personal mission to rid his students of a religiously held belief. What exactly does this teacher mean by “lose him”? It sounds to me like he wants to convince young Bryce that evolution is a fact and if he can't do that, Bryce will be lost!

What I've struggled with for so long is this idea that believing evolution is critical to understanding science. Bill Nye, my arch-nemesis (at least, he would be my arch-nemesis if he knew I existed), is on record for saying the following (NY Times):

[T]here are more people in the world — another billion people all trying to use the world’s resources. And the threat and consequences of climate change are more serious than ever, so we need as many people engaged in how we’re going to deal with that as possible.... My biggest concern about creationist kids is that they’re compelled to suppress their common sense, to suppress their critical thinking skills at a time in human history when we need them more than ever.... There are just things about evolution that we should all be aware of, the way we’re aware of where electricity comes from.

It's just puzzling to claim a student can't understand technology or science unless he believes in evolution. I've seen no evidence, anywhere, to support the idea that people who believe in creation suffer academically (except perhaps being discriminated against by teachers). Furthermore, I've never seen a compelling example of how a belief in evolution is critical to any other field of study.

Jerry Bergman, Ph.D., tackled the myth that nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. He noted that a survey of college text books showed that most barely discuss evolution. The anatomy and physiology text books examined didn't mention evolution at all. Of the colleges surveyed in Ohio and Michigan, biology majors were required to only take one class in evolution.

From Bergman's article, we read this:

National Academy of Science Member and renown carbene chemist, Professor emeritus Dr. Philip Skell of Pennsylvania State University (see Lewis, 1992), did a survey of his colleagues that were “engaged in non-historical biology research, related to their ongoing research projects.” He found that the “Darwinist researchers” he interviewed, in answer to the question, “Would you have done the work any differently if you believed Darwin's theory was wrong?” that “for the large number” of persons he questioned, “differing only in the amount of hemming and hawing” was “in my work it would have made no difference.”

If colleges are supposed to be equipping scientists in their various fields of research, they must not think evolution is very important, considering it's barely mentioned. And you can see that even people who work in biology have admitted that evolution isn't really relevant to their research. Consider this too: can anyone name a single invention or technological advance in the last century that hinged upon an understanding of evolution? Maybe somebody could name one but that is dwarfed by the virtual explosion of technology we've seen in the last 100 years that didn't depend on evolution at all!

Scientists will all swear that everything has evolved even though they are a little “fuzzy” about the details of how, where, and when. Please tell me how practical any theory is to science when many of the details are still “fuzzy.” Nye said, “There are just things about evolution that we should all be aware of, the way we’re aware of where electricity comes from.” Really, Nye? You want us to think we can understand evolution the way we understand electricity? “Science” isn't settled over how, where, and when things evolved. If we had that same lack of precision in how we understand electricity, we'd still be reading by candlelight.

But even if there were complete harmony among all scientists about every point in evolution, it has still not been demonstrated how that contributes to inventing life improving technologies. What would happen if everyone was in agreement about evolution, then suddenly a new fossil – like a rabbit found in the Cambrian – overturned it all? Would airplanes start falling from the sky? Would buildings collapse? Would bridges crumble? These are the kinds of things that could happen if we were dead wrong in a real science like physics. But what about evolution? What would happen if evolutionists were shown to be 100% wrong on some point in their theory. I'll tell you what would happen – a bunch of biologists would drop everything and start running around, redrawing their cherished, nested hierarchy. In the meantime, the rest of science might pause for a moment in healthy curiosity but then would resume its work improving people's lives. The average person wouldn't even notice. Evolution is just that unimportant.

I happen to live in Kentucky. Kentucky, of course, is known for horse racing. Imagine, for a moment, that KY law required schools to teach students the name of every winner of the Kentucky Derby. Kids would have to memorize things like race times, jockey's names, lifetime earnings, etc. What use is any of that in preparing students for life after high school? It's trivia and isn't really applicable to any field of work except maybe a tour guide at the Churchill Downs Museum. Many parents would rightfully object to using precious classroom time to teach something so useless. What's more, some parents might object to learning about horse racing on the grounds that it could promote gambling. Not only would learning about the Derby be insignificant – it would also be controversial. Why would KY do such a thing? The short answer is they don't and they wouldn't. It would be stupid.

That's how I see the teaching of evolution. If evolution is so ancillary to science, if there is no study linking understanding evolution to improved test scores, if evolution is something that kids learn in school but never use again, then why is there this grim determination that students still must learn evolution? We're facing an education crisis where kids lack proficiency in critical skills like reading, math, and history. Why are we wasting time and resources teaching them a skill that is so useless yet still so controversial? Why force public schools into court to defend a sticker in a text book or to remove a teacher who mentions creation? It's obvious that this is less about education and more about indoctrination. Let's just stop the controversies altogether. I'm not saying, “give equal time to creation.” I'm not saying, “teach the difficulties.” I'm saying stop teaching evolution!