Evolution is the Fittest Survivor

Despite the Theory of Evolution becoming more refined as the years pass, it still remains one of the most contentiously debated topics since Charles Darwin's scientific breakthrough in the 19th century.  So, why is this theory controversial?  Why don't theists hotly debate the Theory of Gravitation as well?  It is because the Theory of Evolution goes against the religious idea that the Christian god made all species as they were in the beginning of creation.  Evolution tells a different story than the one within the Bible; and if major plot points in the Bible do not correlate with such a major history telling theory, then that theory is assumed to be detrimentally flawed.  Such a theory must be wrong, in their eyes, because if it is true, then the Biblical history begins to fall apart.

Hence, the reason for breaking ground on the Discorvery Institute, an organization devoted to finding evidence for Creationism or Intelligent Deisgn, and the wide attack on the integrity of science in public schools.  Theists posit that if schools "teach the controversy" or include all competing ideas in the science curriculum, Creationism has a fighting chance to stick with the next generation of youth.  What they don't realize is that the Theory of Evolution and Creationism are not competing scientific theories.  In fact, Creationism isn't a scientific theory at all.  Creationism doesn't have testable data that can help explain its process, despite the Discovery Institute's best efforts.  In the end, it cannot receive the consensus it needs in the scientific community to become a legitimate contender.

Even if we were going to "teach the controversy," we might as well include all available ideas and not just the false dichotomy between Evolution and Creationism.  For instance, time would be doled out to discuss spontaneous speciation.  This is the idea that species randomly and suddenly change into other species; poof.  Douglas Adam's The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy tells of the Heart of Gold ship with the Infinite Improbability Drive that displays this concept quite nicely when its use spontaneously turns the main characters into flowers.  A second idea that should be considered is the one that many proponents of Creationism incorrectly use to describe the Theory of Evolution, known to them as Macro-Evolution.  An example of such is the duck turning into a cat or a dog turning into a horse over time.  Another idea to consider would be that all species have a changeling ability, in that they can selectively quickly morph into whatever species meets their needs, like Mystique from X-Men or Odo from Star Trek Deep Space Nine.  Perhaps we can teach that contact with toxic waste or venomous creatures mutates the affected into completely different species with super powers, such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Spiderman.  There's also Creationism, the idea that all species were created just as they are now and no changes occur whatsoever.  These are all options that flood the realm of hypotheses, or testable ideas.

Howerver, based on the available evidence on Earth, including fossils and studies of fruit flies and flu viruses, the only idea that can explain what we see in nature and in laboratories is evolution.  Time and again fossils are dug up by paleontologists that repeatedly test and improve our understanding of evolution.  Sure there are holes in understanding and findings sometimes create questions, but the available data nevertheless continues to show that species change into other species over time through natural selection.  This is why only Evolution out of the bunch is granted the esteemed title of scientific theory.  All other ideas fail the rigorous test of the scientific method and should not be included in a science curriculum.  Hypotheses, like Creationism, deserve only a tiny side note when teaching Evolution.  A better outlet to discuss this concept within public school grounds would be electives, like the History of Creationism and Religious Studies, or perhaps a debate club focusing on Evolution versus Creationism.