That was a good read, one of the better explanations I've read for the big bang theory.

Unfortunately we'll never be in agreement just because I was brought up religious and that's what I choose to believe; but if there were Atheists such as yourself who are willing to explain their thinking rather then just saying religion is wrong or stupid (and vice versa for religious people) then I'm sure we'd all get along much better!

That's fair enough, I can agree with this. Agree to disagree respectfully. I think sometimes tensions can arise between theists and atheists and it just results in what is essentially "playground name calling"and that just goes round in circles; it all depends on how good you are at not getting dragged into it. I think I've become much better in recent years.

I have to say that you are certainly one of the most respectful users on this site. 

AWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!

Group hug *huggles*

Thank you, I would say the exact same thing for you! I'm glad you made an effort to explain your thinking instead of as you said, turning it into a playground name calling session.

This is why you need a privatized school system in America.

Should such a system be initiated, then schools would have the power to decide if some nut job's viewpoint is accepted curriculum or not - and this goes for whatever your worldview is (atheist, theist, ID-er/creationist, or hard evolutionist). It also enables the public to ensure that their kinds aren't being indoctrinated by an extremist view - if you don't like Sister Beatrice teaching that Jesus created the earth in 6 days, then you can take your kid out and plug 'em into a school across the street.

For every McLeroy, you can easily have someone on the other side of the fence that may want to revise history in the other direction. If individual schools have the ability to decide what is taught, without fear of a government institution destroying them, then common sense will win out, and kids will be taught properly.

Quite sad that our textbook setup is a counterbalance between 2 extremes (left and right) that aren't anywhere near the actual ideologies of every day Americans. Ugh American politics in general is screwed up by this. The polarization of the 2 sides is exactly what the founding fathers tried to prohibit from happening. Seems public opinion sways with the wind faster than the founders thought.

As for this, religion has absolutely no place in a science class whatsoever. It isn't science nor even pseudoscience which is pretty bad in itself haha. Religion belongs in philosophy, history, literature, and of course "religious studies" class. People can believe whatever they want, but when they get to a science class they are to learn science. Religion shouldn't be taken out of schools but where you teach it and how you teach it in schools should fall under the same restrictions as every other subject.

Before taking the private school route, come on over to Korea and look at the hagwons (private academies). It's a great system for pandering to parents, but when it comes to kids getting a solid education... Well... That rarely ends up being the best way to pander to the parents.

I know my statement isn't in regard to textbook selection or ideology pervading the classroom, but still, private school systems are NOT the way to go.

As soon as you put an unmeasureable theological event into a scientific theory it goes beyond the scope of scientific theory and becomes theological in its nature. And hence it shouldn't be taught in the Science classroom. Feel free to teach it in the religious studies class.
However if theology is to be taught in a Science classroom then I think science should be taught in the religious classroom.

Its only fair to fully represent both thoughts in both classes now isn't it?

Then how would you fix the atrocious American system of schools?

I don't know if there are enough parallels that you can really draw the conclusion that the conditions that cause failures there exist in the US.  This is particularly so when private schools, and specifically the school voucher system, have been extremely successful in the US at bringing test scores up for students in the public schools. 

It is also worthy of noting that they do it at literally a fraction of the cost. The example of the DC voucher program being an instance where expenditures per student were halved for voucher students and they saw significant test score increases.  Of course that program was cut off over the past few months despite its tremendous success...or perhaps because of it?  I'm not sure if I'm that cynical just yet, but it certainly seems suspect in the absence of some justification...but I digress.