>Hilmar,
>I would agree with you that the general level of science as taught in secondary and primary schools is dated. However, evolution is a different matter because it is not taught as Science but as Faith. Follow this thread and you will see the Faith of many who expouse evolution. Here is a faith statemnt - Time + Chance = Order. No matter how the issue is wrapped up in this or that theory or whatever Scientific terminology it remains a matter of Faith. However this is a strange Faith because those who hold it deny that it is Faith. One of the respondents went into a lengthy discussion of how cells were formed via Evolution. What he was presenting was purely theoretical, but he was presenting it as fact. I say theoretical because it is not disprovable. What is not testable nor disprovable must be accepted by Faith.

There are details which can be considered to be very certain, and others where there are still doubts.

For instance, I would consider it quite certain that there can be mutations, and that complex living beings evolve from more simple ones. It should suffice to see the fossil records.

Now, some of the details are still unknown, and those include some very critical details: you mention the cell. It is precisely the very early phases of life - some billion years ago, or more - where the details are enshrouded in a deep mystery.

And, I think it should be made quite clear, and especially in schools, what part of the theory is based on a firm foundation, and what part on speculation, or belief, as you call it.

By the way, and just to make my point of view quite clear, I consider myself a religious person (member of the Bahá'í Faith), and if someone says "God created Nature, animals, plants, etc.", I can only agree. But on the other hand, I don't mind discussing God's methods in doing so - and it seems quite obvious that these methods include evolution.