Why should people accept evolution as fact?

As a zoology student and a lover of the Natural World, I have always had a huge interest in evolution. The fact that every organism on Planet Earth has been moulded by its environment and the other living organisms around it, and how  random changes that occur in the DNA can give certain organisms a higher chance of survival over others, allowing its particular traits to carry on into future generations, which has lead to the rich diversity of life we see today, continues to blow me away. But what blows me away even more than this is the fact that millions of people all over the world still disregard evolution as a lie. A hoax. Something easily falsifiable, and nothing more than just a theory; a statement that makes no logical sense in the scientific community. 

Obviously religion is a major factor in whether you accept evolution or not. As someone who is not at all religious, I tend to look at life as an accidental occurrence. That of which has formed due to Planet Earth having had the correct conditions in terms of temperature, atmosphere, and other abiotic factors to allow certain chemical processes to happen, leading to the development of reproductive life as time progressed. 

However for the majority of christians for example, who believe that every living creature on Earth was designed in its existing form today by an omnipotent God, my views must sound ridiculous and blasphemous. These conflicting views have and continue to create difficult questions, one of the most arduos being "What viewpoint should be taught in science class?". A question that has turned scientists, theists, as well as the general public against each other many times. 

Many scientists have even made it one of their life goals to get more people to accept the theory of evolution. Famous zoologist and iconic atheist Richard Dawkins has written many books discussing the evidence proving evolution to be fact, and to this day gives public talks and appears on TV discussing the subject.

But why should more people accept evolution? Why not let atheists and agnostics believe it, and leave everyone who doesn't believe it alone? Well in my opinion this would be detrimental because of  how much evidence there is for evolution by natural selection, and how illogical it is not to agree with this evidence. 

The rich fossil record which not only shows an increasing in complexity of many lineages, while also linking ancient organisms with their living counterparts, is evidence enough as it is. But along with the genetic evidence, the ability to view evolution occurring in fast-producing organisms, atavistic mutations and much more, it is irrefutable. 

And when people teach others that evolution is a lie, they are teaching them to ignore substantial evidence because they counteract their own beliefs, which is not a useful characteristic if we want a forward thinking, and intelligent society. Also, all of biology from its rich diversity to the physical and behavioural traits that make up this living world, is explained by evolution and nothing else. And by teaching people that evolution is false, adequately studying the biological world becomes impossible.

The question highlighted above "What viewpoint should be taught in science class?" has and continues to cause debate as well as outrage. Outrage for the religious when children are taught that we evolved from ancient life forms and are closely related to Chimpanzees, and outrage for atheists when Adam and Eve is taught as the origin of life. To conclude I would like to say that creationist views should never be taught in science class for three main reasons. 

Firstly, creationist texts from the bible to the qu'ran lack scientific evidence (regardless of what Ken Ham spews), so do not belong in a science class. 

Secondly, due to the many religions that exist today, how can one religion take precedence in the classroom over all of the hundreds of others. 

And thirdly, science-based topics such as evolution, as well as the big bang theory exist because they have scientific backing, and teaching people, be they children or adult, to take subjects with scientific evidence more seriously than others is vital to improving our society.

-Thomas Glen 

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