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Bible-quoting science students on rise (USA spreads 'infectious diesease to UK)
Sidney Morning Herald ^ | 22 Feb 2006 | Duncan Campbell

Posted on 02/21/2006 6:57:32 PM PST by gobucks

A GROWING number of science students on British university campuses are challenging the theory of evolution, saying that Darwin was wrong.

Some are being failed in university exams because they quote sayings from the Bible or Koran as scientific fact and at one college in London, most biology students are now thought to be creationists.

Earlier this month, Muslim medical students in London distributed leaflets that dismissed Darwin's theories as false. Evangelical Christian students are also increasingly vocal in challenging the notion of evolution.

In the US, there is growing pressure to teach creationism or "intelligent design" in science classes, despite legal rulings against it. Similar trends in Britain have prompted the Royal Society, Britain's leading scientific academy, to confront the issue head-on with a talk next month entitled "Why Creationism is wrong", when the award-winning geneticist and author Steve Jones will deliver the lecture and challenge creationists, Christian and Islamic, to argue their case rationally.

"There is an insidious and growing problem," said Professor Jones, of University College London. "It's a step back from rationality. They [the creationists] don't have a problem with science, they have a problem with argument. And irrationality is a very infectious disease, as we see from the US."

Leaflets that question Darwinism were circulated among students at the Guys Hospital site of King's College London this month as part of the Islam Awareness Week, organised by the college's Islamic Society. One member of staff at Guys said that he found it deeply worrying that Darwin was being dismissed by people who would soon be practising as doctors.

The leaflets are produced by the Al-Nasr Trust, a charity based in Slough, west of London, set up in 1992 with the aim of improving the understanding of Islam.

The passage quoted from the Koran says: "And God has created every animal from water. Of them there are some that creep on their bellies, some that walk on two legs and some that walk on four. God creates what he wills for verily God has power over all things."

A 21-year-old medical student and member of the Islamic Society, who asked not to be named, said the Koran was clear that man had been created and had not evolved as Darwin says. "There is no scientific evidence for it [Darwin's Origin of Species]. It's only a theory. Man is the wonder of God's creation."

He did not feel that a belief in evolution was necessary to study medicine, although he added that, if writing about it was necessary for passing an exam, he would do so. At another London campus, some students have been failed because they have presented creationism as fact. They have been told by their examiners that, while they are entitled to explain both sides of the debate, they cannot present the Bible or Koran as scientifically factual if they want to pass exams. David Rosevear, of the Britain-based Creation Science Movement, which supports the idea of creationism, said that there was an increasing interest in the subject among students.

"I've got no problem with an all-powerful God producing everything in six days," he said, calling it an early example of the six-day week. Most of the next generation of medical and science students could be creationists, according to a biology teacher at a leading London college. "The vast majority of my students now believe in creationism," she said, "and these are thinking young people who are able and articulate and not at the dim end at all."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: crevolist; darwin; europeanchristians; evangelicals; evolution; fideism; fundamentalism; intelligentdesign; irrationality; scienceeducation; secularism; ukmuslims
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To: Dick Vomer

I didn't know that. Which book?


21 posted on 02/21/2006 7:22:22 PM PST by gobucks (Blissful Marriage: A result of a worldly husband's transformation into the Word's wife.)
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To: tenn2005

The very first reason is not quite accurate. For most of recorded human history civilizations were polytheists, they believed in many gods. Most of them were gods of items and events. Like Ra the sun god or Mars was the god of war.


22 posted on 02/21/2006 7:22:37 PM PST by trashcanbred (Anti-social and anti-socialist)
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To: trashcanbred

Did you read the article or just the title?


23 posted on 02/21/2006 7:24:49 PM PST by tenn2005 (Birth is merly an event; it is the path walked that becomes one's life.)
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To: gobucks
Rather odd that the title says Bible-quoting when the only quoted reference was from the quran.
24 posted on 02/21/2006 7:25:10 PM PST by highlander_UW (I don't know what my future holds, but I know Who holds my future)
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To: gobucks
One member of staff at Guys said that he found it deeply worrying that Darwin was being dismissed by people who would soon be practising as doctors.

Yes they'll be oblivous to their patient's "evolving", and they'll fail to treat their patients like simians. /sarc

25 posted on 02/21/2006 7:25:46 PM PST by Rightwing Conspiratr1
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To: gobucks
one can expect that all anti-creation and anti-ID arguments in the future will try to tar and feather w/ the "Islamic are Creationists too" card.

If the shoe fits .....

26 posted on 02/21/2006 7:25:52 PM PST by narby (Hillary! The Wicked Witch of the Left)
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To: Lunatic Fringe
I remember reading once that humans are becoming less hairy, and in about 5,000 years we'll be born bald for life.

I don't see what the selective pressure for that would arise from. With grooming, any social bias against excessive hair can now be circumvented, so I doubt the very recent associated reduction in genetic fitness will extend into future generations.

27 posted on 02/21/2006 7:26:01 PM PST by M203M4
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To: highlander_UW

Hmmm. Now that you mention it ... I guess it is ok to print the Koran stuff in newspapers, but the Bible stuff... well.... that would be troublesome...


28 posted on 02/21/2006 7:27:06 PM PST by gobucks (Blissful Marriage: A result of a worldly husband's transformation into the Word's wife.)
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To: Lunatic Fringe
"Evolution is scientific fact. It is a "theory," "
LOL!
The scientific "theory of evolution" has not been proven in the same way that the "theory of mathematics" has been proven.
Don't attempt to misuse and abuse the lowly "language arts" as a craven and contrived method to bolster your unproven quasi-scientific belief system!
Just start the science class segment stating: we have no real proof, but this is our best scientific WAG as to how sentient life began on this planet...
29 posted on 02/21/2006 7:28:53 PM PST by sarasmom (I don't care who John Gault is, I just need his email address.)
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To: gobucks
Darwin had a little girl he loved dearly ... who died when she was young. Did you know the only formal degree Darwin was ever awarded was a ....Theology degree?

Yes... at that time (1800's) most naturalist were clergymen of some sort. Like Gregor Mendel, who is considered the founding father of genetics, was a monk.

30 posted on 02/21/2006 7:31:20 PM PST by trashcanbred (Anti-social and anti-socialist)
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To: M203M4

It has to do with disease and sex.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s876284.htm


31 posted on 02/21/2006 7:32:22 PM PST by Lunatic Fringe (North Texas Solutions http://ntxsolutions.com)
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To: gobucks

Not going away. The Evol-Doers will actually have to start supporting there fantasies with evidence and no longer assume abject obedience.


32 posted on 02/21/2006 7:32:43 PM PST by keithtoo (It's STILL not safe to vote Democrat)
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To: tenn2005

No I read it all and I disagree with it. Not every culture believed in one being creating everything even if they were polytheist.


33 posted on 02/21/2006 7:33:52 PM PST by trashcanbred (Anti-social and anti-socialist)
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To: sarasmom

You think John Galt would have been a creationist?


34 posted on 02/21/2006 7:37:04 PM PST by narby (Hillary! The Wicked Witch of the Left)
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To: gobucks

LOL!

I heard someone say the other day that the end of the Enlightenment was coming because of Evangelicals and conservative Catholics. Best compliment I have heard in a while


35 posted on 02/21/2006 7:37:37 PM PST by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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To: Lunatic Fringe

Interesting.


36 posted on 02/21/2006 7:38:53 PM PST by M203M4
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To: sarasmom

Your problem is your significant misunderstanding of the difference beween scientific theory and scientific law.

A law is simple, and explains what happens. Like the law of gravity.

A theory is complex, and explains how things happen.


37 posted on 02/21/2006 7:39:34 PM PST by Lunatic Fringe (North Texas Solutions http://ntxsolutions.com)
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To: redgolum
I heard someone say the other day that the end of the Enlightenment was coming because of Evangelicals and conservative Catholics.

That someone is wrong. It will come because of the Islamic fundamentalists, if anyone.

38 posted on 02/21/2006 7:40:31 PM PST by M203M4
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To: cripplecreek

I cringe.


39 posted on 02/21/2006 7:40:58 PM PST by SteveMcKing
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To: gobucks

Lotta anti-God attitudes in France. Amoral and immoral and two-faced...


40 posted on 02/21/2006 7:47:46 PM PST by 185JHP ( "The thing thou purposest shall come to pass: And over all thy ways the light shall shine.")
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