Ministers to ban creationist teaching aids in science lessons (In the UK)

THE GUARDIAN ^ | 12/07/2006 | James Randerson, science correspondent

[SirLinksalot]

Ministers to ban creationist teaching aids in science lessons

· Schools will be told not to use special pack

· Intelligent design group asks for meeting

The government is to write to schools telling them that controversial teaching materials promoting creationism should not be used in science lessons.

The packs include DVDs and written materials promoting intelligent design, a creationist alternative to Darwinism, that were sent to every school in the country by the privately-funded group Truth in Science. Advocates of the theory argue that some features of the universe and nature are so complex that they must have been designed by a higher intelligence. Last week, the Guardian revealed that 59 schools had told Truth in Science the materials were a "useful classroom resource".

The government has already stated that the Truth in Science materials should not be used in science lessons. On November 1, the education minister, Jim Knight, wrote: "Neither intelligent design nor creationism are recognised scientific theories and they are not included in the science curriculum. The Truth in Science information pack is therefore not an appropriate resource to support the science curriculum." The Department for Education said it was working with the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, the public body that oversees the national curriculum, to communicate this message directly to schools.

But Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrats' science spokesman, said: "I'm amazed that they have found it so difficult and it has taken so long." He feared that some teachers would use the packs to promote intelligent design as a belief or that it would be presented as a valid scientific theory.

"[Pupils] are somehow being told these agendas are alternative ways of looking at things. They are not at all," the Nobel prizewinner and prime mover in the Human Genome Project, John Sulston, said

[SirLinksalot]

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Related Links :

* Richard Dawkins Campaigns to Keep God out of UK Classrooms.

SEE HERE : http://politics.guardian.co.uk/Education/schools/story/0,,1958138,00.html

* The Rise of Creationism In UK Schools

SEE HERE :

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/Education/schools/story/0,,1957858,00.html

* UK Exam Board Brings Creationism Into Science Class

SEE HERE :

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/Education/schools/story/0,,1728235,00.html

[Tamar1973]

Are they allowed to homeschool their children in the UK?

[Elpasser]

This is extraordinary. The government intervenes to tell every school in the country not to use privately-provided materials that promote a particular theory?

Just more evidence that evolution is a house of cards being propped up by idealogues in academia and government. You would never see such intervention if the issue was accupuncture, aromatherapy, or alleged Africans discovering America in 1200 A.D.

THe students have brains, don't they? Teach them to think and decide for themselves!

[From many - one.]

Science in science class and reigion in religion class.

Do you always want students to decide for themselves? Say, for instance, how much homework is required? Vote on if math (or maths since this is England) is needed past multiplication? There's a theory I heard years ago that humans will naturally pick a balanced diet. Shall we let the schoolkids decide if thye think this is true?

[lilburne]

At last a sense of responsibility from the Blair government on this issue. The idiot had to be told by the Bishops back in 2002 that creationism was not science.
http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,680792,00.html
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04470a.htm

[Coyoteman]

This is extraordinary. The government intervenes to tell every school in the country not to use privately-provided materials that promote a particular theory religious belief?

There, fixed it for you.

And where is all of this coming from? Why, right here: The Wedge Strategy: Center for the Renewal of Science & Culture

One of the Center's "governing goals" is "To replace materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature and human beings are created by God."

This is not science, and has no business in science class.

[doc30]

Good decision on the part of the UK government. The warped concepts expressed in teaching creationist/ID material worse for the students than the concepts of ID and creationsm themselves.

[RoadTest]

Evolution has no more place in science classes than does creationism. It is a religion with no basis in physical fact.

It remains a hypothesis, just as it started out. Nothing has happened to change that.

[Coyoteman]

Evolution has no more place in science classes than does creationism. It is a religion with no basis in physical fact. It remains a hypothesis, just as it started out. Nothing has happened to change that.

Sorry, your information is seriously out of date. There is a huge amount of data supporting the theory of evolution, most of it "physical fact." The fossil below is just one piece of that data, and its a transitional as well (note its position in the chart which follows; hint--in the upper center).

If you like I can post additional data, but the short version I have available runs perhaps 50 screens, so here's a link instead: Ichneumon's legendary post #52.

I can also post some good definitions of terms, such as "theory" and "hypothesis" as they are used in science if you would like.

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Fossil: KNM-ER 3733

Site: Koobi Fora (Upper KBS tuff, area 104), Lake Turkana, Kenya (4, 1)

Discovered By: B. Ngeneo, 1975 (1)

Estimated Age of Fossil: 1.75 mya * determined by Stratigraphic, faunal, paleomagnetic & radiometric data (1, 4)

Species Name: Homo ergaster (1, 7, 8), Homo erectus (3, 4, 7), Homo erectus ergaster (25)

Gender: Female (species presumed to be sexually dimorphic) (1, 8)

Cranial Capacity: 850 cc (1, 3, 4)

Information: Tools found in same layer (8, 9). Found with KNM-ER 406 A. boisei (effectively eliminating single species hypothesis) (1)

Interpretation: Adult (based on cranial sutures, molar eruption and dental wear) (1)

See original source for notes:
Source: http://www.mos.org/evolution/fossils/fossilview.php?fid=33

Source: http://wwwrses.anu.edu.au/environment/eePages/eeDating/HumanEvol_info.html