Posted on 10/05/2007 6:26:08 AM PDT by SubGeniusX
The teaching of evolution is becoming increasingly difficult in UK schools because of the rise of creationism, a leading scientist is warning. Head of science at London's Institute of Education Professor Michael Reiss says some teachers, fearful of entering the debate, avoid the subject totally.
This could leave pupils with gaps in their scientific knowledge, he says.
Prof Reiss says the rise of creationism is partly down to the large increase in Muslim pupils in UK schools.
He said: "The number of Muslim students has grown considerably in the last 10 to 20 years and a higher proportion of Muslim families do not accept evolutionary theory compared with Christian families.
"That's one reason why it's more of an issue in schools."
Prof Reiss estimates that one in 10 people in the UK now believes in literal interpretations of religious creation stories - whether they are based on the Bible or the Koran.
Many more teachers he met at scientific meetings were telling him they encountered more pupils with creationist views, he said.
"The days have long gone when science teachers could ignore creationism when teaching about origins."
Instead, teachers should tackle the issue head-on, whilst trying not to alienate students, he argues in a new book.
'Not equally valid'
"By not dismissing their beliefs, we can ensure that these students learn what evolutionary theory really says - and give everyone the understanding to respect the views of others," he added.
His book; Teaching about Scientific Origins: Taking Account of Creationism, gives science teachers advice on how to deal with the "dilemma".
He supports new government guidelines which say creationism should not be discussed in science classes unless it is raised by pupils.
But Prof Reiss argues that there is an educational value in comparing creationist ideas with scientific theories like Darwin's theory of evolution because they demonstrate how science, unlike religious beliefs, can be tested.
The scientist, who is also a Church of England priest, adds that any teaching should not give the impression that creationism and the theory of evolution are equally valid scientifically.
Dr Hilary Leevers, of the Campaign for Science and Engineering, said science teachers would be teaching evolution not creationism and so should not need a book to tell them how to "delicately handle controversy between a scientific theory and a belief".
"The author suggests that science teachers cannot ignore creationism when teaching origins, but the opposite is true," she said.
Teachers could discuss how creationism differed from scientific theory if a student brought up the subject, but any further discussion should occur in religious education lessons, she said.
A Department for Children, Schools and Families spokesman said it had recently published guidelines to teachers on the issue.
"Creationism and intelligent design are not scientific theories nor testable as scientific fact - and have no place in the science curriculum. "But we advise science teachers that when questions about creationism come up in lessons, it provides an opportunity to explain or explore what makes a scientific theory."
I'll leave you to your own musings---yours is neither a debate nor a rational dialogue.
Your understanding is not far off the mark. Darwin’s theories have been cited by socialists and Nazis to justify the practice of eugenics. Not the first time that tyrants have abused science, nor will it be the last.
That's simply a re-statement of your previous statement. I asked for PLAIN ENGLISH.
Intelligent design can only exist where there is bias ? Some PFE, please.
From Mien Kampf:
---"Human culture and civilization on this continent are inseparably bound up with the presence of the Aryan. If he dies out or declines, the dark veils of an age without culture will again descend on this globe. The undermining of the existence of human culture by the destruction of its bearer seems in the eyes of a folkish philosophy the most execrable crime. Anyone who dares to lay hands on the highest image of the Lord commits sacrilege against the benevolent Creator of this miracle and contributes to the expulsion from paradise."
---"It is a sin against the will of the Eternal Creator if His most gifted beings by the hundreds and hundreds of thousands are allowed to degenerate in the present proletarian morass, while Hottentots and Zulu Kaffirs are trained for intellectual professions."
---"What we must fight for is to safeguard the existence and reproductionof our race and our people, the sustenance of our children and the purityof our blood, the freedom and independence of the fatherland, so that ourpeople may mature for the fulfillment of the mission allotted it by the Creator of the universe."
---"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord,"
---"Historical experience offers countless proofs of this. It shows with terrifying clarity that in every mingling of Aryan blood with that of lower peoples the result was the end of the cultured people. North America, whose population consists in by far the largest part of Germanic elements who mixed but little with the lower colored peoples, shows a different humanity and culture from Central and South America, where the predominantly Latin immigrants often mixed with the aborigines on a large scale. By this one example, we can clearly and distinctly recognize the effect of racial mixture. The Germanic inhabitant of the American continent, who has remained racially pure and unmixed, rose to be master of the continent; he will remain the master as long as he does not fall a victim to defilement of the blood. The result of all racial crossing is therefore in brief always the following: To bring about such a development is, then, nothing else but to sin against the will of the Eternal Creator."
---"The folkish-minded man, in particular," Hitler concludes, "has the sacred duty, each in his own denomination, of making people stop just talking superficially of God's will, and actually fulfill God's will, and not let God's word be desecrated. For God's will gave men their form, their essence and their abilities. Anyone who destroys His work is declaring war on the Lord's creation, the divine will."
I can go on if you like ....
God is not obligated to publish a specific classification system, and I didn’t suggest that he had. You are the one that implied by your vulture & halk illustration that scientists are correct in their classification system and that all must bend to it. I will state that no man’s classification system determines truth.
That is because their existence need not be explained by any theory, because they are being created by man in plain view. Their existence proves one thing only, which is that man is capable of creating transgenic life forms. They neither prove nor disprove ID or evolution.
Of course not. I'm being facetious.
But I’ll tell you that I do believe that God has kept some car motors together that should have flown apart, and it was a miracle from God, quite literally, that our family got to our destination. I mean a specific miracle.
I don't doubt the possibility. I've seen a few things happen, that as an engineer, I can't explain. They do not prove God's existence (or more importantly, intervention) to me.
God speaking to me directly ? THAT would eliminate all doubt.
Common descent are parallel evolution explains why new world and old world vultures look similar, yet old world vultures maintain the morphological and molecular similarity that they have retained from their hawk fore-bearers.
What other explanation is there for this data other than a closer relationship between old world vultures and hawks than between new world vultures and old world vultures?
Don’t be upset and flee. That’s the stuff of younger ones.
Just post the published falsification criteria for the Theory of Evolution. No need to dance around or engage in deversions. Just post it.
...or admit that it’s not published. And no, null hypothesis don’t count.
I agree, considering Muslims are at least 2-0 right now.
They bested both gays and women. To be able to take down the velvet mafia without a scratch is quite an achievement.
RE “There is no “maybe” to it. ID explains the creation of all modern transgenic animals.”
ID states the obvious ,claims ‘creation’ and explains nothing. This is nothing new.
ID must explain something in order to state the obvious. QED.
Or will creationsts win and have creationism taught in schools - just the Muslim version of it. "Here we have Abdul and a woman, her name isn't important because she is a mere woman, living happily in the Garden of Allah. Suddenly a Jew tempts the woman to eat a fig from the tree of Knowledge...."
Remember the cynics? They threw meaningless words around as if they were stating something and refused to explain. Because There is nothing to explain. This guy proves ID is nothing but “NA NA NA NA NA, I’M RIGHT AND YOUR WRONG”
“What other explanation is there for this data other than a closer relationship between old world vultures and hawks than between new world vultures and old world vultures?”
And they will produce after their own kind.
you do realize that the Creation Stories of both Christianity and Islam are for all purposes identical.
and oft times the "theories" of Muslim Creation Scientists are oft referenced by the ID crowd on FR
I didn't say I had to be cognizant of them. I said "facts" have to be demonstrable and undeniable, not that they were demonstrated (to me) and undenied (by me).
Please consider my analogies. "If you eat a teaspoonful of potassium cyanide you will die." Both demonstrable and deniable only by fools and democrats.
ID is not a "fact". For that matter, neither is evolution.
Sure seems that way.
Actually small "e" evolution is a fact -- the fact that changes occur from generation to generation.
The Theory of Evolution is a theory which seeks to explain those changes.
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