Creation vs evolution in England state school

Guardian UK ^ | 03/09/2002 | Tania Branigan

[geros]

Tania Branigan Saturday March 9, 2002 The Guardian

Fundamentalist Christians who do not believe in evolution have taken control of a state-funded secondary school in England.

In a development which will astonish many British parents, creationist teachers at the city technology college in Gateshead are undermining the scientific teaching of biology in favour of persuading pupils of the literal truth of the Bible.

Emmanuel College - set up by the Tories - is designated a beacon school by the Labour government and its backers are sponsoring a city academy to be built in nearby Middlesbrough.

City technology colleges are technically independent schools but charge no fees because they are funded by the government as well as the private sector. City academies are similar although local education authorities have to agree to their creation.

The school is hosting a creationist conference this weekend and senior staff have given a series of lectures at the college urging teachers to promote biblical fundamentalism and giving tips on techniques to make pupils doubt the theory of evolution.

The creationist lobby has become increasingly notorious in the US, but until recently it has been relatively weak in Europe. The Anglican and Catholic hierarchies have accepted evolution as a fact, with the Pope saying it was "more than just a hypothesis."

Under the national curriculum, schools must teach evolution but are not banned from teaching creationism as well. That leaves Emmanuel's teachers free to present evolution merely as a "theory" no different from the idea that the world was made in six days.

Nigel McQuoid, the school's head, told us it was "fascist" to say that schools should not consider creationist theories.

Mr McQuoid and his predecessor John Burn wrote in an article in 1997: "To teach children that they are nothing more than developed mutations who evolved from something akin to a monkey and that death is the end of everything is hardly going to engender within them a sense of purpose, self-worth and self-respect."

Emmanuel is a non-denominational Christian school which achieves consistently outstanding academic results and received a glowing Ofsted report last year.

Sponsorship It was built with £2m of sponsorship from Sir Peter Vardy, the multimillionaire entrepreneur behind the Reg Vardy car dealerships, who remains chairman of the college's board of directors.

Another of Emmanuel's directors is Baroness Cox, the Conservative peer who in 1988 sponsored amendments to the education reform bill stating that religious education in state schools should be "in the main Christian". Sir Peter, an evangelical Christian, has donated a further £2m via his charitable Vardy Foundation to build a city academy in nearby Middlesbrough, due to open in 2003, and has offered to fund five more. Mr McQuoid and Mr Burn, the Vardy Foundation's chief education adviser, are helping to set it up, as no head has yet been appointed.

Mr Burn is one of the founders of the Newcastle-based Christian Institute, set up in 1991 to promote fundamentalist Christian beliefs. It now boasts 12 full-time employees, 10,000 supporters and according to its accounts it earned £500,000 last year, all in donations.

Other founding members of the institute include the Rev David Holloway, vicar at Jesmond parish church in Newcastle and the Rev George Curry, who presides at two churches in the inner city area of Elswick and chairs the council of the Church Society, the leading evangelist body in the Church of England. Both men are traditionalists and outspoken opponents of the ordination of women.

Mr Holloway is also a founder member of Reform, an evangelical pressure group within the Church of England, and in the 1980s proposed that bishops should face a "heresy test".

The Christian Institute has no formal links to the school, but senior members of staff have published papers on education on the organisation's website.

In a lecture co-authored by Mr Burn and Mr McQuoid, they observe: "Clearly schools are required to teach evolutionary theory. We agree that they should teach evolution as a theory and faith position... Clearly also schools should teach the creation theory as literally depicted in Genesis. Ultimately, both creation and evolution are faith positions."

Mr McQuoid stresses that the school teaches alternatives to the Christian faith, discussing other religions and even atheism, and says that he wants his pupils to learn to make up their own minds.

He said: "A group of folk have contacted the press saying it's not legitimate to have a school consider the scientific case for creation. I think that's fascist.

"The evolution/creation debate is all about to what extent the scientific evidence is there to support or undermine the other view... I don't think [evolution] is as proven as the world being round."

But in lectures several of his staff members have urged teachers to "show the superiority" of creationist theories. In a lecture given at the college last year, to an adult audience, the vice-principal, Gary Wiecek, commented: "As Christian teachers it is essential that we are able to counter the anti-creationist position... It must be our duty as Christian teachers to counter these false doctrines with well-founded insights."

In another talk, Paul Yeulett, senior assessment co-ordinator and maths teacher, says that evolutionists have "a faith which is blind and vain by comparison with the faith of the Christian... A Christian teacher of biology will not (or should not) regard the theory of evolution as axiomatic, but will oppose it while teaching it alongside creation."

The star speaker at today's conference at Emmanuel is Ken Ham, president of the Answers in Genesis international ministry, whose lectures include Evolution: The Anti-God Religion of Death.

Mr McQuoid said the school had hired itself to Answers in Genesis as a venue; the conference was not a school event.

Sir Peter, who was knighted last year, left school at 16 with one O-level, but transformed his father's business from a single outlet to a network of 80 dealerships around the country. But he chooses to draw an annual salary of £120,000 and distribute the entire annual dividend from his private shareholding to educational and children's causes via the Vardy Foundation. He said: "All we are saying is that it's up to children to make their own minds up. I haven't had any complaints... The parents are happy, the students and teachers are happy; we have them standing in queues waiting to get in."

A spokeswoman for the Department for Education and Skills said: "What schools need to do is teach the national curriculum in an impartial way. Personal doctrines should not override anything that should be taught in the curriculum."

A spokesman for Middlesbrough council said: "On the evidence we have, the situation [at Emmanuel] is that evolution is taught there and children are made aware - as we anticipate them being [in Middlesbrough] - of alternative theories

[jennyp]

The little evo clique on FR is constantly accusing me of spamming for including that article in many of the crevo threads, but the basic reality is that they simply don't have any answers to the questions raised in it and they don't want newcomers or large numbers of people seeing it. Buncha crybabies...

You know, Medved, if you took your spam posts & simply posted them as an article for a thread, and then later simply referred people back to the thread that deals with your standard essays instead of posting them wholesale over & over & over again, I wouldn't mind it at all. In fact, maybe we'd even take the time to critique them again too.

God hates SPAMMERS!!!

[AndrewC]

If one's mind is closed by religious dogma one does not pursue all possible avenues of research and science stagnates.

Religious dogma and closed mindedness are not identities. Many like to advertise the fact that the Pope of Rome has not excluded "evolution" from the minds of Roman Catholics. In contrast, many "evolutionists" have closed their minds to spiritual things. In any case, looking at the question from your viewpoint do you believe such people as would be "turned" are the producers of the advances now occurring?

[AndrewC]

God hates SPAMMERS!!!

He's speaking to you too! There is hope!

[LarryLied]

Ever consider starting a freeper push for more science in schools? You know many of the scientists on FR. This is a terrific issue for conservatives. Not only is it needed for national security but if we must dump money into government schools, lets do it here instead of the soft sciences and feel good nonsense liberals feed on. Soccer moms would eat it up if Bush came out with a crash program, similar to the one during Sputnik, to emphasis science in public schools. It would take education away from the liberals as an issue for years.

[Scully]

God hates IDIOTS, too!

Why do you continue to pretend to know the mind of God? I see no reference to idiots in the passage below:

There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a man who stirs up dissention among brothers. (Proverbs 6:16-19)

I see no mention of idiots, nor do I see any reference to God hating differences of opinion in matters unrelated to salvation. And yet, your rancor is abundant towards those who believe evolution is the best explanation we have to date. Why? Are you somehow better than us? Does God love you more?

[Hajman]

WRONG! Science is a search for FACTS! If you want truth, I suggest you follow Indiana Jones' cue and take a philosophy course.

Since you're technically a new poster here, allow me to first welcome you to FR :)

Then allow me to inquire whether you think macro evolution is absolute fact or not.

-The Hajman-

[RadioAstronomer]

This regardless of what evidence for supernatural causes or effects might be found using the scientific method.

Cite even one.

I just don't understand how a Radio Astronomer, of all fields, could have such a closed mind on this.

Leave religion to the churches.

Regardless of whether or not evolution is true, have you found nothing in your research that suggests the universe is NOT the product of random chance?

Nope. The best model we have to date is that the universe came from the Big Bang where space, time and mater were formed. Since time also started with the Big Bang the concept of "before" does not apply.

[AndrewC]

Science is a search for FACTS!

And how does one determine the FACTS? The last "FACT" on which I have shown doubt(I did not discover the doubt I merely presented it) is the pakicetus link to whales(to be precise when whales are in the artiodactyl family which DNA evidence and now morphology demonstrate). Prior to that it was the mesonychid link to whales. More "FACTS" are needed.

[f.Christian]

Nope. The best model we have to date is that the universe came from the Big Bang where space, time and mater were formed. Since time also started with the Big Bang the concept of "before" does not apply.

67 posted on 3/9/02 10:44 AM Hawaii-Aleutian by RadioAstronomer

You remind me of a dead tree trying to explain---termites/woodpeckers---big bang?

[jcyrix]

How can you accuse God of hating anyone?

[Stultis]

You make fun, but it would not be suprising at all for Ted Holden (medved) to covet the "legitimacy" of a guest appearance with Art Bell. (Anybody know if he has been on, or if Bell does creationism/Velikovsky? I only catch Bell episodically.)

[f.Christian]

The big goose chaser--RA!

[BMCDA]

Vous êtes très drôle, Monsieur f.Christian, comme Jerry Lewis! Hahahaha!

[f.Christian]

The big tail chaser--RA(navel gazer on 'drugs'---evolution)!

[RadioAstronomer]

ROFL!

[AndrewC]

Cite even one.

I consider this a prime candidate for a "super-natural" involvement. Although it will be attacked as natural because of its discovery by science(a circular argument).

The strange thing is that interference depends on "single photons" going through both slits "at once", but undetected. So how does a single photon arriving at the first screen know how it ought to behave in order to match the presence or absence of the erasing filter on the other side of the slits?

All of these experiments were carried out using beams of individual photons, and there is no way in which the results can be explained by using classical physics. They lay bare the mysteriousness of quantum mechanics in all its glory, and in particular demonstrate its "non local" nature -- the way in which a photon starting out on its journey behaves in a different way for each experimental setup, as if it knew in advance what kind of experiment it was about to go through.

Don't worry if you don't understand this. Richard Feynman didn't, and he warned "do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it, 'But how can it be like that?' because you will go 'down the drain' into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that."

A possible retort could be, "Well that's the way nature is, get over it". But that, of course, makes super-natural, natural.

[Aracelis]

More "FACTS" are needed.

And...your point is? Sciences are constantly undergoing revision as more observatons are made and additional facts gathered. So what?

[general_re]

Le génie f.Christian au travail....

[PatrickHenry]

The little evo clique on FR is constantly accusing me of spamming for including that article in many of the crevo threads, but the basic reality is that they simply don't have any answers to the questions raised in it and they don't want newcomers or large numbers of people seeing it.

Thousands have seen your ravings. Perhaps tens of thousands. If you had anything to say which was of interest to the rational mind, you should be seeing results by now. How many have rallied to your guano-stained banner?