Creationism in UK education – why the fight must go on | Richy Thompson

The UK is fortunate not to have the problem with creationism the US has, but there is still a threat to education that must be metDave Hone writes: The issue of creationism in the UK is something I have considered writing about for some time. However, aside from being aware that there are groups attempting to promote various brands of creationism and to get them taught in schools as scientific, I actually know rather little about what is happening. Happily however, I recently met with Richy who does know about this and he kindly agreed to write this guest post on the subject.Zack Kopplin recently wrote an excellent overview of the many and varied debates raging around creationism and intelligent design in US schools. State governments in Louisiana and Tennessee have passed bills allowing creationism to be taught as a critique of scientific theories being studied, many other such bills are proposed every year, and ten states have voucher schemes whereby parents can remove their children from state schools and have the state pay for them to go to private creationist schools instead.Here in the UK we are fortunate that there is a strong political consensus against the teaching of creationism in schools as a scientifically valid theory. Michael Gove has said that he is "crystal clear" that creationism is not science, and therefore will not be taught as such in Free Schools. His stance is to be welcomed, although there are still a myriad of issues and battles to be won on this imp...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Blogposts Evolution Creationism guardian.co.uk Science and scepticism Source Type: news