to think creationism has no part in education in 2010?

[SantasMooningArse]

OK so I know I will be shot down under the 'don;t send your kids to a faith school' rule but to clarify:

A) I am a Christian; just of the friends variant rather than mainstream. I have a religion degree, I am far from anti- faith, just anti extreme.

B) It's the only scholl in walking distance and when we moved here we didn;t have a car I could use; it was also the only school with a space as we moved mid year. It i 3 minutes away.

C) I would dearly love my others to go to a different school but can't co-ordinate the pick ups due to being aprt dependent on SN transport for another child.

D) It's technically not a Church school but a VA one.

Anyway just received Governor's report which comes with a report each year from the local Diocese which is linked to their funding from a will. The report states (quote) '
The 6/7 creation myth seemed to rear it's head agin and I do wonder whether teaching as fact something we know to ne myth is the right thing?'

Later on under things to consider it says 'Crreation?'

I have no issues with it being taught as part of a wider 'some Christians believe...' thing but when ds2 was an infant his teacher told hom Mummy and Daddy were wrong about evolution; I had thought it was one long retired extreme though not general schooling.

I would much prefer ds4 to attendf the under subscribed school a few miles away (DS£ attends the attached SNU so know it well) but can't work out transport. I do find creationism a step too far though.

"It's a theory."

So is the idea that smoking causes lung cancer.

Have you heard of the theory of gravity? ;)

I am sympathetic to faith and religion and have attended church in the past.
However, I too draw the line at Creationism. It is a nonsense and evolution is proven fact.

Science does change and pardon the pun 'evolve' as new information, or new ways of studying something come about. That does not mean it is wrong, but that it is dynamic, but still based on fact.

How you tackle this, I'm not sure how to answer. It should be taught in RE but has no place in science teaching.

Where is it in the curriculum? Is it a primary? Because if it is I doubt it's taking the place of lessons on Big Bang theory.

The report sounds rather casual. If they're going to put something like that in it, it really needs to be explained.

There's a link in my previous post to a Horizonz programme which was very very interesting about the big bang. The Synopsis says:

"They are the biggest questions that science can possibly ask: where did everything in our universe come from? How did it all begin? For nearly a hundred years, we thought we had the answer: a big bang some 14 billion years ago.

But now some scientists believe that was not really the beginning. Our universe may have had a life before this violent moment of creation.

Horizon takes the ultimate trip into the unknown, to explore a dizzying world of cosmic bounces, rips and multiple universes, and finds out what happened before the big bang."

After watching it I realised Scientists still have a long way to go on how everything began. It's a lot harder to prove than gravity

So I think all theories should be discussed.

Yup. Gravity works for me. As does smoking causing cancer.

If you can categorically prove to me that evolution is scientific fact then I'll reassess my beliefs but as yet, despite a lot of efforts I have not seen any scientific evidence which convinces me.

Just a lot of people saying 'you must be nuts'...

FFS! Anyone who actually believes in Creationism is too stupid to be let out of the house without a keeper. Taking any religions seriously is pretty dim, but most religious people manage to keep relatively in touch with reality even if they do insist there are invisible pixies in the sky or whatever.

Creationism is religion not science. Teach it in RS, not in science lessons. Otherwise where does it stop- is it ok to teach in Biology that men have a rib less because god took one from Adam to make Eve?

• Horizons sorry.

I think you need to talk to someone tomorrow at the school about this, you need some clarity over this comment in the Governors report to be honest though. If you're still not happy after then consider moving schools?

I have to sen dmy kids to a 'church of scotland' school because that is all that is there

I dont agree with the 'this is fact, learn it; way they have about christianism

seriously, it is not on

one of my best friends couple are christians

BUT I am not

BUT also my kids maybe

....

wont knoe how I feel about that till it happens

probanbly the same as I do now,,, but maybe not

YANBU.

I think that over 50% of Americans now believe in creation mythology as fact.

The report is a starting point for you begin a letter writing campaign.

'creation mythology'

exactly

Smoking causes cancer is a theory developed based on evidence that particular compounds in tobacco can cause certain cells to turn cancerous (in a nutshell - chemistry isn't my strong point).

Evolution is a theory developed based on evidence that genetic mutation can cause heritable variation in organisms.

There is as much evidence of the first as there is to the second.

The fact that you bang on about "proofs" shows you haven't the first idea what you're talking about. I rather suspect that nothing I explain will convince you otherwise.

I'm not a scientist, so anything I say below may well be subject to correction from someone who knows better, but this is how I understand it:

Evolution (as in lifeforms changing and adapting to better fit conditions over time) is definitely a fact. It's been done with bacteria in labs.

We can reasonably extrapolate from this that over the billions of years the world has existed, the tiny changes add up to very massive changes, which result in the wide variety of plants, animals etc that live on the planet today.

And earwicga, any chance of addressing my point on the remembrance thread or are we running scared?

You can remove your children from RE lessons, so just take up a place and then insist other arrangements are made for them when the Creationist stuff is wheeled out. They can't argue it is part of the Science National Curriculum because it ain't on there. End of.

Most Christians do believe that God created the world,I actually think that the idea of everything just happening from a big bang and then evolving is more silly than a world being created.
I acually think that schools should tech both theries.

my children go to a faith school.

We are not in the slightest religious but the nearest non-faith school has 8 pupils and the next nearest one is about 30 miles away.

If the school that my kids go to started to teach creationism I would remove them. Immediately. Without even giving the school a chance to explain themselves.

Imo, any school who can even consider teaching children this load of twaddle doesn't deserve my children as pupils.

"I acually think that schools should tech both theries."

Creationism isn't a theory.

BTW my personal view is that if you are a Christian it should be unnecessary for you to see Creationism as scientific, or requiring proof, because the Bible says that you should have faith and not seek to prove everything.

The way I see it, this does not mean we stop seeking to understand the natural environment through empirical observation and study, and advance human understanding. However it does mean that it is perfectly possible for the two to exist in parallel - once as a kind of historic narrative and the other as contemporary observation. Hence the requirement for separate lessons.

A lot of UK scientists and researchers are Christian and reconcile their work and faith this way.

mumeeee Tue 09-Nov-10 22:14:50
Most Christians do believe that God created the world,I actually think that the idea of everything just happening from a big bang and then evolving is more silly than a world being created.
I acually think that schools should tech both theries.

Ah god this made me laugh! I think they should also teach the 'theory' of little gnomes running around in my back garden who make the flowers grow and the grass green.

We can teach a creationist point of view in Science because it isn't a scientific theory. A fair number of the childrne I teach have a creationsit viewpoint, and I am happy to discuss things with them - I think it's important to encourage thinking around this subject, and for many of my students the conflict between what they learn at school and what they learn at home can be difficult and confusing. But in my Science lessons, what I teach is science. How science views the world.

LookToWindward - scared of you? Ha ha ha! And no as I blocked the thread. Too much bullshit.

bad typo!

We can't teach...